New Project: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills
We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta)”
The project is led by Marwan Darweish at Coventry University (UK), in collaboration with Co-Investigators at Coventry University and the Al-Shmoh Cultural Center (Palestine).
The project focuses on the South Hebron Hills of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), where the civilian population face acts of violence by Israeli settlers in which their crops, livestock, dwellings and lives have been targeted. The project will analyse attempts by civilian actors to support the local communities in their attempts to create safer spaces within which they can continue to maintain their livelihoods, hold on to their land and way of life.
Project co-investigator Mahmoud Soliman during a civilian protection gathering in the West Bank.
New Project: Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict
We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict”.
The project is led by Gordon Crawford at Coventry University (UK) in collaboration with Co-Investigators from the African Leadership Centre in Nairobi (Kenya), Coventry University (UK), the Big Steps Outreach Network (Cameroon), Authentic Memorial Empowerment Foundation (Cameroon) and Women for Change (Cameroon).
The project investigates community-led initiatives of unarmed civilian protection in the ongoing ‘Anglophone conflict’ in Cameroon. Subjected to violence from both the military and armed separatist groups, civilians have been pro-active and resourceful in devising ways to protect each other and stay safe, inclusive of coded language, non-verbal communication, direct negotiation with the warring parties, early warning networks and information sharing through local associations and social media.
The project will use arts-based and creative research methods that enable conflict-affected communities to co-create knowledge.
New Project: Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia
We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned”.
The project is led by Juan Mario Díaz at the University of Sheffield (UK), in collaboration with Co-Investigators from the University of Sheffield, Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) and Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (Colombia).
The project will investigate and seek to strengthen the extraordinary capacity of Colombian communities to navigate the complex conflicts that threaten their security. Using a Participatory Action Research approach, which conducts research with rather than on communities, the project will collaborate with grassroots organisations and train community researchers in three diverse communities in the Pacific region of South-West Colombia: i) the predominantly Afro-Colombian port city of Buenaventura; ii) mestizo coca growers based in and around the town of Lerma; and iii) members of an indigenous coffee-growing cooperative in Caldono, Toribio, Santander de Quilichao and Bolivar municipalities. The aim is to facilitate an exchange of knowledge and experiences which enhances community capacities for Unarmed Civilian Protection in the region and beyond.
Meeting between researchers and project partners to discuss training and capacity-building opportunities.
New Project: Exploring Community Perceptions and Coping Strategies on Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar
We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Exploring Community Perceptions and Coping Strategies on Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar”
The project is led by Abellia Anggi Wardani at Knowledge Hub Myanmar. The project will investigate how local ethnic groups in Rakhine state, Myanmar, identify and cope with the local violent events they encountered or anticipated.
The project uses a participatory action research approach not only to compare different conceptions of violence of the different ethnic groups in the region but also to explore divergent strategies of said groups to handle and reduce violence in their respective communities.
New Project: Mapping and Responding to Vulnerability through Nonviolent Collective Actions in Colombia
We are pleased to announce that a new research project will start in October: “Mapping and Responding to Vulnerability through Nonviolent Collective Actions in Buenaventura, Colombia”.
The project is led by Manuel Müller at FOR Peace Presence (Colombia), in collaboration with Co-Investigators at FOR Peace Presence and Colectivo ANSUR.
The project will use Participatory Action Research to work with five Afro-descendent and indigenous communities and organisations in the Buenaventura region of Colombia to map collective and individual vulnerabilities to physical harm. Community members will engage in critical analysis over the structures that have constructed vulnerability and the intersectional identities (race, gender, age, sexuality, place of residence, ability status) that interact with vulnerability at the community level. The research will explore through photos and collective histories the diverse strategies that individuals and communities have developed to protect themselves, their lands, and their traditions.
The territory of the AINI Women’s collective in the Naya river. The flag is used by FOR Peace Presence as a protection measure to visibilize their presence.
