PNND Past Presidents

Abacca A. Madison

PNND Past President
Marshall Islands – Nitijela

Senator Abacca Anjain Madisson is from Rongelap – an atoll in the Pacific which had to be abandoned due to radioactive fallout from nuclear testing. She has led the efforts of the Marshall Islands to receive compensation from the United States for the loss of land, environmental destruction and health problems in the islands resulting from the tests.

Raphael Masunga Cheheni

PNND Past President
Tanzania – National Assembly

Raphael Chegeni has a background in Financial Administration and a Docotrate from Washington International University.  He is Secretary General on the Amani Forum of The Great Lakes Reg. Parliamentary Forum and East Africa Chapter Representive on the Parliamentary Network of the World Bank.  He is a member of Chama Cha Mapinduzi - CCM, the governing party in Tanzania.

David Coltart

PNND Past President

David Coltart, MDC Senator, has been a human rights lawyer in Zimbabwe since his return to the country in 1983. He was first elected to represent the Bulawayo South House of Assembly constituency in June 2000, and was re-elected in March 2005. In March 2008 he was elected as a Senator to represent the Khumalo Senatorial constituency in Bulawayo. Senator Coltart was sworn in as Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture in February 2009.

Rosario Green

PNND Past President
Mexico – Senate

Senator Rosario Green is the Chairperson of Foreign Affairs in the Mexican Senate. She is also the President of Mexico’s delegation as an Observer in the Parliamentary Assembly Council of Europe.  From 1994-2000, she was Mexico’s first female Secretary of Foreign Affairs.  Senator Green has been a faculty member of UNAM, Colegio de México and the Universidad Iberoamericana and director of the Matías Romero Institute of Diplomatic Studies at the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs as well as president of Fundación Colosio. She has been an Ambassador to East Germany, Ambassador to Argentina, executive secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, and sub-secretary for Political Affairs of the United Nations.

Hideo Hiraoka

PNND Past President
Japan – House of Representatives

Hideo Hiraoka MP (DPJ, is serving his fifth term as a member of the Japanese House of Representatives. He is the Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications and a senior advisor and the former Secretary General of the DPJ Parliamentary Group on Nuclear Disarmament and a member of the House Committee on Internal Affairs and Communications. He has led a number of nuclear disarmament initiatives including a joint Japanese/South Korean parliamentary declaration supporting a Northeast Asian nuclear-weapon-free-zone and a cross-party letter from 204 Japanese parliamentarians to US President Obama during the US Nuclear Posture Review supporting Obama’s vision for a nuclear-weapons-free world and initial steps including lowering the role of nuclear weapons in security doctrines.

Marian Hobbs

PNND Past President
New Zealand – House of Representatives

Hon Marian Hobbs has held the positions of Minister for Disarmament and Arms Control, Minister for the Environment, Minister Responsible for Overseas Development Aid, Minister for Broadcasting and Associate Minister for Education. She has been active internationally in the Commission on Sustainable Development, United Nations General Assembly (Disarmament and International Security Committee), Conference on Disarmament and other bodies. She has also been active in the adoption and implementation of New Zealand’s pioneering anti-nuclear legislation.

Sergei Kolesnikov

PNND Past President
Russia – State Duma (lower house)

Sergei Kolesnikov is a medical doctor and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. He was a member of the Russian Parliament (Duma) from 1999 – 2010. His parliamentary positions included Chair of the Committee on Health and Deputy Chair of the Committee for Science and Education. He is the Laureate of the Lenin Komsomol Prize for Science in 1984, Order of Peoples Friendship (1985) and Order of Honor (1996). He has served as Co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) and President of the Russian national affiliate of IPPNW.

Taro KONO

PNND Past-President, President of PNND Japan Section
Japan – House of Representatives

Taro Kono has been a Member of the Japanese Parliament for the Liberal Democratic Party since 1996. He currently holds the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs. He has previouly held the positions of Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Senior Vice-Minister of Justice. He is generally seen as a progressive member of the LDP, with a commitment to regional and global nuclear disarmament. This includes supporting negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention and for a North East Asian Nuclear Weapon Free Zone. He pioneered a law change on organ donation after giving part of his liver to his father Yohei Kono (former Prime Minister and Parliament Speaker). Taro Kono was the inaugural Secretary-General of the Japan Section of PNND and is now its President.

Alexa McDonough

PNND Past President
Canada – House of Commons

Alexa McDonough was the first woman Leader of the Canadian New Democratic Party and is currently the New Democratic Party Critic for International Development, International Cooperation and Peace Advocacy. She has also been a leader in numerous national and international social action groups and human rights organizations.

Douglas Roche

PNND Past President
Canada – Senate

The Hon. Douglas Roche, O.C., is an author, parliamentarian and diplomat, who has specialized throughout his 35-year public career in peace and human security issues. Mr. Roche was the founding Chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative, an international network of eight non-governmental organizations specializing in nuclear disarmament issues. He retired from the Senate in 2004.

Uta Zapf

PNND Past President, PNND Adviser for Inter-Parliamentary Organisations
Former Chair of the Subcommittee on Arms Control and Disarmament
Germany – Bundestag

Uta Zapf served as the Chair of the Bundestag (German Parliament) Sub-Committee on Disarmament Arms Control and Nonproliferation under both Social Democrat and CDU (conservative) governments. She has served as head of the German Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Inter Parliamentary Union – and was Vice President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. She is a leading member  of Global Zero.