The Creating Safer Space Exhibition was on show at the Carlos Gaviria Díaz Library of the University of Antioquia, Colombia, from 4 June – 30 July 2024. The exhibition was part of the Creating Safer Space regional workshop for Latin America, hosted by the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Antioquia.

To introduce the exhibition, we conducted three guided tours and a forum with the Corporación Jurídica Libertad (CJL). During the tours, we talked about unarmed civilian protection, community self-protection, and the role that art and non-violence play in these practices. In the forum with CJL, we discussed their research: The Social Process of Guarantees of Antioquia, Colombia, an experience of unarmed civil protection with indigenous and peasant communities of Bajo Cauca (a short film clip from CJL is available here).

Approximately fifty people participated in the tours and the forum, including twenty children from a school in Medellin who were visiting the University of Antioquia, students, and representatives of organizations such as the UNHCR and the Corporación Arlequín y los Juglares.

These were the reflections of some of the attendees:

“We are not only violated by the presence of armed actors, whether legal or illegal, but also by economies that do not care about our territories and those of us who inhabit them. To protect civilians, we must also change the conditions in which the communities live.” (Zenú indigenous woman from Antioquia)

“The creation of safer spaces does not depend on the state or the government, it depends on all of us.” (Nursing student, University of Antioquia)

“To protect yourself or others, you don’t need weapons.” (Nursing student, University of Antioquia)

“The exhibition moved me and somehow took me back in time. As I saw in the exhibition, Colombia has not been unrelated to wars and violence. I grew up in the Santo Domingo Savio, a neighborhood in Medellin, between 1990 and 2000, a time marked by violence. Although I was four years old, I clearly remember the shootings that took place. My parents could only leave the house to work or buy food. I still remember several dead bodies lying on the street, face up and bloodied. Perhaps I did not live through conflicts of the magnitude of some of the countries in the exhibition. However, it is challenging to remember these experiences and acknowledge that many lives have been profoundly affected by war”. (Nursing student, University of Antioquia)

The travelling exhibition, which has also been on show in Nairobi (Kenya), Bangkok (Thailand), Aberystwyth (Wales) and New York (USA) 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. The exhibition is available online here.

The Creating Safer Space project ‘Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills’ has published an article in Rethinking Security, Weaponising Sheep: Israeli settler colonialism in the South Hebron Hills. The article is written by project co-investigator Andrew Rigby.

While media attention has focused on devastating Israeli military raids on Jenin and Nablus and land expropriations in East Jerusalem, the article shows how a slower burning form of violence is being perpetrated by settlers against Palestinian herders in the West Bank, seeking to gain control of their land and livelihoods.

The Creating Safer Space network had the pleasure of co-organising a Protection of Civilians (POC) Week side event in New York on 23 May 2024.

The event was organised together with CIVIC, Global Protection Cluster (GPC)/UNHCR, HPG/ODI, Oxfam, Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), NORCAP, and PAX along with the Permanent Observer Mission of the African Union to the UN and the Permanent Missions of El Salvador, the Netherlands, Philippines, and South Sudan.

The event was chaired by Tiffany Easthom (Executive Director of Nonviolent Peaceforce), and speakers included Prof. Nerve Macaspac (Creating Safer Space Co-Investigator), Ambassadors from the Netherlands, El Salvador, South Sudan and the Philippines, peacemakers from South Sudan, and representatives of the African Union, ODI/HPG, MONUSCO, and other organisations.

Prof. Nerve Macaspac shared Creating Safer Space research, conducted by 26 project teams in eleven countries across three continents. Our research has found that communities and civil society organizations around the world often engage in practices of UCP without calling them such.

Our projects have uncovered and systematized a wide variety of hitherto unknown community activities and mechanisms of protection, including different forms of early warning and early response, protective accompaniment, and ways of negotiating with state officials and armed actors.