Gender-just landscapes: Gender based violence and community protection in land, natural resource and climate conflicts
Gender-based violence (GBV) is experienced by one in three women worldwide; however, the risk of GBV grows substantially in conflict. Our understanding how GBV relates to land, natural resource and climate-related conflict is limited however. Our aim was to address this gap in knowledge and improve understanding of the prevalence, intersecting vulnerabilities and resilience to GBV in these contexts, and identify community responses and local protection infrastructure to reduce GBV risks. Through case studies in Colombia, Nigeria and the Philippines, our project used visual and participatory action research methods to understand GBV risk and identify community responses that UCP practitioners and beyond could both learn from and engage with to foster support for communities experiencing violence.
Dr Lora Forsythe (PI) l.forsythe@gre.ac.uk Associate Professor Gender, Inequalities and Food Systems Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, UK
Colombia
Javier Lautaro Medina Bernal (Co-I) jmedina@cinep.org.co Project Manager, member of the Technical Secretariat of the International Verification Component of the Peace Agreement, and coordinator of the National Engagement Strategy in Colombia with the International Land Coalition Conflict, State and Peace Programme, Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular (CINEP)
Dr Aliyu Barau (Co-I) Associate Professor Urban and Regional Planning Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Bayero University Kano
Philippines
Timothy F. Salomon (Co-I) Facilitator National Engagement Strategy in the Philippines for the International Land Coalition Center for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (CARRD)
United Kingdom
Lilian Treasure (Researcher) PhD Candidate and Vice Chancellor Scholar Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
Dr Uche Okpara (Co-I) Fellow in Climate Change and State Fragility Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
Professor Tilman Brück (Co-I) Visiting Professor of Food Security, State Fragility and Climate Change Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
PROJECT OUTPUTS
Desborde: A Visual Memory website of the research in Putumayo, Colombia
The research used a mixed-method and participatory action research design. Firstly, the project conducted literature and data reviews at both country and global levels. Secondly, the project conducted primary research in the Philippines, Colombia and Nigeria to produce case studies. This included both key informant interviews and workshops with community leaders, civil society organisations, academics and policymakers, as well as focus group discussions with men and women in communities who have experienced or are experiencing violence to understand its relationship to gender based violence and the development of community-based responses to address this. The project also engaged in art-based research activities and immersion in nature-based activities.
Overall, the case studies found that gendered violence is embedded in social relations creating ‘ruptured fabrics’ within territories and enables exploitation of territory, labour, and identity. The focus of UCP on strengthening relationships and communication has an important role to play in healing these ‘ruptured fabrics’, with UCP actors having strong cognizance of power and gender relations in context and their own role within it. Furthermore, women experienced a continuum of violence at different scales. In every case, women related the violence they experienced to structural violence. The deep inequality was considered a form of systemic oppression linked to the production of environmental degradation and capitalist accumulation.
Power (physical, discursive etc) is used over and about women, devaluing their status and roles, enabling violence to be ‘justified’, which is linked to broader patriarchal, colonial, and racialised structures particularly around the creation of property. As such, UCP approaches and actors may only have the capacity or ethical background to address specific forms of violence but will need to recognise the interconnections between different forms of violence, including intimate partner, intra-household, and structural violence.
Development of civil protection capacities in women displaced by the armed conflict through popular communication and Community Legal Empowerment
Utilizing a qualitative research-action design, this project delved into the experiences in the field of unarmed civilian self-protection of a group of women who were displaced by armed conflict and now reside in contexts characterized by social and urban segregation. In these environments, they remain exposed to multiple forms of violence linked to fear-based political dynamics. The research explored the appropriation and implementation of innovative strategies, focusing on community advocacy and storytelling as active participation methods and testimonial resources for collective efforts aimed at promoting social cohesion as the foundation for peaceful community organization.
Research Team:
Luisa Maria Colonia, Masterpeace Cali, Colombia (principal investigator)
Gustavo Suárez, Universidad del Valle, Colombia (co-investigator)
Fundación Carvajal, Colombia (project partner)
Unicatólica, Colombia (project partner)
Humanos: Foro Iberoamericano de Periodistas en DDHH, Colombia (project partner)
Transmedia Booklet
This booklet has been prepared to communicate the key findings of the research. Through this research, Masterpeace Cali presents an innovative approach to peaceful protection strategies employed by displaced civilian populations in urban areas where violence persists and escalates despite ongoing state conflict resolution processes. Furthermore, by co-creating this booklet with the participating women, we aim to share their positive experiences related to the implementation of these strategies with other communities and grassroots organizations at the local, regional, national, and international levels. Our goal is to encourage the adaptation and replication of these strategies in other regions and communities affected by fear-based policies, thus fostering the exchange of best practices in the field of unarmed civil protection (UCP).
Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta)
In the South Hebron Hills of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, an area known as Masafer Yatta, there are 32 small Palestinian villages, farmer and Bedouin communities living on agriculture and herding. The Israeli state and settlers seek to expel them from this land. To support the local communities to stay on their land, a number of actors (Palestinian, Israeli and international) have sought to protect the civilian population from the escalating acts of violence by the state and settlers in which their lives, homes, crops and livestock have been targeted.
The settlers act with complete impunity, confident they will face no legal sanctions for their acts of violence, and they serve as a tool of the Israeli state in its pursuance of its annexationist policies of the Palestinian land. In the words of a report by the Israeli human rights agency B’tselem, ‘settler violence is a form of government policy, aided and abetted by official state authorities with their active participation.’
In this context, UCP is significant as a mode of enhancing the security and protection of the Palestinians in Masafer Yatta and to create safer spaces within which they can continue to maintain their livelihoods, hold on to their land and way of life. This research project examined the different forms of community self-protection measures and the role of others in creating safer space for the Palestinians, as well as the challenges faced by the local community and external actors in providing civil protection in violent conflict.
PROJECT TEAM
Dr Marwan Darweish is the principal investigator (PI) of the project, with overall responsibility for the management, planning and delivery of the project.
Marwan Darweish has an unparalleled research background in the OPT and Israel. He has conducted many research projects and consultancies with Palestinian and Israeli NGOs and EU about conflict transformation and nonviolent resistance. As a Palestinian with Israeli and British citizenship his political involvements and his fluency in Arabic, Hebrew and English have enabled him to develop a close relationship with many Israeli solidarity and peace activists and with their Palestinian counterparts – a trust relationship that makes his research in this conflict zone so rich and textured.
Dr Andrew Rigby is Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies with the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations (CTPSR), of which he was the founding director.
He began researching and writing about unarmed civilian resistance in the OPT in the 1980s, and has continued his involvement over the ensuing four decades as a researcher, consultant and advocate of unarmed resistance to occupation.
Over the years he has developed a wide network of contacts amongst Israelis, Palestinians and representatives of international humanitarian aid and human rights agencies. He will draw on these contacts throughout the period of the proposed research project.
Dr Mahmoud Soliman is a Research Fellow at the CTPSR, based in the West Bank and closely associated with the Al-Shmoh Cultural Center, a small NGO in the OPT. Mahmoud is a highly regarded activist, community organiser and researcher. He will be ‘in the field’ for the majority of the research project, liaising with key informants, organising the field visits and taking a leading role in the dissemination of the findings of the research the follow up in-country activities. He will be the main contact with a Local Advisory Group (LAG) which will be established as part of the research process.
Mahmoud Soliman in a civilian protection gathering in the West Bank
RESEARCH OUTPUTS
Short Film: Civil Protection to stay on our land
Produced by local film makers, this film documents the experience of Palestinian farmers and shepherds with civil protection in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta). It explores the efficacy of unarmed civilian protection and how to strengthen self-protection against the threats of expulsion and dispossession by Israel and the settlers.
We conducted two field visits to Masafer Yatta in October 2022 and June 2023. We interviewed local community leaders and activists, in addition to members of international groups engaged in different forms of ‘accompaniment’ and civil protection. We interviewed about 30 people, accompanied shepherds and farmers, and witnessed the UCP activities by Palestinian, Israeli, and international organisations.
The research highlighted that in such an asymmetric struggle the local inhabitants have few resources of resistance beyond their own everyday courage, tenacity and steadfastness – sumud. To support them, different organisations and groups have sought to offer various forms of accompaniment as means of civilian protection, assisting the Palestinians in their efforts to achieve a degree of ‘safe space’ within which to pursue their lives.
