Jeya Wilson

Jeya Wilson (born 1951) is a Sri Lankan–New Zealand political activist and NGO leader. She is most well-known for being the person who invited New Zealand prime minister David Lange to debate the moral indefensibility of nuclear weapons at the Oxford Union.

Early life and education Wilson was born in what is today Sri Lanka in 1951. Her father was a teacher, and later principal of the teacher training college in Samoa. The family spent two years in Birmingham, England, when Wilson was eight, and during high school she went on a school exchange to America. Wilson was there in 1968, and describes it as "a watershed year – both in my life, and internationally". She witnessed the political upheaval caused by the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the Vietnam war protest movement, as well as being aware of international events such as the strikes in France threatening the government, and the Prague Spring. Wilson had won the Australasian Debating Championships, and represented Oxford at the World Debating Championships. Wilson had met New Zealand prime minister David Lange during her anti-apartheid work, and she invited him to the 1985 Oxford Union debate "This House Believes Nuclear Weapons are Morally Indefensible", during which he gave his famous line about smelling uranium on his opponent's breath. She was the opening speaker and only other New Zealander on the four-person team. The following year, Wilson was elected president of the Oxford Union. The only previous woman of colour to hold that position was Benazir Bhutto. She has also worked for the World Health Organisation and the UN Development Programme.

Wilson and her husband retired to Whanganui in 2021.

Selected works