Peace Brigades International

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Peace Brigades International (pbi, German  Internationale Friedensbrigaden ) is a non-governmental international peace and human rights organization that accompanies threatened human rights defenders in conflict areas through the presence of international, unarmed volunteer teams and acts internationally. The protective accompaniment , advocacy and public relations work protects activists, and spaces for action are created for peace. According to its own information, the association is committed to the principles of non-violence, independence, impartiality and non-interference. It only works on request. The German branch of the organization, pbi Germany, has its office in Hamburg , pbi Switzerland has its office in Bern , the international secretariat is in London and the European office in Brussels .

Founding history

precursor

In response to the violent unrest in Bombay at the end of 1921, Mahatma Gandhi propagated the idea of ​​founding a volunteer corps whose task it should be to face violent clashes between the conflicting parties. The idea was only implemented in 1957 with the establishment of the Shanti Sena ( peace army ) by Gandhi's spiritual successor Vinoba Bhave . The members of this army were through their work with leaders on the ground in a mediating role, rendered reconstruction and reconciliation in devastated neighborhoods and were in violent clashes between Hindus and Muslims used (see also: Religions in India ) .

In 1962, an international peace force for non-violent action ( World Peace Brigades for Non-violent Action ) was launched in Beirut for the first time . This took some actions, such as B. the preparation of a great peace march in support of the independence movement in Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia ) or their significant participation in the negotiation of a peace agreement between the central government and insurgents in Nagaland, India . However, she lacked the resources to work long-term, so the project had to be abandoned first.

Foundation of pbi

On the Canadian island of Grindstone it came on September 4th 1981 by peace activists from four different continents and under the impression of the suppression of the Solidarność movement in Poland (see: History of Poland ) , the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the impending US invasion of Nicaragua (see: Contra War ) for the establishment of the Peace Brigades International . The aim was to build a solid, long-term, international structure for third-party interference in conflicts.

Foundation of pbi Germany

In 1985 the first voluntary groups were formed in Germany , and the national contact point of pbi was established in Trier. Since 1991 peace brigades international - Deutscher Zweig e. V. a non-profit association. In 1995 the headquarters of the German branch was relocated to Hamburg .

Principles, Mission and Vision

The “mandate” of pbi is to create and maintain room for maneuver for peace and the protection of human rights. The work of the organization aims at a world in which people resolve conflicts non-violently, in which human rights are universally recognized and in which social justice and intercultural respect are realized.

The association is convinced that sustainable conflict resolution cannot be brought about from outside, but must be shaped by local actors and that the enforcement of internationally recognized human rights is an indispensable part of any conflict transformation . That is why the work of pbi is based on the principles of non-violence, independence, non-partisanship, non-interference as well as the principle of inquiry and consensus . Moreover, pbi only accompanies human rights defenders and organizations that also act non-violently.

Club work

The association sends international observers to crisis and conflict areas as eyewitnesses and protective companions. Through their unarmed presence, international volunteer teams protect human rights defenders (lawyers, journalists, women's rights activists, environmentalists, etc.) and vulnerable groups (displaced persons, refugees, civil peace villages) who are threatened by politically motivated violence, kidnapping and murder. The concept of international protection support for the local civilian population developed by pbi makes a direct contribution to violence prevention and contributes in the long term to strengthening civil conflict resolution options. In addition, the pbi volunteers carry out independent observations and analyzes of conflict situations in the project countries as part of the protection support and thus contribute to increased transparency. On the basis of this method, the political room for maneuver of human rights defenders and their options for nonviolent action should be expanded as far as possible, but at least preserved.

International protection support

International escort is a strategy that protects human rights defenders and groups whose lives and work are threatened by political violence. For 30 years pbi has accompanied and protected hundreds of organizations, people and communities in nine countries. This presence has helped the activists to continue and expand their work for peace and justice despite threats and defamation.

In the project countries, the organization supports environmental organizations, farmers' organizations, indigenous communities, women's organizations, trade unions and family members of the victims of violence, displacement, extrajudicial executions and kidnappings. The international escort protects human rights defenders at risk, gives moral support to individuals and civil society movements and strengthens the movement for peace and human rights. International support is the prerequisite for a functioning protective escort. This means the diplomatic and economic pressure that governments, diplomats and authorities can exert on the violent actors.

