Staff and Board of Directors
OLIVIA WARHAM, Director and Company Secretary, has a degree in Politics from Durham University. She has previously worked with Refugee Action, researching the problems faced by female asylum seekers in the UK and the shortfalls they encounter with the Home Office asylum system. She has also conducted research for Response International, investigating the impact of disability on the economy of Lebanon. At Waging Peace, Olivia is involved in campaigning, research, fund raising and event organising. Her particular interests are in refugees and conflict.
ISOBEL CROWTHER, Director and Head of Research, holds degrees in the social sciences and in law. She started to train as a solicitor but it was her voluntary work with UK refugee focused organisations and her time working in human rights organisations, including as an intern at Waging Peace, which really inspired her. At Waging Peace she spends a lot of her time working with the Sudanese diaspora and has a particular interest in issues surrounding asylum and immigration law.
SOPHIE McCANN, Director, holds a Masters in Conflict, Security and Development from the War Studies Department at King's College London. Sophie wrote her postgraduate dissertation on the role of land and oil in Sudan's civil wars, and continues to study the impact Sudan's wars have had on human rights. She has spent most of her career at Waging Peace working with and assisting Sudanese asylum seekers and refugees. She has co-produced and edited numerous Waging Peace reports on Sudan, China in Africa and the Lord's Resistance Army and has carried out research for Waging Peace in Chad, South Sudan and northern Uganda.
REBECCA TINSLEY, Founder and Chair, is a journalist and writer who has written for publications such as the New Statesman, Times, Independent and Telegraph. Formerly with the BBC, she has had two novels published. She has stood twice for the British Parliament and was national chair of the Union of Liberal Students. Rebecca is on Human Rights Watch London committee and is a trustee of the Carter Centre UK and the Bosnian Support Fund. She has a law degree from the LSE.
Patrons
DR REVEREND GILES FRASER is Priest-in-charge St Mary's, Newington and lecturer in philosophy at Wadham College, Oxford. He is a regular contributor to various publications including The Guardian, and The Church Times as well as being an associate to Ekklesia, an independent think tank which examines the role of religion in public life and advocates transformative theological ideas and solutions.
RABBI MAURICE MICHAELS is currently chair of the Assembly of Rabbis of the Movement for Reform Judaism and, in that capacity, is a vice-chair of the Movement. He has a keen interest in communal affairs and has served on the Board of Deputies, the Zionist Federation Council, and the National Council for Soviet Jewry as well as a variety of other Jewish and non-Jewish organisations.
MARTIN SHEEN is better known for his acting career; however, he has also earned recognition as a political activist. He has supported numerous causes including protests against political repression in Central America. He has promoted more liberal political asylum policies in the United States and marched with the Reverend Jesse Jackson to protest so-called immigration reform legislation in 1993. Sheen has also endorsed and supported Help Darfur Now, a student-run organisation to help aid the victims of the genocide in Darfur. He has received awards for his social activism, including the 2001 Peacemaker Award from the Physicians for Social Responsibility.
ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU is a South African cleric, activist and known opponent of apartheid. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. He was the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and he is currently the chairman of The Elders. As Chair of The Elders, Archbishop Desmond Tutu led their first mission to Sudan in 2007 to foster peace in Darfur. Moreover, he campaigns for the oppressed and is an active defender of human rights and justice in Africa.
We rely on the fantastic work of our interns. Thanks to Katy, Liz, Nina, Pete, Florence, Max and Camilla and all the others who have contributed to our work over the last year.
Achievements
We brought back over 500 children’s drawings of the Darfur genocide from refugee camps in Eastern Chad. The pictures were accepted by the International Criminal Court as contextual evidence and are being exhibited around the world.
We presented world leaders with the largest-ever petition to come out of Eastern Africa – signed by over 60 000 Darfuri refugees – appealing for action to end the atrocities.
We produce regular policy briefings on the situation in Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan for leading policy makers, opinion leaders and journalists.
We regularly facilitate articles and have frequent appearances in the national media highlighting what is happening in Sudan and the Republic of South Sudan
We run regular talks and seminars in parliament, schools and beyond – raising public awareness about the situation in Sudan.
What we do
Waging Peace is a non-governmental organisation that campaigns against genocide and systematic human rights abuses and seeks the full implementation of international human rights. Our current priority is Sudan.
The civil war between the Sudans may have officially come to its end with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 and the independence of the Republic of South Sudan in July 2011, but the impact of many years of devastating war continues to be felt in both nations, with serious issues left unresolved and fighting along the ill-defined border.
Khartoum has shown itself to have little respect for the human rights of its citizens. It continues to marginalise the people of its periphery, including those in Darfur where genocide carries on far from the gaze of the international community. South Sudan, in its infancy, must not turn to the tactics of repression used by its northern neighbour in order to build its nation.
The UK has given sanctuary to numerous Sudanese affected by years of conflict. Waging Peace works with the Sudanese community in the UK helping to give them a voice, providing opportunities for them to engage in campaigning activities and by working with the International Criminal Court (see the children's drawings) to try to bring those responsible for crimes against them to justice.
Waging Peace uses the facts and testimonies we uncover to support the call for urgent, effective and measurable action from the international community. Based in London, we lobby the British government to use its influence to ensure that the rights of the people of the Sudans are protected.
Together with our sister charity, Article 1, we help to ensure the Sudanese diaspora in the UK has access to the services to which they are entitled. We have a particular focus on the most vulnerable amongst them, those who seek asylum in the UK, many of whom are in immigration detention or are destitute. We use our expert knowledge on the Sudans to ensure joined up thinking on the part of the UK government and to ensure that the UK fulfils its obligations to those who seek refuge here.