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Hi Friend--

I’m writing to you with a big announcement: Starting on 1 September 2023, Melissa Parke - former UN legal expert, and former Australian government minister and member of parliament - will take on the role of ICAN’s Executive Director!

ICAN’s international Steering Group was delighted to announce Melissa’s appointment to the campaign earlier today. After Beatrice Fihn stepped down earlier this year, ICAN began a thorough search over the course of several months to find the ideal person to lead our campaign.

We are delighted to have found Melissa, who has great diplomatic and political experience combined with a long-term commitment to nuclear disarmament. She is ideally placed to lead ICAN’s advocacy for the universalization of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) which is what the world needs as it faces the heightened risk nuclear weapons could be used in conflict for the first time since 1945.

We know Melissa shares our excitement: “I am honoured to be taking up this important role in the global campaign to rid the world of these weapons of mass destruction,” she said in reaction to her appointment. “The very existence of nuclear weapons, let alone their testing or use, is a moral injury to the planet."

Melissa has also been involved directly with campaigning on the UN Treaty on the Prohibtion of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) with ICAN Australia since 2017. In her new role as ED, we are confident that Melissa will ensure our campaign continues to build momentum, encourage more and more countries to join the treaty, and to strengthen this new norm in international law that delegitimises and stigmatises these weapons of mass destruction.

We hope you will share our excitement in welcoming Melissa as ICAN’s new ED when she officially starts this new position in September, and continue to stand with us in this new phase.

With the risk of nuclear weapons use at an all time high our work is more needed than ever. So you can be confident that, with Melissa on board, our movement will continue to grow and keep pushing until nuclear weapons are eliminated for good.

With respect and in solidarity,

Daniel Högsta
Interim Executive Director
ICAN

ICAN · Place de Cornavin 2, Geneve 1201, Switzerland
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