In March 2026, team members of the project “Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict” organised an online panel and practitioner dialogue for Africa Week at King’s College London under the title “Operationalizing Agency Through Unarmed Civilian Protection: Community-Led Pathways to Safety and Peace”, attended by c.100 online participants. The event examined Unarmed Civilian […]
The project team of “Ritualising Protection” has released its three-part documentary series “The Nasa Indigenous People of Colombia in the Midst of Violence”, available on YouTube (Spanish with English subtitles). In three chapters – Pervivir (Survive), Proteger (Protect), and Resistir (Resist) – the series explores the spiritual and social nonviolent community self-protection practices of the […]
Marwan Darweish, Mahmoud Soliman, and Andrew Rigby have published a new book titled “Unarmed Civilian Protection in Palestine” (Bristol University Press, 2026). The book is based on insights from their Creating Safer Safe project “Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta)“ The publisher writes about […]
The project team of “Ritualising Protection” has released its three-part documentary series “The Nasa Indigenous People of Colombia in the Midst of Violence”, available on YouTube (Spanish with English subtitles). In three chapters – Pervivir (Survive), Proteger (Protect), and Resistir (Resist) – the series explores the spiritual and social nonviolent community self-protection practices of the Nasa Indigenous People in Northern Cauca, one […]
Local civilians are often the first actors to respond to threats against civilians in conflict-affected settings. Long before international peacekeepers or humanitarian actors arrive, communities develop their own unarmed, nonviolent strategies to prevent violence, mitigate harm, and protect vulnerable populations. In a new International Peace Institute (IPI) issue brief, Rachel Julian and Berit Bliesemann de […]
Creating Safer Space has supported a new Partnership for Peace Education and Research between Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) and Universitas Syiah Kuala in Indonesia. USK has launched a Master’s programme in Peace and Development, creating new pathways for academic inquiry and practitioner-oriented learning in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. In support of the programme’s establishment, NP facilitated ongoing learning exchanges between […]
The Social Process of Guarantees (Proceso Social de Garantías – PSG) Annual Assembly 2025 was attended by social leaders from eight subregions of the department of Antioquia, representing 40 social, peasant and indigenous organisations. During the PSG assembly, a space was set aside to share the main findings derived from the systematisation of self-protection actions […]
In November 2025, MasterPeace Cali participated in the Build Peace 2025 Conference in Barcelona, organised by Build Up and the International Catalan Institute for Peace (ICIP). As part of the conference programme, the team facilitated the workshop “Civilian Nonviolent Self-Protection in Latin American Communities: Alternatives to Militarised Security”, in which they shared practices and lessons […]
Martha Okumu and Elias Opongo have published a new book titled “Human Rights Advocacy against Police Brutality: Assessing the Use and Impact of Unarmed Civilian Protection“. Excerpt from the Summary: “The study is guided by six research questions addressing: (1) the relationship between police brutality and human rights protection in Kenya; (2) the artivist strategies […]
The podcast “Vienna Dialogues: Coffee and IR” has published a new podcast episode about the research of the Creating Safer Space network. In the episode, host Markus Pollak is joined by Professor Xymena Kurowska to speak with network lead Professor Berit Bliesemann de Guevara about unarmed community self-protection amidst violent conflict. The conversation opens with […]
