- Peace Brigades International – Deutscher Zweig (PBI) e.V. [German Chapter]
Nicola Busse, Coordinator of National Secretary PBI Germany
Christoph Klotz, Ref. Public Relations PBI Germany
Hohenesch 72
D-22765 Hamburg
Tel. 0049-(0)40-380 69 03
Fax. 0049-(0)40-386 94 17
Email pbiger@shalom.life.de
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Christoph Klotz, Hamburg About Peace Brigades International
- Peace Brigades International (PBI) uses and encourages nonviolent action for justice in the Gandhian tradition. An international non-governmental organization, PBI is not affiliated with any political, religious, social or cultural group. PBI is non-partisan, or in other words, the organization is committed to justice and truth, not to a political group or ideology.
PBI was founded in 1981 at a conference held at Grindstone Island, Ontario, Canada. Since then we have had human rights observation projects in Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, North America, Colombia and Haiti.
Since 1982, Central America has been one of PBI's main Focuses. An exploratory team, which traveled throughout Central America in 1982 and again in 1983, recommended that a "peace team" be placed in Guatemala to take advantage of the military government's announced "political opening" of March 1983. A PBI project in El Salvador began in June 1987. The initial invitation came from the Lutheran church and CDHES (El Salvadoran Non-governmental Human Rights Commission), an organization of families of the disappeared. Through 1991 the team provided an international presence for those organizations and trade unions, refugees and indigenous people working for social change through nonviolent means.
Peace and human rights education became an important part of the work in both Guatemala and El Salvador. As a result of the changing needs brought about by the signing of the peace accords in 1992, PBI decided to withdraw its permanent team from El Salvador, although PBI representatives continue to visit the country regularly to evaluate the situation and possible future work there.
In 1989 a PBI team was placed in Sri Lanka in response to a request from the Sri Lankan Bar Association. Based in the capital, Colombo, the SL team provided protective accompaniment for human rights lawyers, Buddhist monks and Catholic religious leaders working for peace and justice, trade union activists, and election monitors.
The North America Project, established in 1991, has maintained short term presences in several Native Communities in the eastern United States and Canada, including Maliotenam, near Sept-Iles, Quebec, and Davis Inlet, Labrador. It has also offered workshops in conflict resolution and nonviolence to Human Rights Watches in communities across Canada and in Native communities within the United States.
In response to requests from several human rights and religious organizations, PBI sent an exploratory team to Colombia in 1993. In the fall of 1994, we began a permanent presence in two regions of the country: Bogota, and Barrancabermeja, and in 1998, added a third sub-team in Turbo. Until the end of 1999 PBI will establish a fourth team in Medellín.
The teams accompany human rights groups addressing issues of military impunity as well as populations displaced by the violence.
The Haiti Project grew out of our experience with the Cry for Justice coalition, in which we coordinated the training of 70 accompaniment volunteers who maintained a presence there during some of the worst months of military rule. We installed a team in Haiti in 1995, in order to continue to monitor a very fragile and vulnerable transition period. Since then the team's role has Focused increasingly on training groups and communities, when invited, in conflict resolution. Most recently, they have begun to train Haitian trainers to develop and facilitate workshops themselves.
The Mexico Project will field a team of veteran PBI volunteers in 1999. By 2000, the project will seek new volunteers. It Focuses most on the situation in the Federal States of Guerrero and Oaxaca, where PBI recieved requests for accompaniment from human rights, campesino, women and indigenous organizations.
In January, PBI received an urgent written requests from two organizations, Yayasan HAK, a legal aid society that focuses on human rights advocacy and education) and FOKUPERS (a women's human rights group) in East Timor to establish a presence in the territory. East Timorese activists seek assistance from PBI in four major areas, 1) international accompaniment of community organizers and human rights activists, 2) fostering peaceful dialogue and reconciliation among conflicting parties, 3) international monitoring and reporting and 4) peace education programs. PBI is on the way to field a team of 8-12 staff in East Timor/Indonesia.
Volunteers must not participate in any way in the activities of local organizations during their term of service. Although we often provide human rights observation at rallies, demonstrations, etc., we do not take part in them.
PBI´s organizational structure
One of PBI's strengths is its international diversity. This diversity is also a challenge; we have to embrace many different perspectives, languages, cultures, expectations and ideologies, and we must communicate over long distances. It can be frustrating and also rewarding.
The General Assembly meets every three years and is responsible for overall policies and direction of PBL. Delegates come from around the world representing other bodies within PBI- teams and committees, country groups and affiliated individuals.
The International Council, which currently has ten members (10), performs this responsibility between meetings of the Assembly.
The International Office in London is responsible for coordinating and developing PBI's programs worldwide, facilitation of communication to and from the Council and other bodies and publication of the annual report.
The 10 is coordinated by the International Secretary.
Each Project has a Project Committee, collectively responsible for project policy. Members are actively working on projects in their area. Each Project Office is staffed by a Project Coordinator, and is responsible for coordinating the project, including scheduling volunteers, budgeting and financial management and information sharing.
Seventeen countries, including Germany and 12 other European countries, but also the United States, Australia and Canada, have country groups. The country groups disseminate information about the projects, raise funds and recruit and train potential volunteers.
Returned volunteers usually get involved in their country group.
Country groups, responsible for building political support for the Project work, set up an Emergency Response Network (ERN), which is a telephone tree of activists, returned volunteers and PBI supporters, including governmental representatives.
When a PBI team or someone we work with is threatened or violated, the Team or Project Office activates the ERN. Hundreds of telegrams, telexes, faxes, letters and phone calls are received by the government of the Project country or other relevant party. This international pressure serves to lessen the threat.
The Project Teams are made up of volunteers from many countries who divide the work according to their skills, interests and the current needs. Terms of service on a team differ. Generally, teams ask for a minimum commitment of six months to one year. The North America Project always works on a short-term basis, and especially needs people who can be available for service on short notice.
What do we look for in volunteers?
Some of the qualities, experience and skills that have proven helpful for volunteers are:
- A clear understanding of and commitment to nonviolence.
- Language skills.
The Latin America projects live and work in Spanish. The North America Team uses English and French; knowledge of Native languages is an asset. The Haiti team for example operates in French and volunteers take intensive classes in Creole upon arrival. Similarly, the Balkans Peace Team uses English, internally, but volunteers study Serbo-Croatian. In the case of the East-Timor-project team members will necessarily have to learn Indonesian language. They will have to speak fluently English, and knowledge in Portugiese, Indonesian or Tetu language as second language.
PBI requires volunteers to speak the working language of the team they hope to join.
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Citation Christoph Klotz, About Peace Brigades International. In: Trauma Research Newsletter 1, Hamburg Institute for Social Research, July, 2000.
URL http://www.TraumaResearch.net/net1/forum1/peace.htm
Copyright © 2000, Christoph Klotz and trauma newsletter, all rights reserved. This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author and the trauma newsletter. For other permission questions, please contact via email the editor Cornelia_Berens@his-online.de
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