NZ woman given UN role

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A prominent Christchurch anti-nuclear campaigner appointed as a disarmament adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says she will use the post to raise the profile of Pacific Island issues.

The announcement yesterday that Dr Kate Dewes would join the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters follows the appointment in 2006 of a New Zealand diplomat as the UN's director of disarmament affairs.

It also comes in the wake of the Government's success late last year in sponsoring a resolution by the world body calling for the de-alerting of all nuclear weapons.

Dewes, 55, is understood to be the first New Zealander to be appointed to the 19-strong UN panel, which includes ambassadors and officials from countries as diverse as China, South Korea and the United States.

Dewes said she was honoured by the appointment and had been informed in a letter from the UN chief just before Christmas.

"It is exciting. It is a real honour and a huge responsibility," she said.

"Issues from the Pacific often aren't raised in a forum like that. There are the ongoing effects of nuclear testing in our region, which is important. There is the issue of small arms.

"Even with the whole issue of cluster munitions we need to ensure that Pacific Island nations are going to participate in the conference in Wellington."

The Government will be hosting a major international conference next month as the next step in negotiations to ban cluster munitions.

Duty Minister Ruth Dyson said the appointment was "a huge tribute to New Zealand and Kate herself".

"Kate has been a member of the Government's Pacific Advisory Committee for some years. She is very familiar with the issues and I do think there will be an opportunity there for her to ensure that our region's issues are on the international agenda."

Dewes said she believed she was the first New Zealander to be appointed to the disarmament advisory group by the United Nations.

"I was asked if I would allow my name to go forward just before Christmas and the letter from Ban Ki-moon came right on Christmas," she said.

The panel meets twice a year, and Dewes will attend her first session in New York late next month.

Dewes is co-ordinator of the Peace Foundation Disarmament and Security Centre in Christchurch and is a former lecturer at Canterbury University. She played a leading role in the New Zealand peace movement during the 1970s and early 1980s, which succeeded in securing the world's first national nuclear-free legislation.

Dewes was also a pioneer of the World Court Project, an international campaign that led to a legal challenge to nuclear deterrence in the International Court of Justice.

She is married to retired Royal Navy Commander Robert Green, who emigrated to New Zealand in 1999.

Green is writing a book on the 1984 murder in Shropshire of his aunt, prominent British anti-nuclear activist Hilda Murrell.

Dewes described herself yesterday as an "eternal optimist" when it came to the daunting task of trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

"I think the role New Zealand has taken has made a big impact."

- © Fairfax NZ News