The procedure for international protection accompaniment:

  • The contributors and clearly recognizable z. B. through T-shirts with the pbi logo and adequately marked vehicles
  • The organization is networked and can ensure that the necessary international pressure takes place
  • pbi contributors meet regularly with local and national military and civil authorities to discuss the security situation of those accompanying them and to clarify the presence of pbi
  • Relationships with all conflict parties, government agencies, embassies, international and national organizations are important in order to increase the safety of the pbi teams and the people and organizations they are accompanying
  • In the event of threats and human rights violations, the global alarm and support network consisting of contacts to politics, diplomacy and civil society is activated
  • Political dialogue and public relations work in the country groups raise the profile of pbi work and expand the alarm and support network
  • The volunteers only accompany in international teams in order to increase the international pressure on decision-makers in the conflict areas, to protect human rights and to guarantee the safety of the threatened activists

Current projects

The organization is currently active in the following countries:

Exploratory missions are currently taking place in Indonesia to investigate the extent to which pbi can operate again there. In addition, trainings in peace education , protection and security issues (e.g. Nepal) and in dealing with traumatization experiences (e.g. Colombia) are carried out. Dialogue initiatives and general information work towards the conflicting parties can play a role. B. in the interreligious dialogue in the SIPAZ project in Chiapas. In this way, pbi makes an active contribution to de-escalation and the prevention of violent conflicts.

Completed Projects

Peace workers and peace volunteers from pbi were in:

There were also short missions in Northern Nicaragua and Central Africa (2004–2005). Peace workers also took part in the World Uranium Hearing in Salzburg. The organization was also one of the member organizations of the Balkan Peace Team (1994-2001; see also: Yugoslav Wars ).

structure

Peace brigades international

The organization is accredited as an international non-governmental organization at the United Nations and has observer status. The international secretariat is based in London . Pbi has a European office in Brussels . Every year around 70 volunteers from all over the world are active in the projects, who have committed themselves full-time and for at least one year. The work of the pbi volunteers in the project countries is primarily supported by the 16 existing country groups in Europe, North America as well as Australia and New Zealand, in which around 500 volunteers are committed to pbi. They are supported by over 13,000 members and donors worldwide. For the coordination and administration, pbi has a total of 30 paid full-time jobs at international level and in the country groups.

The individual country groups support the work in the projects in the conflict areas financially and organizationally through advocacy work (political dialogue), the expansion of the alarm and support network, participation in peace and human rights forums, through public relations work, fundraising and addressing, training and Dispatch of volunteers. Through their own educational projects, the country groups also promote peace education, human rights education , nonviolence and awareness of human rights and methods of civil and nonviolent conflict management in their own country.

Germany

peace brigades international - German branch e. V., the office of the German national group is in Hamburg , is a member of the action group service for peace . The office manages and coordinates the work of the German national group and also forms the interface to the international level. pbi Germany is largely supported by volunteers . You are involved in thematic working groups (volunteer support, public relations, advocacy work) and regional groups nationwide. They have a high degree of creative freedom and are involved in decision-making processes from the start. Regional groups currently exist in Cologne-Bonn, Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, Rhine-Main, Stuttgart, Koblenz, Passau and Munich.

Switzerland

PBI Switzerland is an independent association under Swiss law with around 800 members and sponsors. Volunteers in German and French-speaking Switzerland are involved in a wide range of activities for the organization and are partly organized in regional groups. PBI Switzerland was founded in 1983 and the office is located in Bern . Since 2013 there has been another office in Geneva , which is mainly dedicated to advocacy work with international organizations.

Association work of pbi Germany

One focus of pbi Germany's work is project and volunteer support. The project support staff acquire funds and submit applications for state and church grants in order to ensure the financing of foreign projects, domestic work, recruiting and the posting of volunteers. In addition, pbi informs and advises interested parties about the deployment in the project country. The volunteers are looked after before, during and after their service. That will u. a. implemented by accompanying the entire application process, educating and training the volunteers for foreign assignments and maintaining contact between the volunteers and the employees of the office during the assignment.

Another important part of the work in Germany is advocacy work, i. H. the political dialogue with the responsible ministries (e.g. Foreign Office , Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development ), the relevant committees in the German Bundestag , as well as individual Bundestag members and their employees. But also bishops, German development cooperation organizations, lawyers, peace research institutes, trade unions, scientists and journalists are essential for the political support of the work of pbi. Returned volunteers report regularly on the human rights situation in the project countries and recommend political options for action in order to improve the protection of human rights. pbi organizes discussion trips for accompanied human rights defenders from the project countries. B. Representatives of indigenous farmers' organizations can hold direct talks with parliamentarians or responsible officers from the Federal Foreign Office and provide information about their situation.

