For interview requests contact Liz McKean, Director of Policy and Campaigns, on +44 (0) 7983 550 728 or speaker@waronwant.org

Asad Rehman, Executive Director 

With over 35 years of experience campaigning around social, economic, climate and racial justice issues, Asad has been involved in and acted as spokesperson for some of the UK’s most hard hitting and transformative campaigns, including Justice for Stephen Lawrence, Jean Charles de Menezes and Stop the War, as well as being involved in global movements around climate justice and migration. An accomplished speaker, Asad has spoken at various UN meetings, conferences, seminars as well as campaign rallies on a variety of global justice issues. In particular, Asad has made pivotal contributions in reframing environmental issues as questions of economic and racial justice. His media appearances span both national and global media including the BBC, Newsnight, Sky, CNN, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and Democracy Now – where he provides regular analysis.

Ryvka Barnard, Senior Campaigns Officer (Militarism and Security)

Ryvka campaigns against human rights abuses associated with the growing power of the military and security industry, with a special focus on the UK-Israel arms trade. She writes frequently on the topic in the Independent, Middle East Eye and has appeared on the BBC and other broadcast channels discussing these issues. Ryvka has a PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from New York University where she specialised in the politics of tourism development in the occupied West Bank. 

Owen Espley, Senior Campaigns Officer (Economic Justice)

Owen has over ten years’ experience campaigning on economic justice and corporate power. He currently leads War on Want’s Stand with Migrant workers: End Precarious Contracts campaign, which includes support work for the McStrike workers. He was a founding member of the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency, served many years on the board of the Corporate Responsibility Coalition (CORE) and is an active trade unionist. Owen has written for the Independent and politics.co.uk.

Sebastian Ordoñez Muñoz, Senior International Programmes Officer (Latin America)

Sebastian works closely with grassroots movements, indigenous and Afro-Latin-American communities resisting destructive, exploitative industries and challenging the corporations and governments that support them. His focus is the recognition and protection of the human rights of affected peoples and supporting the search for effective redress and justice. Sebastian has written for the Guardian, The Independent, Open Democracy and Red Pepper among others on issues of popular democracy, environmental justice and food sovereignty. He is also co-founder of Movimiento Jaguar Despierto, a London-based social justice collective connecting issues of race, migration and social justice.