Advocacy

Country Facts

  • The world is less peaceful today than at any time in the last decade. - 2018 Global Peace Index

    • NP Response

  • Started advocating for unarmed civilian protection (UCP) at the United Nations (UN) in 2011

    • Standing with Civilians in Violent Conflict

    Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is a global leader in the practice of unarmed civilian protection (UCP), with a solid track record of success in conflict zones including South Sudan, Myanmar, Philippines and other countries. But violent conflicts are increasing across the globe, creating a growing need for unarmed civilian protection.

    • Deaths in war, numbers of displaced populations, military spending, and terrorist incidents, among others, have all surged since the beginning of the century. - Pathways for Peace, World Bank and the UN
    • Every 2 seconds a person is forced to flee their home. There are now 68.5 million people who are forcibly displaced, a record high. - UN High Commission on Refugees 2017 Annual Report
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    Increasingly, UCP is being recognized as an effective and affordable approach to protect civilians and prevent violence. Forty-two nongovernmental organizations now practice some form of UCP in 24 areas. Yet, few of these groups know, share or communicate with each other.

    Nonviolent Peaceforce’s 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’s task is to amplify 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.

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    Nonviolent Peaceforce Advocacy Project

    To address the increasing needs for UCP, NP’s Advocacy Project works in several ways:

    • connecting groups using UCP;

    • influencing key decision makers in local, national and multi-lateral organizations;

    • improving nonviolent practices; and

    • promoting adoption of those practices.

    How You Can Help Make Change Happen

    US citizens please write or email your members of congress (https://www.congress.gov) and urge them to support including unarmed civilian protection in the 2020 appropriations bill for state and foreign operations.

    What Still Needs to be Done?

    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.

    The Nonviolent Peaceforce team at the 2019 Commission on the Status of Women in New York.
    Our Impact
    Since NP started advocating for UCP at the UN in 2011.
    16

    UN and UN-related policies, recommendations, and resolutions have recognized unarmed approaches for the protection of civilians.

    11

    country missions to the UN have hosted events featuring UCP.

    5

    UN agencies have funded NP efforts. 

    Our Advocacy Team

    UN Representative: Gay Rosenblum-Kumar

    Established: 2011