Vanessa Griffen is a Fijian academic and writer who campaigns against the use and proliferation of nuclear weapons. [1] [2]
Griffen was born in Suva, Fiji and attended the University of the South Pacific. She and a group of fellow students and graduates formed a writers' group, University of the South Pacific Arts Group (UNISPAC) to promote creative writing and encourage each other to have their work published. [3] Griffen specialises in writing short stories, which she began to publish from 1969. [4]
As a student, Griffen became aware of the environmental and genetic impacts of radioactivity from French nuclear weapons testing in French Polynesia. She joined the anti-nuclear movement ATOM (Against Testing on Mururoa) and helped form the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific network. [1] In 1975 she was part of a group of 5 Fijian women who attended the United Nations' International Year of the Woman conference in Mexico City, including Amelia Rokotuivuna. [5] [6] She later joined the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons and presented a statement at the United Nations negotiations on the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. [7]