Scilla Elworthy

Scilla Elworthy (born 3 June 1943 in Galashiels, Scotland) is the founder of the Oxford Research Group, a non-governmental organisation she set up in 1982 to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. She served as its executive director from 1982 until 2003, when she left that role in order to set up Peace Direct, a charity supporting local peace-builders in conflict areas. From 2005 she was adviser to Peter Gabriel, Desmond Tutu and Richard Branson in setting up The Elders. She is a member of the World Future Council and the International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy. She is also the author of several books and the Director of Programmes for the World Peace Festival held in Berlin August 2011.

She has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize, and in 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize for her work with the Oxford Research Group.

Education

She attended Berkhamsted School for Girls on a Herts County Scholarship before moving to Ireland in 1962 to study social sciences at Trinity College, Dublin. During her vacations, she worked in refugee camps in France and Algiers. After graduating, she travelled round West Africa to South Africa and between 1966 and 1969 became involved in marketing for various boutiques, most notably introducing the Mary Quant range. In 1993, she gained her PhD in political science from Bradford University.

Personal life

In 1970, she married Murray McLean, a South African entrepreneur. She has one daughter, Polly Jess.

Organizations and foundings

From 1970-1976 she chaired Kupugani, a South African nutrition education organisation, where she set up an initiative which involved the sale of nutritious Christmas hampers to industrial employees thereby providing annual self-financing for the charity of R6million.

In 1976 she helped organise the building and launch of the Market Theatre, South Africa’s first multiracial theatre. Then in 1977 she established the Minority Rights Group in France and in 1978 she researched and delivered their report on female genital mutilation, leading to the World Health Organisation campaign to eradicate the practice. From 1979-81 she became a consultant on women’s issues to UNESCO and it was during this time she researched and wrote UNESCO’s contribution to the 1980 United Nations Mid-decade Conference on Women: "The role of women in peace research, peace education and the improvement of relations between nations".

In 1982 she founded the Oxford Research Group (ORG) an NGO which independently researched decision-making on security in the five major nuclear nations during and after the Cold War and brought together policy-makers, academics, the military and civil society to engage in dialogue. Elworthy has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with ORG and in 2003 she was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize. She remained the executive director of ORG until 2003 and continues to be on their board of trustees.

In 2003 Elworthy stepped down as executive director of ORG in order to found a new charity, Peace Direct, which supports local peace-builders in conflict areas. Peace Direct was named "Best New Charity" at the London Charity Awards2005 and, although she is not involved in the day to day running, Elworthy remains on the board of trustees.

In 2002 she launched a production at the Royal Opera House theatre in London entitled Transforming September 11th. In 2004 she provided the basic material for Max Stafford Clark's production of Talking to Terrorists at the Royal Court Theatre in London; and in 2007 her case study on the siege of Fallujah in Iraq was used as the basis for Jonathan Holmes' production of Fallujah at the Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane.

The Elders

Although she has lectured extensively around the world and appeared on television and radio throughout the last 20 years, her work has been less in the public eye recently as she has been advising Richard Branson, Desmond Tutu and Peter Gabriel on the creation of The Elders, "an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity."

Today

Elworthy lives in England and is a Councillor on the World Future Council, an independent international organisation, launched in 2004 and focussing on the key challenges facing global society today. They have a broad mandate and look to all the issues currently facing humanity and promote successful policies for a sustainable future.

In autumn 2007 she joined the EastWest Institute's International Task Force on Preventive Diplomacy.

In 2009 joined the project "Soldiers of Peace", a movie against all wars and for a global peace.

Her work for the World Peace Festival in 2011 included building seven achievable goals for the Global Peace Building Strategy, adopted by the World Peace Partnership. She and colleagues produced a booklet entitled ‘Tools for Peace’, with an accompanying video produced by TalkWorks in association with Different-Films.com presenting a seven step process anyone can use to resolve conflict in the family, workplace or community. Dr Elworthy designed parts of the Festival programme, including a morning of workshops entitled “Self Knowledge and Global Responsibility” and a day conference on all programmes of the Global Peace Building Strategy, adopted by the World Peace Partnership.

Since the autumn of 2011 Elworthy has been working on a course in consciousness and conflict transformation for mid career professionals, in association with Thomas Hübl in Berlin.

Publications

Elworthy has written, edited and contributed to myriad reports, articles and books including:

• 1986 Editor: How Nuclear Weapons Decisions Are Made[1] (Macmillan, London)
• 1987 Author: Who Decides? Accountability and Nuclear Weapons Decision-Making in Britain, (Oxford Research Group).
• 1988 Producer: The Nuclear Weapons World: Who How and Where[2], (Pinter Publishers, London).
• 1989 Author: Parliament, the Public and NATO’s Nuclear Weapons, (Oxford Research Group).
• 1990 Co-author: New Threats and New Responses: proposals for future security decision-making in Europe, (Oxford Research Group).
• 1991 Co-author: Defence and Security in the New Europe: Who will decide? (Oxford Research Group).
• 1992 Editor: International control of the Arms Trade (Oxford Research Group).
• 1996 Editor and contributor: Re-thinking Defence and Foreign Policy, (Spokesman Press, London).
• 1996 Author: ‘Power & Sex’[3] (Element Books)
• 1997 Editor: Proposals for a Nuclear Weapon-Free World – a meeting between China and the West (Oxford Research Group).
• 2001 Co-author: The United States, Europe and the Majority World after 11 September (Oxford Research Group).
• 2001 Producer: War Prevention Works: 51 case studies of people resolving conflict[4] (Oxford Research Group, Oxford).
• 2002 Co-author: A Never-Ending War? Consequences of 11 September (Oxford Research Group).
• 2002 Co-author: The ‘War on Terrorism’: 12-month audit and future strategy options (Oxford Research Group).
• 2001 Co-author: 9/11: What Should We Do Now?[5] (Open Democracy).
• 2001 Author: Widening Atlantic[6] (Open Democracy).
• 2002 Author: The Road Not Taken[7] (Open Democracy).
• 2003 Author: The crisis over Iraq: the non-military solution[8] (Open Democracy).
• 2003 Author: Waiting For The Dawn: A Bagdad Diary[9] (Open Democracy).
• 2003: Author: Iraq: A Way Out?[10] (Open Democracy).
• 2004 Author: Cutting the Costs of War: non-military prevention and resolution of conflict (Oxford Research Group).
• 2004 Author: Peacemaking At The Sharp End: Iraq Before & After War[11] (Open Democracy).
• 2005 Author: Learning from Fallujah’s Agony[12] (Open Democracy).
• 2005: Author: Tackling Terror By Winning Hearts & Minds[13] (Open Democracy).
• 2005 Co-author: Hearts and Minds: human security approaches to political violence[14] (Demos, London).
• 2006: Author: If Diplomacy Fails[15] (Open Democracy).
• 2006 Co-author: Making Terrorism History[16] (Random House, London).
• 2009 Co-author: Soul Power (BookSurge).
• 2010 Tools For Peace.

The reports produced by the Oxford Research Group are available from their website or, for the older reports, by contacting them directly.