Kate Dewes

ONZM
Born
Hāwera, Taranaki, New Zealand
OccupationPeace activist
Known forDisarmament matters
SpouseRobert Green
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of New England (PhD)
ThesisThe World Court Project: The Evolution and Impact of an Effective Citizens' Movement (1999)
Doctoral advisorGeoff Harris,
John Henderson
InfluencesHiroshima and Mururoa Atoll
Academic work
DisciplinePeace Studies
Main interestsAnti-nuclear activism

Catherine Frances Dewes ONZM (born 1953) is a New Zealand activist for disarmament and former advisor on peace matters to two United Nations Secretaries-General.[1][2] She was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2001 New Year Honours, for services to the peace movement.[3]

Education and early career

Dewes grew up in a "conservative family" as one of eight siblings.[4] Her father was a veterinary surgeon.

She was head prefect at Hamilton Girls' High School.[5] After leaving school, she studied music at the University of Canterbury and became a music teacher at Epsom Girls' Grammar. Part of the school music curriculum was a song of lament about Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings.[6] Playing that song to her pupils inspired her to become involved in the peace movement.[7] She joined a non-violent waterborne protest group called the Peace Squadron, aimed at preventing armed US warships from visiting Auckland Harbour.[1][4][6]

During the late 1970s, she and a growing number of New Zealanders rallied against the United States Government's policy of “neither confirming nor denying” the presence of nuclear warheads on their warships.[8] By 1983 public opinion had swung 72% in favour of banning warship visits.[9]

Not long after, Dewes enrolled in a peace studies program at the University of Bradford, whilst juggling motherhood with a teaching career and a number of official positions and voluntary roles.[4]

She is married to Robert Green, a former British Royal Navy commander, who partners with her in advocating for peace, disarmament and against nuclear proliferation.[10]

The senior journalist, Mike Crean, in an interview with Dewes after her New Year Honour,[4] explored that idea that the strength of her feelings came from her ancestors; for she had only recently found out that not only did her paternal great-grandmother work for peace among the northern Hawkes Bay Māori in 1870, but also her maternal grandparents had campaigned for temperance and women's suffrage in the late 19th century.[4]

Campaigns and professional achievements

Dewes successfully lobbied for the world's first national nuclear-free laws, known as the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987.[1][11] In 1988, she was part of a New Zealand Government delegation to the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament III, and while in New York, marched to promote New Zealand's nuclear-free zone and Nuclear Free New Zealand / Aotearoa.[12]

She played a key role in the World Court Project that led to the 1996 historic judgement by the International Court of Justice, in The Hague, which unanimously ruled that a threat to use and the use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal according to international law.[1][4][13] She subsequently completed her doctorate at the University of New England in Australia, with a thesis entitled The World Court Project: The Evolution and Impact of an Effective Citizens' Movement.[14][15]

Along with her husband, she is co-founder and co-director of the Disarmament & Security Centre (DSC), which they established at their home in Riccarton. She was also a director of the South Island Regional Office of the Aotearoa / New Zealand Peace Foundation[16] and became Vice President of the International Peace Bureau in 1997.[6][15] As a member of the Government's Pacific Advisory Committee, she championed issues important to small Pacific Island states, including the knock-on effects of past nuclear detonations at Moruroa and Fangataufu atolls.[11] She lectured in Peace Studies at the University of Canterbury from 1986 to 1997, where she is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the College of Arts.[11][15]

From 2008 to 2012, Dewes was a member of the United Nations Secretary-General's advisory board on Disarmament Matters.[17] She and her husband were negotiators on the first legally-binding international treaty to comprehensively prohibit nuclear weapons.[2]

In 2019, Dewes donated the archives of the Disarmament & Security Centre to the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury.[18] In the same year she and her husband were mentioned as potential Nobel Peace Prize contenders.[19][20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Booker, Jarrod (11 January 2018). "UN adviser inspired by her children". The New Zealand Herald newspaper. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  2. 1 2 Fletcher, Jack (7 June 2017). "Kiwi to help negotiate United Nations nuclear arms ban". The Press newspaper. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  3. ↑ "New Year honours list 2001". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. 30 December 2000. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Crean, Mike (17 February 2001). "Peace worker". The Press newspaper.
  5. ↑ Kidd, Rob (19 July 2011). "Honour for nuke campaigner". Waikato Times. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  6. 1 2 3 Crean, Mike (10 January 2001). "Peace campaigner's life work honoured". The Christchurch Star newspaper.
  7. ↑ Dewes, Kate (25 February 2009). "Inspired by the Hibakusha". Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  8. ↑ McMillan, Stuart (1987). Neither confirm nor deny: the nuclear ships dispute between New Zealand and the United States. Wellington, N.Z: N.Z : Allen & Unwin ; Port Nicholson Press. pp. Chapter 5: Public Support. ISBN 9780868614991.
  9. ↑ Ministry for Culture and Heritage (2 October 2014). "Nuclear-free New Zealand Page 3 – Ship visits". Retrieved 13 October 2019.
  10. ↑ Milne, Jonathan (15 October 2011). "Commander Robert Green and Kate Dewes interview". The Listener. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  11. 1 2 3 "NZ woman given UN role". Stuff newspaper. 18 February 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  12. ↑ "Peace Protest Banner Donated to Canterbury Museum". Scoop News. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  13. ↑ "UC marks 20th anniversary of anti-nuclear judgment". The University of Canterbury. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  14. ↑ Dewes, Catherine F. (1999). The World Court Project: The Evolution and Impact of an Effective Citizens' Movement (PhD). Armidale: University of New England.
  15. 1 2 3 Dewes, Kate. "Legal Challenges to Nuclear Weapons from Aotearoa New Zealand". legacy.disarmsecure.org. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
  16. ↑ "Dr's Helen Caldicott & Kate Dewes: It's Our Children's Planet & Future So Halt Nuclear Weapons And War Now!". greenplanet fm podcast. 17 November 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2019.
  17. ↑ United Nations Office of Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) (31 December 2017). "Celebrating 15 Years of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education" (PDF). UNODA Occasional Papers. ISBN 978-92-1-142237-5.
  18. ↑ "World-changing peace campaigners donate collection to UC archives". The University of Canterbury. Retrieved 1 November 2019.
  19. ↑ "Nobel Peace Prize Shortlist – Peace Research Institute Oslo".
  20. ↑ "Ethiopian PM Abiy Leading Nobel Peace Prize 2019 - Geeska Afrika Online". www.geeskaafrika.com. Archived from the original on 17 February 2019.
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