Our Projects
The Creating Safer Space network supports 26 research projects around the world that further our understanding of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) and community self-protection. Read about our projects below, and see our worldwide map of projects here.
Assessing the impact of unarmed civilian protection in the South Hebron Hills between 2018-2023
This project aimed to assess the impact of the ongoing collaboration between international volunteers and...
Contributions of grassroots organisations to the implementation of unarmed civilian self-protection strategies in violent urban contexts
Towards the security of diverse and vulnerable populations in socio-segregated environments This project investigated from...
UCP and Migrants in the US / Mexico Borderlands
Using a participatory action research design, this pilot project will engage with organizations serving migrants...
Scholars at Risk: Understanding vulnerability and violence faced by Myanmar refugee scholars in northern Thailand
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the regime’s brutality and political turmoil have escalated,...
Using multimedia approaches to increase visibility of and preference for Unarmed Civilian Protection approaches
While Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) approaches have proven to be effective in managing conflicts and...
Understanding Changing Strategy and Practice of Civilian Protection Under a Military Junta: The case of Kachin and Northern Shan, Myanmar
This research studied the changing UCP strategies and practices in Myanmar during and after the...
UCP in Southern Thailand: Developing civilian protection guidelines for violence-prone communities
The conflict between the separatist insurgent group Barisan Revolusi Nasional and the Thai state has...
Water conflicts, violations and forms of self-protection: A multi-case study in Eastern Antioquia, Colombia, phase 2
Water is currently a structuring axis of hydro-social relations and the conflicts that arise over...
Art that Protects, phase 2: Networks as strategies for self-protection in the context of urban conflict in the city of Medellín, 2023
The first phase of the Art that Protects project documented the place of artistic and...
‘Ritualising’ protection in conflict: A collaborative visual ethnography of the cultural and spiritual protection practices of the Nasa people in Colombia
Indigenous peoples in Colombia are caught in the midst of an armed conflict that has...
Strategies for Safety and Solidarity: Understanding protection through creativity in South Sudan and Colombia
Artists who create political and socially engaged work are increasingly at risk. In contexts of...
Unarmed civilian protection through collective impact: Learning from the Jos Stakeholders Centre for Peace for enhanced civilian protection in Maiduguri, north-eastern Nigeria
This research project involved learning from a collective impact initiative for unarmed civilian protection launched...
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...
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...
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...
Understanding Community-level Spontaneous Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP): A Comparative Study of Initiatives in South Sudan, Myanmar and Colombia
Broader research on nonviolent action points to the spontaneous and diverse nature of nonviolent actors...
The Social Process of Guarantees of Antioquia, Colombia, an experience of unarmed civil protection with indigenous and peasant communities of Bajo Cauca
The social, political and armed conflicts that persist in the Bajo Cauca subregion of Antioquia...
Visualising early warning and preparedness in civilian protection: Investigating local vernaculars of community adaptations to insecurity
Using three field research sites in South Sudan, this research investigated Early Warning as understood,...
Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned
This project investigated and sought to strengthen the extraordinary capacity of Colombian communities to navigate...
Exploring Community Perceptions and Coping Strategies on Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar
The emergence of the concept of unarmed civilian protection (UCP) in recent years has generated...
Mapping and Responding to Vulnerability through Nonviolent Collective Actions in Buenaventura, Colombia
On Colombia’s Pacific Coast, Buenaventura is a region of majority Afrodescendent and indigenous people, shaped...
Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict
This research investigated community-led initiatives of unarmed civilian protection in the ongoing ‘Anglophone conflict’ in...
Nonviolent Artivism Against Police Brutality in Kenya
This research explored youth and civil society nonviolent artivism against police brutality in two Kenyan...
Strengthening Local Capacities for Unarmed Civilian Protection in Uasin Gishu, Kenya
This project sought to generate new, evidence-based knowledge and understanding regarding civilians’ agency in local...
Civilian (Self-) Protection from Violent Conflict in Papua
Exploring Local Infrastructures and Initiatives Violent conflict has been ongoing in Papua, Indonesia, since the...
Introducing Unarmed Civilian Protection in Thai Society: Opportunities and Challenges
Thailand is a country that is presently experiencing different kinds of violence, from the low-intensity...
Art that Protects, phase 1: Contributions of artistic-cultural initiatives to the self-protection strategies of young people and women in the context of the urban conflict in Medellín, 2022
This project focused on two issues less explored in the existing literature on civilian self-protection:...
Water conflicts, violations and forms of self-protection, phase 1
A multi-case study in Eastern Antioquia, Colombia Socio-environmental conflicts are understood as those arising from...
