International Coordinator, Peace Boat / Northeast Asia Regional Liaison Officer, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)

Originally from Australia, Meri Joyce graduated from the University of Melbourne and Kyoto University with degrees in Politics and Asian Studies and has over 20 years experience in the peace and security field in Japan.
Since 2005 she has been International Coordinator of Peace Boat, a Japan-based international NGO. Peace Boat is the Regional Secretariat for the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC) in Northeast Asia, and Meri is Regional Liaison Officer for GPPAC in the region. In this capacity, she coordinates various peacebuilding, disarmament, sustainability and conflict prevention related programmes within Japan and Northeast Asia. Amongst these projects include the Ulaanbaatar Process, a civil society dialogue process for confidence and capacity building in Northeast Asia launched in 2015 including the participation of both North and South Korea, as well as various education and advocacy programmes. Meri also sits on the Steering Committee of the Northeast Asia Regional Peacebuilding Institute (NARPI), is an Advisory Board Member of Women Cross DMZ, and is involved in various coordination work as part of Peace Boat's role as an International Steering Group member of the 2017 Nobel Peace Laureate, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). In 2020 Meri was appointed as a Goodwill Ambassador for Peace on the Korean Peninsula by the Republic of Korea Minister for Unification.