Peace Brigades International

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Peace Brigades International (PBI) "is a non-governmental organization (NGO) which protects human rights and promotes nonviolent transformation of conflicts." [1]

"Peace Brigades International (PBI), founded in 1981, is a low-overhead, non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian, non-governmental, international network of unpaid volunteers and a few paid staff. Inspired by Gandhi, PBI uses direct nonviolent action to help deter violence and expand space for human rights activism in areas of civil strife. PBI's major program areas are:

  • Protective international accompaniment.
  • Peace education.
  • Spreading information about human rights and nonviolent struggle for peace and social justice." [2]

Winner of the 2001 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders [3]

History

Daniel N. Clark "discussed the concept [of forming the PBI in the early 1980s] with Charles Walker, a Quaker veteran of the World Peace Brigade, which had become inactive when the U.S. civil rights movement drained away much of its resources...

"The Consultation on an International Peace Brigade held at Grindstone Island in Ontario was organized by five long-time workers in the field, Ray McGee of Peaceworkers from California, Narayan Desai of the Sarva Seva Sangh and Radhakrishna of the Gandhi Peace Foundation in India, Piet Dijkstra with the Foundation for the Extension of Nonviolent Action in the Netherlands, and Charles Walker of Pennsylvania. The conference was to be limited to around 20 people already committed to the concept of a peace brigade, and was to address the practical issues of bringing a brigade into being.

"Primarily because the expected financing for the consultation had not come through, many of those invited were not able to attend. The eleven participants included Charles Walker, Ray McGee, Narayan Desai, Jaime de J. Diaz, a Catholic priest with the Corporation for Cultural and Social Development in Colombia, Murray Thomson of Project Ploughshares in Canada, Hans Sinn, a Canadian nonviolence trainer and social defense advocate, Henry Wiseman, a Canadian serving as director of Peacekeeping Programs at the International Peace Academy in New York, Gene Keyes, a Canadian scholar and writer, Mark Shepard, a U.S. peace journalist, Lee Stern, Peace Secretary of New York Yearly Meeting of Friends, and myself. By religious background, we were six Quakers, a Hindu, a Catholic, a Jew, a Protestant, and a universalist...

"On the final day at Grindstone, we adopted the Founding Declaration of Peace Brigades International..." [4]

Funding

Institutional donors

  • ACCD (Agencia Catalana para Cooperación y Desarrollo); Acroplan; AECI (Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional); Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienste für den Frieden (AGDF); Aktion Selbstbesteuerung; Albania Friends Meeting; Amnesty International; Amnesty International Netherlands; Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust; Appleton Foundation; Appletree Fund; Ausschuß für entwicklungsbezogene Bildung und Publizistik; Australian Embassy, Mexico; Auswärtiges Amt; Ayuntamientos de Aguilar, Camargo, Vitoria, Santander y Valladolid; Belgian Government; Belgian Embassy, Indonesia; British Embassy, Indonesia; Broederlijk Delen Belgica; Bromley Trust; Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend; Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ); Cafod; Canadian Auto Workers (CAW); Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); Cambridge Friends Meeting; CarEth Foundation; Catalan Cooperation Agency; Chace Fund of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting; Christian Aid; Church of the Epiphany, CMC; Cities of Lausanne, Plan des Ouates, De Peilz, Toureine Welt, Hinwil; Congregation of Saint Basil; DCI; Diakonia Suecia; Diakonisches Werk; Embassy of Australia (Mexico); Ecumenical group FEDEVACO; Evangelical churches of Baden, Bern-Jura-Solothurn, Bern-Paulus, Dinhard, Gais, Gsteig-Interlaken, Herrliberg, Hinwil, Langnau, Muri-Guemlingen, Muttenz, Nidau, Oetwil, Pratteln-August, Tablat, Wallisellen, Winterthur, Fribourg; Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst (EED); Evangelische Kirche Kurhessen-Waldeck; Evangelische Landeskirche, Hannover; Fons Catala; Fons Mallorqui; Foundation Non-violence; French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Fund for Nonviolence; Gandhian Foundation; Gobierno de Cantabria; Gobierno de Navarra/Mugarik Gabe; ICCO; “I Do” Foundation; Intermon Oxfam; International Commission of Jurists; Inwent; Irish Aid; Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust; Katholischer Fond Eine-Welt-Kooperation; Katholisches Bistum Hildesheim; Kerkinactie (KIA); Misereor; Metanoia Peace Community; Network for Social Change; Norddeutsche Stiftung für Umwelt & Entwicklung; Nordelbisches Missionszentrum; Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Open Society Institute; Oxfam GB; Peacefund Canada; Peaceworkers USA; Polden Puckham Charitable Trust; Primate’s World Relief Development Fund; Prisoner of Conscience Appeal Fund; Project Counseling Service (PCS); Quaker Peace & Social Witness; Radley Charitable Trust; Rowan Charitable Trust; Samuel Rogers Memorial Trust; Samuel Rubin Foundation; Shoemaker Fund; Sigrid Rausing Trust; Sisters of St. Joseph, Diocese of London, Ontario; Society of Friends (Switzerland); Solidaire Solidaridad; Stiftung Umverteilen!; St. John Vianney Congregation; Swiss state; The Funding Network; Tides Foundation; Trocaire; Umweltministerium Schleswig-Holstein; Unbeschuhte Karmeliten; Valdesian Church; Vereinigte Evangelische Mission–e.V. Landeskirchen Rheinland, Westfalen und Hessen-Nassau; Yellow Springs Friends Meeting; Zentrum für Entwicklungsbezogene Bildung, Stuttgart

