Melissa Parke
Melissa Parke is the new Geneva-based Executive Director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and a former federal Labor parliamentarian. She is at the United Nations in New York this week to promote the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Melissa is the Former Federal Member for Fremantle and Member, UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen.
Melissa's recent articles
Stand with the Hibakusha to end nuclear weapons
Honour, remember, act, and support the atomic bomb survivors.
The supreme folly of nuclear weapons
When people consider the many threats facing our planet today, too often the threat of nuclear weapons is overlooked. Yet it is perhaps the most acute of them all, because the existential danger is ever-present for as long as the weapons exist. Anyone concerned about the climate crisis, about environmental degradation and biodiversity loss, needs to take up the cause of disarmament with equal passion, as these are interconnected issues. Its time to take a stand and put the interests of humanity first.
Australia must do more than pay lip service to nuclear disarmament
Speaking in New York on Tuesday during the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, Foreign Minister Penny Wong called for negotiations to begin on a treaty that would halt the production of fissile material the basic ingredient for nuclear bombs. We all want a world without nuclear weapons, she said, and such a treaty is a precondition for that.
Its time for Australia to sign the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
As Labor heads into the 2023 National Conference in Brisbane I trust there will be movement on two issues close to the heart of every Australian who cares about global justice and peace: the long overdue recognition of Palestine and Australia signing the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
Josh Wilson's welcome concern: AUKUS will cost the earth
Comment by Hon. Melissa Parke on AUKUS 22 March 2023. I welcome the speech given by Josh Wilson MP, my successor in the federal seat of Fremantle, in the Australian parliament on 20 March in which he raised concerns regarding the AUKUS agreement. I also welcome the contributions from former Prime Minister Paul Keating last week (15/3) and former Foreign Ministers Bob Carr (17/3) and Gareth Evans in the Guardian (21/3). There ought to be a thorough debate in the parliament and in the community over this deal that is set to cost the earth in more ways than...
Edward Said Memorial Lecture 2020 Video - Melissa Parke
The Israeli lobbies in Australia, Europe and the USA are attempting to silence those who speak the truth about Israel's abuse of Palestinians' human rights.
MELISSA PARKE. War & Wildlife in the Time of the Coronavirus
Amid the heavy global toll of suffering and loss caused by COVID-19, there may yet be some silver linings.
MELISSA PARKE.- Criticism not same as racism (The Herald Sun 26.03.2020)
Lets reserve the term anti-Semitic for those who truly deserve it
MELISSA PARKE.-Support for Palestinian rights is not anti-Semitic (The West Australian 8.1.2020)
I had but dipped my toes back into federal politics via a bid for Julie Bishops former seat of Curtin when the campaign was over.
MELISSA PARKE. Conflict in Yemen
I dont want to live any more said the man standing in the rubble of his destroyed home. His teenage daughter beside him burst into tears and the younger daughter looked up at him, not understanding. The airstrike, in the UNESCO World heritage old city of Sanaa, had come without warning in the middle of the night killing all other members of the mans family, leaving them homeless. They had no connection to any of the warring parties to the conflict in Yemen but were among its tens of thousands of civilian victims.
MELISSA PARKE. Arms Export Goal Risks The Standing Of A Good International Citizen.
Five years ago Australia played a key role in drafting and negotiating the UN Arms Trade Treaty in order, as the government announced at the time, to reduce the impact of armed violence on communities around the world. Five weeks ago Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced his vision for Australia to become one of the top ten weapons exporting countries in the world. Rather than visionary, it struck me as grotesque. This regression from good global citizen to swaggering deputy sheriff reflects the contradictions at the heart of our foreign policy.