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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


Creating Safer Space Exhibition Visited Brussels

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

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).

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


New Report on Practices of Protection and Resilience among Myanmar scholars-in-exile in Thailand

The Creating Safer Space project ‘Scholars at Risk: Understanding vulnerability and violence faced by Myanmar refugee scholars in northern Thailand’ has published a report, Understanding Practices of Protection and Resilience: Co-producing knowledge among Myanmar scholars-in-exile.

The report is edited by Aung Kyaw Thein and Elliot Lodge.

It investigates the protection mechanisms and resilience strategies of Myanmar scholars and communities displaced to Thailand following the military coup in 2021. Key findings highlight the importance of proactive agency, networks of trust, mutual aid, collective action, and rebuilding communal spaces in fostering resilience.


Arddangosfa Creu Man Diogelach yng Nghaerdydd

Beth sy’n digwydd pan fydd sifiliaid yn dewis gweithredu heb arfau i amddiffyn eu hunain rhag trais? Pa mor rymusol yw ymwrthod â thrais wrth lunio presennol a dyfodol pobl?

Y Deml Heddwch ac Iechyd

King Edward VII Ave, Caerdydd CF10 3AP

24–28 Mawrth 2025, 10am – 4pm

DIGWYDDIAD AGORIADOL: 7yh dydd Sadwrn 22 Mawrth 2025 – RSVP yma.

Mae’r arddangosfa CREU MAN DIOGELACH yn ymdrin â grym annisgwyl dulliau di-drais wrth amddiffyn sifiliaid sy’n byw yng nghanol trais. Mae’n dangos sut mae pobl gyffredin yn meddwl am amddiffyniad ac yn ei ymarfer heb ddefnyddio arfau, a pha ffyrdd trawsnewidiol o ddychmygu, gwneud, a byw y mae’n eu galluogi, ond hefyd beth yw ei gyfyngiadau.

Gyda’r mwyafrif o farwolaethau mewn rhyfeloedd ymhlith sifiliaid, a’r lefel uchaf erioed o dros 110 miliwn o bobl wedi’u dadleoli drwy rym ledled y byd, mae amddiffyn sifiliaid rhag niwed rhyfel, trais ac erledigaeth ymhlith materion pwysicaf ein hoes. Ond mae’r atebion a ddychmygir yn bennaf yn cynnwys defnyddio arfau i amddiffyn rhag trais, neu gymorth dyngarol i amddiffyn pobl yn gyfreithiol ac yn economaidd-gymdeithasol. Mewn cyferbyniad, mae’r bobl sy’n cael sylw yn yr arddangosfa hon yn dangos i ni bod dewisiadau di-drais, sifil o amddiffyn rhag trais corfforol yn gweithio, a sut maent yn gweithio.

Mae’r arddangosfa CREU MAN DIOGELACH yn ymdrin â grym annisgwyl dulliau di-drais wrth amddiffyn sifiliaid sy’n byw yng nghanol trais. Mae Creu Man Diogelach yn tynnu ar brofiadau o Gamerŵn, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestina, Ynysoedd y Philipinau, De Swdan, a Gwlad Thai, lle mae sifiliaid yn harneisio grym dulliau di-drais i greu mannau mwy diogel ac yn gweithio tuag at bresennol a dyfodol amgen. Mae’r gwrthrychau, y delweddau a’r lleisiau yn deillio o ddetholiad o 26 o brosiectau ymchwil a gynhaliwyd ar y cyd rhwng academyddion, cymunedau hunanamddiffynol a hebryngwyr sifil di-drais, a oedd yn ymdrin â sut mae amddiffyn sifiliaid heb drais yn gweithio. Mae’r profiadau y maent wedi’u casglu yn ein gwahodd i fyfyrio ar ein rhagfarnau a’n syniadau ein hunain o ran pwy all amddiffyn a sut i wneud hynny.

Mae’r arddangosfa CREU MAN DIOGELACH yn herio ei hymwelwyr i ailystyried credoau cyffredin am fregusrwydd, cyfryngu, a dewisiadau mewn rhyfel. Mae’n ein gwahodd i ddychmygu posibiliadau ar gyfer amddiffyn sifiliaid yn wahanol, ac mae’n ein hysbrydoli i weithredu a chyfrannu at y newid hwn.


Creating Safer Space Exhibition in Cardiff

Click here for Welsh medium version.

The Creating Safer Space Exhibition will be on show in Cardiff from 24–28 March 2025, daily from 10am–4pm, at the Temple of Peace and Health (King Edward VII Ave, Cardiff CF10 3AP).

