Our Projects
The Creating Safer Space network supports research projects around the world that further our understanding of Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP) and community self-protection. Read here about our projects – more are to come soon.
Scholars at Risk: Understanding vulnerability and violence faced by Myanmar refugee scholars in northern Thailand
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the political turmoil caused by the regime has...
Using multimedia approaches to increase visibility of and preference for Unarmed Civilian Protection approaches
The purpose of this project is to increase the understanding, visibility, preference for, and advocacy...
Understanding Changing Strategy and Practice of Civilian Protection Under a Military Junta: The case of Kachin and Northern Shan, Myanmar
This research studies the changing practice of UCP in Myanmar during and after the 2021...
UCP in Southern Thailand: Developing civilian protection guidelines for violence-prone communities
The conflict in the Deep South of Thailand has lasted for over 18 years, with...
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 involves 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
This research project takes a qualitative approach based on a research-action design, to explore experiences...
Safety and dignity: Enhancing unarmed civilian protection amongst Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta)
In the South Hebron Hills (Masafer Yatta) of the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) there are...
Understanding Community-level Spontaneous Unarmed Civilian Protection (UCP): A Comparative Study of Initiatives in South Sudan, Myanmar and Colombia
In recent years important research has explored how civilians engage in unarmed civilian protection (UCP)...
The Social Process of Guarantees of Antioquia, Colombia, an experience of unarmed civil protection with indigenous and peasant communities of Bajo Cauca
Within the context of the social, political and armed conflict that persists in the Bajo...
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 will investigate Early Warning as...
Community strategies for Unarmed Civilian Protection in South-West Colombia: local experiences and lessons learned
This project investigates and seeks to strengthen the extraordinary capacity of Colombian communities to navigate...
Exploring Community Perceptions and Coping Strategies on Violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar
This research sees how local ethnic groups in the Rakhine state, Myanmar, identify and cope...
Mapping and Responding to Vulnerability through Nonviolent Collective Actions in Buenaventura, Colombia
Buenaventura, Colombia has a long history of civilian resistance and collective action in the midst...
Exploring unarmed civilian self-protection in Cameroon’s Anglophone conflict
This research investigates community-led initiatives of unarmed civilian protection in the ongoing ‘Anglophone conflict’ in...
Nonviolent Artivism Against Police Brutality in Kenya
This research explores 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 seeks 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 The continuing armed conflict in Papua, Indonesia, has highlighted the...
Introducing Unarmed Civilian Protection in Thai Society: Opportunities and Challenges
While nonviolent resistance is known to the general public in Thailand, “unarmed civilian protection” is...
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 aims to focus on two issues less explored in the existing literature on...
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...