Individuals

Other In 1991 they received $5,000 from Rights & Democracy to: "In addition to its work organizing workshops with various popular organizations in developing countries, the Peace Brigades provides an international presence to individuals who by advocating the human rights of the marginalized, expose themselves to threat, menace and death. The International Centre granted the Brigade's request for operational assistance in Sri Lanka in response to the invitation of the Sri Lanka Bar Association to provide witnesses to lawyers." They received a further $5,000 from Rights & Democracy in 1993 to allow: "PBI is expanding its activities in Sri Lanka by opening another office in Batticoloa, an eastern region where rural land has been abandoned and military checkpoints predominate." [6]

In 1991, Peace Brigades International (PBI) Canada received $33,000 from Rights & Democracy to work in Guatemala and El Salvador to: "support the Salvadoran and Guatemala teams in fulfilling specific needs for human rights protection, as identified by the local groups themselves, as long as they require and request the presence of PBI." In 1993 they received a further $33,000 "PBI's two teams of volunteers, one in El Salvador and one in Guatemala, respond to requests from local organizations to help protect threatened persons or groups engaged in the non-violent struggel for peace, social justice and human rights. The teams are also increasingly involved in peace education in the two countries." Country(ies):

National Coordinating Committee (2009)

Accessed July 2009: [7]

International Council

International Council in 2001 [8]

International Council in 2004/05 [9]

PBI International Council 2005/06 [10]

PBI International Council 2007 [11]

Contact

International Office
Development House
56-64 Leonard Street
London EC2A 4LT
U.K.
Tel: +44 20 7065 0775
Web: http://www.peacebrigades.org

Resources and articles

Related Sourcewatch articles

References

  1. ↑ Home Page, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
  2. ↑ History and Structure, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
  3. ↑ Winners of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, accessed August 14, 2007.
  4. ↑ peace brigades international—roots and early years, Daniel Clark, accessed August 14, 2007.
  5. ↑ 2005-06 Annual Report, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
  6. ↑ Democracy Projects Database, NED, accessed August 22, 2007.
  7. ↑ National Coordinating Committee, Peace Brigades International, accessed July 8, 2009.
  8. ↑ 2001 Annual Review, Peace Brigades International , accessed August 14, 2007.
  9. ↑ 2004 Accounts, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
  10. ↑ 2005-06 Annual Report, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
  11. ↑ 2007-08 Annual Report, Peace Brigades International, accessed August 14, 2007.
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