You are warmly invited to the OPENING EVENT with drinks: 7pm on Saturday 22 March 2025 – Please RSVP here.

What happens when civilians choose unarmed action to protect themselves from violence? How empowering is nonviolence in shaping peoples’ presents and futures? The exhibition CREATING SAFER SPACE explores the unexpected power of nonviolence in the protection of civilians living in the midst of violence. It shows how protection is being thought of and practised by ordinary people without the use of weapons, and what transformative ways of imagining, doing, and living it enables, but also what its limits are.

With most deaths in wars sustained among civilians and a record high of over 110 million people forcibly displaced worldwide, the protection of civilians from the harms of war, violence and persecution is a pressing issue of our time. But answers are still mostly imagined as either armed protection from violence or as humanitarian assistance to protect people legally and socioeconomically. By contrast, the people featured in this exhibition show us that and how nonviolent, civilian alternatives of protection from physical violence work.

CREATING SAFER SPACE draws on unarmed civilian protection experiences from Cameroon, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Thailand, where civilians are harnessing the power of nonviolence to create safer spaces and work towards alternative presents and futures. The objects, images, and voices originate from a selection of 26 research projects conducted in collaboration between academics, self-protecting communities and nonviolent civilian accompaniers, that explored how nonviolent civilian protection works. The experiences they have captured invite us to reflect on our own ideas and biases of who can protect and how.

CREATING SAFER SPACE challenges its visitors to undo commonly held beliefs about vulnerability, agency, and choices in war. It invites us to imagine possibilities for the protection of civilians differently. And it inspires us to take action and contribute to this change.


Creating Safer Space Exhibition in Leeds, UK

The Creating Safer Space Exhibition visited Leeds Beckett University from 4 – 8 November 2024.

The exhibition explores the unexpected power of nonviolence in the protection of civilians living in the midst of violence. The objects, images, and voices originate from a selection of 26 research projects funded by the Creating Safer Space network, which have been conducted in collaboration between academics, self-protecting communities and nonviolent civilian accompaniers. The exhibition draws on experiences from Cameroon, Colombia, Indonesia, Kenya, Myanmar, Nigeria, Palestine, the Philippines, South Sudan, and Thailand, where civilians are harnessing the power of nonviolence to create safer spaces and work towards alternative presents and futures.

Professor Rachel Julian is Co-Investigator of the Creating Safer Space network and Professor of Peace Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Leeds Beckett University. Speaking about the exhibition, she said:

“Having the exhibition at Leeds Beckett was an amazing opportunity for other staff and students to learn directly from people affected by violent conflict, Undergraduate and postgraduate students from both social sciences and arts courses visited the exhibition and made their own responses through poetry and art. At the public meeting about the project, Gordon Crawford spoke in detail about the work in Cameroon which was fascinating. Visitors to the exhibition included research leaders in the University, understanding the global impact of large research projects, especially those rooted in the affected communities. It was such an interesting week and huge thanks to Creating Safer Space!”

Prof. Rachel Julian with the Creating Safer Space exhibition

Policy Brief on Spontaneous UCP in South Sudan

The Creating Safer Space project ‘Understanding Community-level Spontaneous Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP): A Comparative Study of Initiatives in South Sudan, Myanmar and Colombia’ has published a policy brief, Spontaneous Unarmed Civilian Protection in Rumbek and Juba, South Sudan.

The policy brief is written by Luke Abbs, Flora Francis Bringi and Moses John. It explores the role of peace committiees, protection teams and religious leaders in grassroots UCP initiatives in South Sudan, and provides recommendations aimed at supporting ‘spontaneous’ UCP initiatives while keeping initiatives locally owned.


Creating Safer Space: A Celebration!

Click this link for Spanish

The Creating Safer Space network has brought together people from 70 organisations in 13 countries to better understand unarmed civilian protection and self-protection amidst violent conflict. As the network draws to a close, join us to find out more about our work, to celebrate our achievements and to look ahead!

1.00 – 2.30 pm UTC on Friday 21 February

Register for the Zoom event HERE

Programme:

  • Research Findings and Achievements: Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Nerve Macaspac, Beatriz Arias and Rachel Julian
  • Keynote Speech: Rosemary Kabaki, Head of Mission South Sudan, Nonviolent Peaceforce
  • Highlights from a selection of Creating Safer Space projects around the world
  • Reflections from the audience

Bring a local drink to celebrate!

Further information about the images on the e-flyer: