Safe in Our Home

This documentary explores the potential of local semilleros (seedbeds) in facilitating community-based research on strategies for the protection of unarmed civilians and wider issues of (in)security.

This documentary was produced by participants in the Creating Safer Space project “Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned”.

The documentary was created by two students at Universidad Autónoma de Occidente (UAO) in Colombia, Santiago Hernandez and Manuela Romero, who presented it as their final year project under the supervision of Dr Natalia Campo (Co-Investigator on the Creating Safer Space project).

Policy Events in Brussels

Photo of Creating Safer Space exhibition on show in Brussels

The Creating Safer Space Exhibition was on show at Quaker House Brussels from 4-7 February 2025, and it was accompanied by three policy events.

On the first day, we held a policy event on “Civilians and Nonviolence in Crisis Preparedness and Management”, with several speakers: Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Rachel Julian (Creating Safer Space), Rosemary Kabaki (Head of Mission, Nonviolent Peaceforce South Sudan), Gaëlle Nizery (Service for Foreign Policy Instruments, European Commission) and Nora Loozen (Belgium Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Photo of Rosemary Kabaki, Head of Mission, Nonviolent Peaceforce South Sudan — *Rosemary Kabaki, Head of Mission, Nonviolent Peaceforce South Sudan*

During the week, we also held two brown bag lunches. The first brown bag lunch focused on protective accompaniment and community-led Unarmed Civilian Protection in Colombia, with Emily Humphreys (Peace Brigades International) and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara (Creating Safer Space). The second focused on protecting human rights defenders, with speakers from the South Sudan Human Rights Defenders Network and Nonviolent Peaceforce.

We published two policy briefs for the occasion, for the EU and its member states:

Policy Brief: Community Self-Protection Makes Civilians Safer

Policy Brief: Nonviolent Community Strategies Protect Civilians Across the World

Creating Safer Space Exhibition in Brussels

The Creating Safer Space Exhibition was on show at Quaker House Brussels from 4-7 February 2025.

Photo of Rosemary Kabaki — *Rosemary Kabaki, Head of Mission, Nonviolent Peaceforce South Sudan*

Berit BLIESEMANN DE GUEVARA

Areas of expertise:

The CSS Model
Research and evaluation
Facilitation
Coaching and mentoring
Exhibition

Berit is professor of International Politics at Aberystwyth University, UK, and a teacher and researcher with over 20 years of experience in conflict and peacebuilding related research and analysis. She has carried out fieldwork-based research in the Balkans (Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo), Latin America (Colombia and Peru), and Southeast Asia (Myanmar).

Berit’s areas of expertise include research and analysis, research design and management, qualitative research methodologies (including creative and arts-based methods and participatory action research), research ethics and safeguarding, design and delivery of university and school courses and workshops, and meeting/ workshop facilitation (she is trained in Technology of Participation-ToP methods).

Berit has carried out facilitation work with Nonviolent Peaceforce and the UCP/A Community of Practice and research with NP Myanmar, among others, and leads the Creating Safer Space network. Other research has involved work with demobilised guerrilla fighters in Colombia.

More information: https://research.aber.ac.uk/en/persons/berit-bliesemann-de-guevara

Contact: beb14@aber.ac.uk

Nonviolent Community Strategies Make Civilians Safer

Policy Brief 3 / 2025.

For government and civil society in Wales.

Policy Brief by the Creating Safer Space network, written by Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Rachel Julian, and Nerve Macaspac.

The policy brief is available in English and Welsh.

New Creating Safer Space Brochure

The Creating Safer Space network has published a new brochure.

The brochure provides information about our activities and achievements over the last five years. It also features a summary of our key research findings, and an outline of the Creating Safer Space model of carrying out research with and for (not “on”) self-protecting communities and UCP practitioners.

The brochure also dedicates two pages to each of our 26 commissioned projects, highlighting the diversity of research approaches and research findings within our network.

Creating Safer Space brochure (English) — *Brochure in English*

Creating Safer Space brochure (Spanish) — *Brochure in Spanish*

Unarmed Civilian Self-Protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone Conflict

March 2025

Factsheet by the Creating Safer Space project “Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict”.

Authors/Auteurs: Gordon Crawford, Nancy Annan, James Kiven Kewir, Atim Evenye Niger-Thomas, Bernard Nsaidzedze Sakah, Zonziwoh Mbondgulo-Wondieh.

Available in English and French.

Rachel JULIAN

Areas of Expertise:

The CSS Model
Research and Evaluation
Facilitation, coaching and mentoring
Education and learning
Policy and implementation advice

Rachel is professor of Peace Studies at Leeds Beckett University, UK, and an internationally recognised researcher working on Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping/Protection and the way we recognise the lives and voices of those affected by violence and crisis. She has worked with community partners in Southeast Asia and East Africa to explore how civilians protect one another from violence, increase their capacity and agency to act, the voices of survivors in influencing policy and how a nonviolent feminist analysis generates creative approaches in the midst of complex challenges.

Rachel’s expertise includes research and analysis, creative, arts- and technology-based qualitative methods, research ethics, evaluation, and design and delivery of university and school courses and workshops.

Rachel has provided expertise to the UN and a German Parliament sub-committee and is always interested in new and exciting projects and methods.