Kate Dewes

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]

Kate Dewes

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

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. Booker, Jarrod (11 January 2018). "UN adviser inspired by her children". The New Zealand Herald newspaper. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  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. 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. 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. "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. 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. https://www.prio.org/About/PeacePrize/PRIO-Directors-Shortlist-2019/
  20. http://www.geeskaafrika.com/28855/ethiopian-pm-abiy-leading-nobel-peace-prize-2019/
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