In 2004 pbi Germany also founded its nationwide educational project Human Rights Learn & Live , which has been recognized as an official project of the UN World Decade - Education for Sustainable Development for several years . With the educational program, pbi Germany aims to promote civil society engagement in Germany and to strengthen a culture of nonviolence and human rights so that these are understood, respected and defended. The pbi educational offers are designed for elementary, middle and upper grades in schools as well as for daycare centers, confirmation groups and the extracurricular area. pbi offers workshops, project days, puppet theater, film or theater projects as well as teacher training that contribute to a sharper awareness of human rights violations, political violence and the international dimension of conflicts.

Human Rights Education: The PBI Education Project

PBI sees the protection of human rights as a global issue. All over the world, people work to ensure that they are respected and protected. In order to bring the global and local connections of human rights violations into the consciousness of the local people, the educational program “Human Rights Learn & Live”, created in 2004, bridges the gap between the international peace work of PBI and human rights work in Germany.

Verseinsarbeit by PBI-Switzerland

PBI-Switzerland organizes information events and training courses to prepare volunteers for an assignment abroad and looks after the volunteers before, during and after an assignment. Another focus of the Swiss section's work is public relations. This includes the dissemination of information about the human rights situation and the work of PBI in the project countries, the issuing of publication materials, continuous press work, organization of speaking tours with visitors from the project countries and public events with returnees after the assignment abroad. Raising funds for PBI projects and work in Switzerland as well as maintaining networks and advocacy work with representatives from administration, politics and international organizations are other areas of activity.

PBI's alarm network , RdA (Red de Apoyo) , is a worldwide support network of key people from politics, science, administration and culture that comes into action when human rights defenders are in need. The maintenance and expansion of the RdA is another part of the work of the Swiss offices in Bern and Geneva.

With the school workshop Peacebuilding Up Close , PBI-Switzerland has been contributing to human rights education for young people aged 13 and over since 2006. The aim of the workshop is to introduce the students to abstract concepts and terms such as human rights, non-violence and peacebuilding in an interactive way and to establish a connection between the work of the PBI volunteers in the project countries and the everyday life of the young people in Switzerland.

financing

In addition to grants from government and church bodies, pbi lives from the ideological and financial support of people who identify with their principles and their mission.

In this extraordinary time of uncertainty, fear and instability caused by the global corona pandemic, our solidarity goes out to all who struggle to remain optimistic in the face of this unique and global challenge.

PBI is still convinced that solidarity, empathy and connection can help us to cope well with this new situation. This reminds us of the relevance and importance of basic human qualities such as respect, tolerance and the inclusion of all that are necessary to build just societies.

Awards

Today pbi is a recognized non-governmental organization that has already been honored with various prestigious awards and prizes for its pioneering work and achievements:

  • 2020 Gernika Peace and Reconciliation Prize
  • 2016 Peace Prize "Premio ICIP Constructores de Paz"
  • 2014 One World Prize Hamburg (to the organizers of the Romerotage)
  • 2011 Jaime Brunet Prize for Human Rights
  • 2001 nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize
  • 2001 Martin Ennals Award
  • 1999 Medalla Conmemorativa de la Paz
  • 1999 Aachen Peace Prize
  • 1998 Sievershausen Peace Prize
  • 1996 Pfeffer Peace Prize
  • 1995 Friedrich Sigmund Schultze sponsorship award
  • 1995 Memorial por la Paz y la Solidaridad entre los Pueblos
  • 1989 Memorial Per La Pau Josep Vidal I Llecha

literature

  • Dietmar Rothermund: Mahatma Gandhi, the revolutionary of non-violence, Piper-Verlag, Zurich, 1989
  • Dieter Conrad: Gandhi and the concept of the political, Fink-Verlag, Munich, 2006

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gandhi's Nonviolence: Utopia or Reality? ( Memento of August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 2.8 MB) In: peacebrigades.ch No. 67 - 03/06, p. 10.
  2. ↑ https://pbideutschland.de/%C3%BCber-uns/gandhi-der-vater-des-gedankens .
  3. ↑ https://pbideutschland.de/%C3%BCber-uns/satzung .
  4. ↑ Mahony, Liam; Eguren, Luis Enrique (2002): Disturbing nonviolently - preventing violence. - Zurich, Rotpunktverlag, 400 pages (on the theory of non-violent protective accompaniment).
  5. ^ Liebetanz, Klaus (2008): Peace Brigades International (PBI) - An exemplary response to our time. - In: Association newspaper of the Community of Catholic Soldiers (GKS), No. 273, Vol. 48, pp. 21-25.