The research highlighted that community self-protection measures are a first line of defence. There is a culture characterised by an emphasis on the importance of family and family networks, mutual aid, faza’a (traditional collective effort), significance of personal and family honour and avoidance of shame. Community-based protection methods in response to threats from the outside, especially settlers, include: recognition of strength in numbers, importance of look-outs, coordination, mutual support and local knowledge. Our conclusion is that all these actions by locals will not end the occupation; it will enhance local resilience to stay on the land and frustrate the Israeli occupation, but it will not guarantee that they will not be expelled from their land.
There is a symbiotic relationship between local Palestinians and international accompaniers. The accompaniers are there to enhance the security of the Palestinians, but the Palestinians in turn ‘protect’ the internationals – advising them of potential threats, identifying escape routes in case of attack, and indicating where they should stand in order to minimise the risk of injury during encounters with settlers.
We learned how the presence of Palestinian and Israeli solidarity activists, alongside internationals from networks such as the International Solidarity Movement, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel, Operation Dove from Italy and the US-based Centre for Jewish Nonviolence, played a significant role in enabling locals to continue to graze their sheep. The accompaniers acted as a kind of protective presence, deterring Israeli settlers from attacking the villagers through their monitoring and documentation of human rights abuses.
Most significantly, their presence had a profound impact on the morale and hence the resilience of the locals, who saw the accompaniers as evidence that they were not alone in their struggle.
South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta) during spring, Mustard seeds flowers
Internationals accompany children to school passing in front of army vehicle.
Palestinian activists protecting local community from settlers attack
Research Café: Writing a Successful Grant Application
The aim of the Creating Safer Space Café is to enable people in different parts of the world to exchange knowledge and to help build a community of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) researchers and practitioners.
The Panel will be asked questions about how they developed their proposals, what challenges they faced, what advice they would give to others who apply for research grants, as well as questions from the audience. The Panel will also share their successful grant applications with the research café participants, to allow participants to learn more about what a successful grant application actually looks like.
12.30 – 1.30 pm UTC on Thursday 22 September Please use a timezone converter to check your local time.
The session will be held in English and Spanish with simultaneous translation.
An important aspect of a successful grant application is to bring together a strong team and to develop an equitable partnership. In February 2022, a group of Colombia- and Sheffield-based researchers and grassroots organisations in the region came to visit CENCOIC coffee warehouse in Popayan, Cauca. This was part of a three-day workshop, which led to the development of the project “Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned”.
Enhancing Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) in ASEAN
Creating Safer Space Co-Investigator Chantana Banpasirichote Wungaeo moderated a Panel on ‘Enhancing Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) in ASEAN’, as part of an international seminar on ‘Whither ASEAN in a Deeply Troubled World’. The seminar was held on 15-17 August 2022 at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and virtually on Zoom.
Panel members included Mark Tamthai (Peace Studies Program at Payap University, Chiang Mai), Ronnie Delsy (Director, Nonviolent Peaceforce, Asia) and Amara Pongsapich (ASEAN Human Rights Commission).
The three speakers on the panel represent UCP in research, peace building and policy-making in the ASEAN community. The picture of the region is quite varied from low intensity conflict in Thailand, normalization and peace building in Mindanao in the Philippines, to military authoritarianism in Myanmar. The panel discussed how UCP can clearly be integrated into the peacemaking process in Mindanao, while there are challenges involved in applying UCP in both low intensity conflicts like in Thailand, where vulnerability is rooted in structural violence, as well as in open armed conflict in Myanmar, where intervention is almost not feasible.
Mark Tamthai, Co-Investigator on the Creating Safer Space research project ‘Introducing Unarmed Civilian Protection in Thai Society’, raises a few observations: “1) What UCP type activities are effective depends on the kinds of protection needed in different countries. Protection from targeted violence, or racially based violence, creates particular challenges for direct immediate intervention. 2) What UCP activities can assist in the current protection needs of civilians in Myanmar are not clear. Myanmar civilians seem to need protection from many different groups. UCP in Myanmar seems to be a huge challenge in the current climate. 3) A UCP organization within the official ASEAN structure does not seem feasible at the moment due to its position on non-interference. To contribute to UCP protection programs might require an ASEAN support program for local UCP organizations in ASEAN countries.”
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