Prof. Macaspac highlighted the importance of recognizing local and community protection as an essential component of PoC; of including community protection strategies, capacities, and needs currently in place directly in the baseline of any assessment and funding decisions; and of ensuring that communities are included as decision-makers regarding how to use funding, who is involved in high-level meetings, and what protection approaches work in any given context. The full speech is available here.

We are very grateful to Gay Rosenblum-Kumar, Nonviolent Peaceforce’s Representative to the UN, as one of the main organisers of the event. A summary of the event is available here.

What do women leaders working to protect their communities from violence in South Sudan and Colombia have in common? How do we understand unarmed civilian protection from the perspective of communities living under crossfire? How has collective community work helped to confront armed actors? How do we understand self-protection beyond the physical to include an emotional perspective?

These were some of the questions addressed by the speakers who participated in the N+ Creating Safer Space Regional Workshop for Latin America. The event, organized by the Faculty of Nursing of the University of Antioquia, was held from 5-7 June 2024 in the city of Medellin, Colombia.

The main objective of the workshop was to bring together researchers and some participants of the Network’s ten projects that were carried out in Colombia. It sought to create a space for academic exchange to share research findings and to allow for a collective dialogue on plans for future collaborations to emerge.

Each of the projects participated with at least two representatives, amounting to the participation of thirty people who traveled from the United Kingdom, Argentina, the United States, and different parts of Colombia: Buenaventura, Cali, Bogotá, Caloto, San Luis, Marinilla, Palestina (Huila) and Medellín. Some of the topics explored were related to community self-protection in contexts of urban violence, the understanding of self-protection beyond the physical dimension, spirituality as a tool for self-protection, the spontaneous and unplanned dimension of unarmed civilian protection, the relationship between care and self-protection in processes of land defense, and the role of art as a creative and nonviolent strategy to confront violence.

Furthermore, attendees were also able to participate in the opening of the exhibition Creating Safer Space. This will continue to be on display at the Carlos Gaviria Díaz Library of the University of Antioquia until 30 July 2024, and guided tours are available on the first floor of the library at the following times:

• Thursday 11 July, 11:00 am: What is unarmed civil protection (UCP)?
• Friday 19 July, 11:00 am: What is community self-protection?
• Thursday 25 July, 11:00 am: The role of art in the UCP and community self-protection
• Tuesday 30 July, 11:00 am: The role of non-violence in the UCP and community self-protection

A virtual version of the exhibition is available here.

The closing of the event took place at the theatre of the Network’s partner organization, Arlequín y los Juglares (Harlequin and the Jugglers). On Friday night, a film screening was held where some audiovisual products of the Network were presented. In addition, the Arlequín theater group presented a play that highlights the importance of the Afro population in the history of Colombia.

This Regional Meeting was the last of three regional closing events held by the Network to open spaces for dialogue among the 26 projects it supported and sponsored. The Africa and Middle East event was held in Kenya in January 2024 and the Southeast Asia event in Thailand in February 2024.

The Creating Safer Space project ‘Nonviolent Artivism Against Police Brutality in Kenya’ has produced a video of a poem/song by Spontaneous the Poet, entitled ‘When a Young Blood Bleeds’.

Spontaneous the Poet, aka Rachel Akinyi, was a research assistant on the project, and the poem/song was written in remembrance of people who’ve lost their relatives to extra-judicial killings. The spoken word piece / song was performed live at the Creating Safer Space Final Event in Nairobi. It is freely available to listen to here:

The Creating Safer Space exhibition is now available online!

The travelling exhibition has previously been on show in Nairobi (Kenya), Bangkok (Thailand), Aberystwyth (Wales), New York (USA) and Medellín (Colombia), and it will soon travel to Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). It is also now available online in the form of a navigable 360° virtual tour.

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.

We have a new Films Online section on our website, with films produced by Creating Safer Space projects available to watch for free:

Let the rivers be for life! explores water conflicts around the rivers La Paloma (Argelia), Santo Domingo (San Francisco) and Dormilón (San Luis) in Colombia.

Civil protection to stay on our land documents the experience of Palestinian farmers and shepherds with civil protection in the South Hebron Hills.

La Fiesta is the recording of a theatre production performed by Harlequin and the Jugglers. It underscores the transformative power of art in communities affected by urban violence.

Caring for community life tells the story of how the Senú indigenous people in Colombia have been organizing to resist armed groups and to remain in their ancestral territories.

Ramadan, Faith, Relationships, Peace explores the impact of the conflict in southern Thailand on Malay Muslims, and their struggle to express their own identity and culture.

When a young blood bleeds is a song/poem about extra-judicial killings in Kenya, produced by Spontaneous the Poet.

Minga explores the history and meaning of a community-based socio-cultural and political practice known as Minga, an indigenous form of protest and resistance in Colombia.

More films will come in the next few months.

The Creating Safer Space project ‘UCP in Southern Thailand: Developing civilian protection guidelines for violence-prone communities’ has produced a short film, which explores the impact of the conflict in southern Thailand on Malay Muslims, and their struggle to express their own identity and culture. The film is freely available here:

The Creating Safer Space network has published a new working paper, “Exploring Unarmed Civilian Self-Protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone Conflict”. The Working Paper is written by Gordon Crawford, Nancy Annan, James Kiven Kewir, Atim Evenye Niger-Thomas, Bernard Nsaidzedze Sakah and Zonziwoh Mbondgulo-Wondieh.

The working paper presents the findings of the Creating Safer Space project, “Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict”.

It explores the unarmed civilian self-protection measures taken by individuals and communities who live in the midst of ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon’s two English-speaking regions. This conflict has received limited attention and support from regional and international actors, and civilians have found their own ways to protect themselves from violence. The researchers have uncovered a wide array of informal and innovative grassroots measures of community self-protection. The team used participatory art-based methods of data collection, and many of the poems and drawings produced by the research participants illustrate the wider findings in the working paper.

We welcome proposals for the Creating Safer Space Working Paper Series. Please contact creating-safer-space@aber.ac.uk if you are interested in publishing a working paper with us.

The Creating Safer Space exhibition was on display inside the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 29 April – 3 May, at the Delegates’ Entrance.

The exhibition includes objects, images, and voices from Creating Safer Space research projects, and explores the unexpected power of nonviolence in the protection of civilians living in the midst of violence.

Prof. Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Prof. Rachel Julian and Prof. Nerve Macaspac accompanied the exhibition, and informed UN delegates, UN staff, and other interested stakeholders about Creating Safer Space research. They shared the Creating Safer Space policy briefs on the potential role of Unarmed Civilian Protection in the Protection of Civilians (PoC) and other publications from Creating Safer Space projects.

Visitors described the exhibition as timely and important, and some raised personal reflections on the artwork. A member of a UN mission from a country in Africa remarked that the use of whistles as a method of early warning and early response, as illustrated by our exhibition material from Cameroon and South Sudan, was also used in their own country – and this practice had once saved their life.

An exhibition event was held on Tuesday 30 April for members of UN missions and other interested parties, with drinks, food and introductory speeches. Prof. Arlene Tickner, Ambassador of the Colombian Mission to the UN in New York, highlighted that, “[o]ne of the most fascinating things about this project, I think, is not only its work with communities affected by violence, but also the insistence on nonviolent mechanisms of protection and self protection to accompany civilians in contexts of violence and conflict”. Prof. Berit Bliesemann de Guevara highlighted how Creating Safer Space research across 11 countries has shown that we can find community-level unarmed civilian protection everywhere. Civilians are not just victims waiting to be saved by strangers – they are protectors in their own right – and these nonviolent protection strategies work in making people safer across a range of different violent contexts.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations, for being our official sponsor, for all their help in making the week a success, and for enabling us to bring community voices from around the world to this global centre of power.