Organization of Islamic Cooperation hosts NP briefing
OIC Mission hosts a Nonviolent Peaceforce workshop- 2011.06.16
On June 16 2011, the OIC Ambassador Ufuk Gokcen welcomed the Nonviolent Peaceforce to the office of the mission in New York. Nonviolent Peaceforce is a nongovernmental organization which has trained many unarmed civilian peace protection teams in order to support to local population and deter violence in conflict zones. Their past projects include work in Sri Lanka, the Mindanao region of the Philippines, Guatemala, and southern Sudan; there are also new projects under exploration and development in the south Caucasus and Kyrgyzstan. The main office is in Brussels while there is a consultative mission to the UN. Currently there are 150 peacekeepers from over 40 nations deployed along with 65 member organizations worldwide promoting and engaging in activities to benefit the Nonviolent Peaceforce.
The group gave a presentation on the worldwide awareness and support of unarmed civilian protection to the OIC member states in attendance. The main concept behind their group is to have unarmed civilians protecting threatened civilians by providing a proactive presence without the use of force allowing a safe political space to be created where people can transform their own conflicts constructively and reduce and prevent further violence from occurring. A proactive presence functions by using encouragement, deterrence and influence as tools of change. The areas of the world that would most likely benefit from the work of the Nonviolent Peaceforce are post conflict countries because they have a high relapse rate. In order for the work of the peacekeepers to be successful there must be a proper balance among humanitarian, developmental, political and military actions. The tools that are employed by the Nonviolent Peaceforce include multi level diplomacy, conscious visibility, confidence and capacity building. These tools allow for success in the violent conflict zones which they enter. Following the presentation the group opened up the floor to any member states that had questions. This allowed for a good discussion among the member states and the Nonviolent Peaceforce training facilitators.
