News – IPB – International Peace Bureau

Online Dialogue on Movement Convergence Towards the World Social Forum in Benin 2026

The dialogue brought together representatives of social movements, grassroots organisations, trade unions, peace groups, environmental activists, and civil society networks to exchange perspectives on strengthening alliances across struggles. Participants explored how movements can work together to respond to the interconnected social, economic, political, and environmental crises affecting communities at the local, national, and global levels.

Held in the lead-up to the World Social Forum in Benin (4–8 August 2026), the discussion highlighted the importance of movement convergence, international solidarity, and collective action in building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world.

We invite you to watch the recording and share it with your networks as we continue preparing for the World Social Forum 2026.

Watch the full recording in English or Spanish below:

English

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Spanish

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Thailand: Court to rule in first criminal case on conscientious objection to military service

On July 20, the Samut Prakan District Court will deliver its verdict in the case of Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal, Thailand’s first publicly declared conscientious objector to stand trial for refusing military conscription. If convicted under the 1954 Military Service Act, he will face up to three years in prison. Netiwit is a democracy and human rights activist, publisher, and organiser whose activism began in high school and who has publicly maintained this position for twelve years, culminating in this criminal trial.

On his eighteenth birthday, Netiwit declared he would not participate in military conscription. He did not disappear or seek quiet exemption. Every year, he reappeared before the authorities to say the same thing. On April 5, 2024, he went to the conscription centre in Samut Prakan’s Bang Pu district and read a manifesto of refusal, stating that all Thai citizens should have equal freedom to choose whether to serve, and that no one should be coerced into it, “as it is not beneficial to individuals or the nation.” He then declined to enter the lottery. He was charged under Section 45 of the Military Service Act.

During the trial, Netiwit’s lawyer asked the court to refer the question of whether the Military Service Act is constitutional or not to the Constitutional Court, marking the first time conscientious objection had been argued in this way. On May 12, 2026, the Constitutional Court ruled unanimously that the Act’s provisions do not violate constitutional protections of liberty and religious freedom. The criminal case resumed on that basis, and the verdict now falls on July 20.

BEYOND THE JOG: WHAT THE AFRICA FORWARD SUMMIT ACTUALLY SAID ABOUT PEACE, POWER AND DISARMAMENT

This article is written by Sahlim Charles, a Council Member at the International Peace Bureau and enthusiastic about Disarmament and Militarization discourse. Sahlim is also the Founder and Executive Director of Re-Imagining New Communities.

I took time to analyze the stakes at the Africa Forward Summit 2026 co-hosted by Kenya and France in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi between 11–12 May 2026. Much of the global commentary that followed fixated on the theatre of the event that included President Emmanuel Macron’s early-morning jog with Eliud Kipchoge, the sports demonstrations and youth pavilions. That imagery did its job. Designed to signal warmth and reset after decades of a more transactional, extractive French posture on the continent.

But as peace and security practitioner interested in cross-border issues, my interest was beyond the choreography to the architecture underneath it. And underneath it, Africa Forward 2026 was not simply a trade summit that happened to include a “Peace & Security” plenary as a courtesy panel. It landed at a genuine hinge point in the security relationship between France and the continent that’s been shaped by three converging trends including the collapse of France’s military footprint in West Africa, a hesitant and underfunded new architecture for African-led peacekeeping and a quiet re-militarization of the relationship through the back door of “defense cooperation,” this time in Anglophone East Africa rather than the Francophone speaking African region.

In this article, you will read my thoughts on what the summit actually committed to in terms of peace and security, what it conspicuously avoided saying about arms and disarmament, and what that combination should mean for international organizations and bodies focusing on disarmament and militarization.

Solidarity with Turkish Anti-War and Human Rights Activists

9 July 2026 | By: Stop Rearm Europe (SRE)

*The International Peace Bureau is a member of the SRE.

We stand in solidarity with the activists, journalists, lawyers, and human rights defenders being detained and silenced across Türkiye ahead of the 36^th NATO Summit, taking place in Ankara on July 6th and 7th 2026. In the last weeks, Turkish authorities have been systematically targeting anti-war, anti-imperialist and human rights activists.

The Ankara Governor’s Office announced a ban on the collective use of public spaces between June 28th and July 10th. As a result, planned protests and events such as the Anti-NATO Peace Conference had to be cancelled or moved online.

Moreover, last week police carried out early morning raids across Ankara, arresting more than 200 people. Authorities stated the operation targeted suspected members of armed groups. However, those detained included LGBTQI+, women, and feminist rights defenders, as well as lawyers, academics, revolutionary youth, labour union representatives, and human rights activists. Around 100 people remain in pretrial detention.

The Turkish Journalists’ Association has also reported that journalists from news organisations seen as opposition-leaning or independent have been excluded from covering the NATO Summit, with no explanation given.

Together, these measures show how the rights to peaceful assembly and demonstration, as well as press freedom are being suspended in Türkiye, and how the exercise of democratic rights is being restricted. Carried out under the guise of security concerns, this repression is yet another example of the domestic face of militarisation.

The targeting of activists opposing the war machine in Türkiye is not an isolated case. Governments across the world are using intimidation and criminalisation to suppress dissent. Striking examples in Europe include the United Kingdom and Germany, where activists taking direct action against weapons companies are facing unprecedented trials and charges for terrorism. These cases show a pattern: the same forces driving militarisation are criminalising those who resist it. International solidarity is therefore fundamental in the struggle against militarisation.

Since the 2025 The Hague Summit, NATO is forcing its member states to increase military spending by 5% of their GDPs, a threshold that has come to be known as the “Trump 5% norm”, following months of pressure by the U.S. President to push members toward the figure. NATO’s nature as an institution promoting war and militarisation has thereby become clear once again.

