The frequent failure of military or armed interventions to protect civilians is well known. This edited collection provides a comprehensive account of a different, effective paradigm: unarmed civilian protection (UCP).
The principles and methods of UCP have been used for many decades to protect both specific, threatened individuals as well as whole communities. Featuring contributions from around the world, this book brings together a wide range of UCP practices in order to examine their underlying theory and interrelated strategies.
The book provides an important illustration of the contributions UCP can make, while also discussing its limitations and failures.
Featuring chapters by N+ Creating Safer Space members and associates Ellen Furnari, Louise Ridden, Moses Monday John, Beatriz Arias López, Laura Jiménez Ospina, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Jeyamurugan Vyappareddiyar, and many other knowledgable authors.
The performance was attended by more than 600 people, including many members of artistic-cultural organizations from vulnerable urban areas in Medellín. La Fiesta underscores the transformative power of art in communities affected by urban violence.
Queue to enter the theatre
Photo of the La Fiesta performance
More information about the event is available in English and Spanish. The full recording will soon be available here.
Fieldwork Update from South Sudan
Despite challenges including the lengthy processes required to gain permission for data collection in fieldwork sites, increasing costs of fuel and food, and a deteriorating security situation, the research team on the ‘Visual Early Warning and Preparedness in Civilian Protection’ project have this month commenced fieldwork.
Researchers Haji and Doria from the partner organisation CARD (Community Aid for Relief and Development) carried out research in the village of Kakuwa, Juba region throughout April 2023.
They conducted interviews with civilians in the village who explained Early Warning processes which are used in preparation for possible eruptions of violence, as well as in periods of open violence. In their conversations about Early Warning Early Response mechanisms, researchers were told:
“Our community is headed by a Sultan, and Chiefs who act as councilmen. […] We have three ways for preparing for attacks and the last option is normally to run away.
The community prepares for attacks according to the kind of insecurity or danger that’s about to happen. We ask, is the insecurity affecting livestock, plantations or is it an attack from another community? Depending on the danger we prepare accordingly. As a community when news of an impending insecurity is rumoured, normally a messenger/ community member runs to inform the Sultan.
Once news of insecurity reaches him, it is spread by messengers to the people around to either pack and run, or gather at the sultan’s house for the information to be shared and a way forward is known.This information is also passed by using a local instrument called telure/owi , this instrument is blown and the bearer climbs up a high tree to observe the movement of the enemy and blow the instrument accordingly. This person acts an observer and as an alert system.
The other way of passing this information is normally through drumming. Now drumming is used for different reasons depending on the beats of the drum. A certain way indicates death, and the other indicates gathering and lastly danger etc. The drummer normally shouts or speaks as well to communicate what the drumming intends to communicate. These systems alert the community members and makes them aware of what is happening within the community and act accordingly.”
In addition to these operational mechanisms to convey early warning information and prepare for possible attack, researchers also found such culturally-specific practices enhance community solidarity and collective identity. This increases community cohesion for at-risk villages and tribes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that such practices have become more widespread in the last few years, not less as a result of repeated attack and continued insecurity.
Civilians using fire ash to draw protective circles on the ground
Civilians positioning reeds and grasses in certain ways to show avenues for escape and indicate direction.
Civilians climbing trees to check the horizon for attackers and then warn neighbours by using specific calls, similar to whistles.
Call for Applications: Innovation in Evaluation and Learning in Unarmed Civilian Protection and Accompaniment
Creating Safer Space is aware of the sensitivities connected with UCP/A and how traditional methods of evaluation are often top-down or output-focused, and therefore risk missing important nuances connected with civilian protection efforts. Over the past few months, a group of practitioners and scholars have discussed good practice approaches to evaluation and developed principles that should inform evaluation design.
We welcome applications for pilot projects of participatory evaluation and learning related to Unarmed Civilian Protection and Accompaniment (UCP/A). We offer two types of funding.
Type 1: We will fund up to three small projects that meet the criterial set out in the Call for Applications and are led by an organisation that is registered in a Low and Middle Income Country (LMIC) or which has a country/field office in an LMIC (CfA for eligibility details). Grants per project range from £3,000 to max. £4,500 GBP.
Type 2: We will fund one small project that meets the criteria set out in the Caff for Applications whose Lead Organisation is as US 501 (c) (3) non-profit organisation that can receive funding from a Donor-Advised Fund (DAF).
The application deadline is 12 June 2023. Please see Call for Applications and Application Form linked below for further details, and contact creating-safer-space@aber.ac.uk with any enquiries.
On Wednesday, May 10, thanks to the funding provided by the Creating Safer Space Network to the project ‘”Ritualising” Protection in Conflict’, the elders of the Nasa people of the Indigenous Territory of Huellas were able to meet in the Tulpa intermedio. During this meeting, the spiritual knowers shared their main concerns regarding the care of seeds and plants, the need to strengthen spirituality within the family and in the territory, and the importance of passing on the knowledge of traditional medicine.
In a context where the Indigenous population finds itself ever more in the midst of the violence between armed groups, threats against spiritual knowers have increased. The Tulpas, sacred sites for the Nasa people, are currently the target of some armed groups, who want to weaken the Nasa culture, for being considered places for the exercise of self-education and self-government. One of the conclusions of this meeting is the importance of strengthening the spiritual knowledge of the Nasa people as a measure of self-protection against armed groups and to ensure the Nasa’s pervivencia (survival) in their territory.
Conversa de mayores y mayoras en la Tulpa intermedio, Caloto- Cauca
El día miércoles 10 de mayo se realizó un encuentro entre mayoras y mayores del pueblo Nasa del Resguardo Indígena de Huellas, gracias a la financiación proporcionada por la Red Creando un Espacio Más Seguro para el proyecto ‘“Ritualizando” la protección en conflicto’. En esta juntanza los sabedores espirituales compartieron sus principales preocupaciones respecto al cuidado de las semillas y plantas, la necesidad de fortalecer el tema espiritual en la familia y los territorios, y la relevancia de compartir los conocimientos de la medicina tradicional.
En un contexto donde la avanzada de los grupos armados pone en medio a la población indígena, las amenazas hacia sabedores espirituales han aumentado. Las Tulpas, sitios sagrados para el pueblo Nasa, son en estos momentos objetivo de algunos grupos armados que quieren debilitar la cultura Nasa por ser considerados lugares para el ejercicio de la educación propia y el gobierno propio. Una de las conclusiones de este espacio es la importancia de fortalecer el conocimiento espiritual del pueblo Nasa como medida de autoprotección contra los grupos armados y la pervivencia en los territorios.
“La Fiesta”: A play by the Art that Protects project
El próximo 17 de mayo tendremos el estreno de la obra de teatro titulada La Fiesta, bajo la dramaturgia y direccion del maestro Oscar Zuluaga Uribe. La obra se deriva del proyecto de investigación “Arte que protege“, que explora aportes de iniciativas artístico-culturales a las estrategias de autoprotección de jóvenes y mujeres en el contexto del conflicto urbano en la ciudad de Medellín.
Lugar: Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe , Medellin, Colombia.
Fecha: miercoles 17 de mayo / Hora: 6pm
Entrada libre – todxs bienvenidxs!
On 17 May, we will premier the play La Fiesta,written and directed by Oscar Zuluaga Uribe.
The play derives from the Creating Safer Space research project “Art That Protects”, which explores contributions of artistic-cultural initiatives to the self-protection strategies of young people and women in the context of urban conflict in the city of Medellín.
Where: Theatre Pablo Tobón Uribe, Medellín, Colombia