Advocacy

Our critical mission is to protect civilians. But protection is not only from physical harm. Protection is also about creating the empowering conditions for local communities to leverage existing structures and capacities to live peacefully with others.

Our advocacy team amplifies this work in international policy forums at the United Nations and in capitals around the world. We not only advocate for support for our protection work in specific countries, but also raise awareness on the necessity of non-militarized approaches and the importance of unarmed protection as both a complement to traditional peacekeeping and a key ingredient in attaining sustainable peace to communities facing violence and conflict.

Nonviolent Peaceforce was granted Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2007. Consultative Status to ECOSOC is the highest status granted by the United Nations to non-governmental organizations (NGO's), thereby allowing them to participate in the work of the United Nations.

Additionally, we serve on the NGO Working Group on the Security Council. Since 1997, the NGO Working Group has provided this unique platform for NGOs to access the UN Security Council. As the Security Council's decisions affect nearly all NGO constituencies - including human rights, humanitarian relief, disarmament, governance, and the concerns of women and children - the Working Group works to maintain a diverse membership.

Our team advocates for the necessity of non-militarized approaches and the importance of unarmed protection as both a complement to traditional peacekeeping and a key ingredient in attaining sustainable peace to communities facing violence and conflict. Through our work, unarmed civilian protection has been included in 23 UN and UN-related policies, recommendations, and resolutions have recognized unarmed approaches for the protection of civilians.

How can you help? Urge your representative to "make an amendment to add $25 million in funding for Unarmed Civilian Protection to the Appropriations Bill for State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs." 

In support of the Afican Union's Silencing the Guns initiative, Nonviolent Peaceforce is partnering with the UN Department of Peace Operations to strengthen the skills of African youth leaders in unarmed civilian protection. Nonviolent Peaceforce will offer online training in unarmed civilian protection (UCP) to youth peacebuilders from selected countries on the continent and provide follow-up mentoring and advisory services. 

Photo: African Union

As a relatively new practice, there is an urgent need to research and document the experiences of organizations on the ground in the last decades, in order to articulate proven, effective strategies methods. In service of this goal, Nonviolent Peaceforce is spearheading a comprehensive global review of good practices in the field of unarmed civilian protection. 

In addition to Influencing key decision makers in local, national and multi-lateral organizations, our advocacy team connects with other non-governmental organizations in the peacebuilding, protection, and humanitarian sectors. Notably, Nonviolent Peaceforce participates in one of the largest international forums: Geneva Peace Week (see the recaps from 2019 and 2018). See NP representatives at various speaking events at this Youtube playlist. 

A massive scale up of unarmed civilian protection is needed. All present approaches for the protection of civilians, whether armed or unarmed, provided by governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations added together do not come close to meeting present needs. We need to continue to validate and share widely affordable and effective ways to protect civilians. We also need to fight for adequate funding that is equivalent to the UN military peacekeeping budget—about $6.7 billion USD.