Similarly, EU institutions are promoting increased investment and spending towards militarised security, from the proposed €131 billion for “defence, security and space” in the new Multiannual Financial Framework, to the €800 billion ReArm Europe plan, financed primarily through national-level debt. However, the notion that increased military budgets make us safer is an illusion: deterrence has never prevented escalation. More military spending will only deepen our social, environmental and political problems:

It diverts resources from healthcare, education, climate action, and welfare
It erodes workers’ rights
It fuels arms races which in turn lead to more conflicts and violence, human rights violations, and displacement

This is why it is so urgent to collectively oppose the plans to ReArm Europe, the new EU Multiannual Financial Framework proposal allocating €131 billion to military spending, and all military alliances, including NATO.

The struggle against militarisation and war can only be won when we stand in solidarity with each other. We call for:

The immediate release of all those detained in Türkiye,
An end to the criminalisation of anti-war activism everywhere,
Collective resistance to NATO and the plans to ReArm Europe.

As leaders in Ankara are gathering to prepare for war, activists are preparing for peace. We support the organisers of the Istanbul Anti-imperalist Peace Summit that took place on July 4th and the Anti-NATO Peace Conference (online) on July 5, 2026.

Solidarity_to_Turkish_Anti_War_Activists Download

Toward Dialogue and Survival in a Perilous Time

Common security lessons for the US and Russia in a world without arms control.

*By Joseph Gerson, Jul 05, 2026, Common Dreams

The following article was initially written at the request of Oleg Bodrov, a Russian physicist with commitments to peace and environmental sustainability and safety. I met Oleg about a decade ago during the World Conference against A- & H- Bombs in Hiroshima, and today we both serve on the board of the International Peace Bureau, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient organization. In addition to serving on IPB’s board, Oleg is chairman of the Public Council of the South Coast of the Gulf of Finland. He lives outside of St. Petersburg and does what he can given the limits of the possible in Putin’s Russia. When he and I last spoke, Ukrainian drones had devastated a massive Russian oil refinery, spewing toxins into the Baltic Sea and across many Russian communities. With Ukrainian drones flying overhead he hadn’t slept the previous night, making Oleg one more innocent caught in that mutually disastrous war.

In our exchanges, Oleg came up with a proposal to take a small step toward bridging the divisions of the new US-Russian Cold War and building for the time when the missiles, drones, and guns of the Ukraine War have been silenced. His idea: I should write an article that shared US peace movement thinking and named actions that can reduce the increasingly perilous military tensions and serve as foundations for a future era of US-NATO-Russian Common security. Oleg would translate the article and arrange for its publication in a Russian scientific journal. As we corresponded about the article’s publication, it occurred to us that it might also prove helpful for US readers, hence its publication here in Common Dreams. Where this will lead, only time will tell. But the truth is that both the US and Russia are going to be around for a long time, and a just and peaceful Common Security order will be essential for this and future generations.

Torture, detention, and denial of alternative service: EBCO calls on Ukraine to uphold the right to conscientious objection

English | Ukrainian. Please see the Ukrainian version below.

Press release by European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO)

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) condemns the torture and death in military custody of Ukrainian conscientious objector Dmytro Koval and calls on Ukraine to immediately end the persecution, arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of conscientious objectors, adopt legislation guaranteeing alternative civilian service in wartime, and ensure accountability for all abuses committed during mobilisation.

Save Jeju Now: We condemn the attempted offshore rocket launch by the military, Hanwha, and the Jeju Provincial Government!

Photo by Hwang Yong-woon, June 30, 2026

Photo by Hwang Yong-woon, June 30, 2026

On June 30, the military and Hanwha attempted to conduct the fourth test of a solid-propellant space launch vehicle off the coast of Seogwipo, Jeju, but were ultimately forced to cancel it [mainly due to technical reasons]. This occurred less than a month after the explosion at Hanwha Aerospace in Daejeon.

An investigation into the cause of the explosion at Hanwha Aerospace in Daejeon has revealed some facts. Hanwha has consistently ignored workers’ requests to improve their working conditions. Furthermore, Building 56—the explosives cleaning facility where the tragedy occurred—was an unlicensed structure.

IPB Statement on the Detention and Deportation of Executive Director Sean Conner and other Activists in Istanbul on 3 July 2026

Monday, 6 July 2026

The International Peace Bureau (IPB) unequivocally condemns the detention and deportation of its Executive Director, Sean Conner, alongside other activists from Germany, Finland, and Italy. Upon arrival at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen International Airport at 17:27 local time on Friday, 3 July, Sean had his passport and cell phone confiscated and was subjected to two hours of interrogation, including scans of his fingerprints and mugshot photographs. Turkish authorities repeatedly lied about the reasons for the interrogation and claimed that the reason for the check was a flagging by the German authorities, who denied any involvement.

From Harm to Justice: A Needs-Based Assessment of Nuclear-Affected Communities in Kazakhstan and Policy Pathways for Implementing Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW

In June 2026, the Qazaq Nuclear Frontline Coalition (QNFC) published a policy paper examining the ongoing humanitarian, health, environmental, and intergenerational consequences of Soviet nuclear detonations in Kazakhstan and outlining community-informed policy pathways for nuclear justice, victim assistance, environmental remediation, and the implementation of Articles 6 and 7 of the TPNW.

On June 26, Civil Society Stands with Victims of Torture

Press Release

ST. PAUL, Minn. — To honor the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 120 civil society organizations joined together in a statement of solidarity with survivors. As the world commemorates this date, the authors call upon the United States and global leaders to uphold their obligations under the Convention Against Torture to support survivors, ensure accountability, and reject inhumane and cruel practices.