[Landing page for making April 17 UCP Day. We need a definition of ucp, quotes and statistics about it, list of resources, names and logos of cosponsors, and an agenda for April 17. ]

Unarmed security calls safety a human right, whereas armed security makes it a strength contest. 

“The evidence that accompaniment and UCP does in fact reduce violence should compel actors who are concerned with alleviating human suffering to involve themselves more heavily in this field of work.” -Birkeland

“The positive impact that UCP has achieved has been thoroughly documented… (Schirch, 2006; Schweitzer, 2009; Nonviolent Peaceforce, 2010, Mahoney and Eguren, 1997).  …It is worthy to note the wide distribution, including implementation of projects on six continents.” -Janzen 

Conflict is inevitable; violence isn’t. The solutions to conflict lie with local people. “We keep us safe.” 

“Unarmed civilian protection goes beyond mere protecting, but supports local actors to build peace themselves. Real peace, Mahmoud stressed, always grows from the bottom up…. Unarmed civilian protection involves unearthing and realizing the capacity, knowledge and power of the communities that are directly involved in conflict.” -Hewitt

“UCP and accompaniment save lives every day. We have seen how the protection officers in South Sudan have prevented rapes of women fetching firewood. We have seen that many people have been rescued because of an early warning, early response mechanism put in place by Nonviolent Peaceforce, also in South Sudan.” -Birkeland

UCP doesn’t condemn security personnel, it offers strategic advances. Growing evidence shows constructive security methods outperform destructive ones. 

“One might argue that the threat or use of violence is the only thing that can deter conflicting parties from resorting to violence. Experience has shown, however, that unarmed civilian peacekeepers in some cases can protect civilians and prevent violence more efficiently than military peacekeepers can.” -Birkeland 

“The kind of local ownership UCP depends on is essential for a robust and sustained peace as opposed to a fleeting and fragile one. Much of traditional peacekeeping has been pried from its natural place within grassroots peacebuilding, reduced to an external force that strains to impose a frozen peace from the outside and is itself dependent on outsiders.” -Hewitt

Military personnel experience some of the highest suicide rates of any group. Armed methods can traumatize both user and receiver, while unarmed methods can heal both. 

“[UCP] has been touted as ‘the next generation of peacekeeping’ (Tshiband, 2010) and has been showcased as ‘transforming the world’s response to conflict’ (Nonviolent Peaceforce, 2014a) because it is effective.” -Janzen

“The commitment and sacrifice that peacekeepers show tell the perpetrators that the peacekeepers are there to stay and they will not be scared away. The identity of peacekeepers is an important source of power. Depending on the context, the identity of religious leaders, elders, women, those who are “insider partial” or “outsider impartial” may have a tension reducing effect.” -Birkeland 

If violence is “human nature,” why does it traumatize us? Peace doesn’t. That’s where unarmed security comes in. –from Kazu Haga

“[Humanitarian] organizations distribute medicine, offer health services, provide education, provide sources of clean water, teach families about nutrition, and support human rights activists…. In the same way, humanitarian actors should employ the tools they know will reduce violence against civilians in conflict areas…. Civilian peacekeeping stands out by its emphasis on reducing direct violence. ” -Birkeland

“In total, 35 countries and regions have engaged UCP missions, by a total of 50 organizations since 1990.… The data suggest that UCP has grown in the past 24 years in many ways: in quantity of organizations, in growth within organizations, and in geographic proliferation.” -Janzen

UCP gets to the roots of violence. Armed security often focuses on exterminating offenders, not accountability or healing. Extermination holds no one accountable. 

In UCP, “humanity is revealed to be not the property of one side or another, nor something that must be imported from outside.” -Janzen

“PDG (Peace and Democracy Group) Butere consists of 18 members from different groups of the community: Hutus, Tutsis, Twa, Christians, Muslims, men and women. The group is – according to its own members – seen to be impartial, which makes them able to connect with the different sides in the current conflict.” -Birkeland

Unarmed security rests on transparency, armed security on deception. In the 21st century, deception makes less and less sense…. No group is safe until all are safe.

“Actions civilian peacekeepers may take include conveying contact between stakeholders; informing about human rights and international humanitarian law to prevent abuse and crimes; sounding the alarm to the diplomatic community about imminent crimes or refugee crises; rumor control; and accompanying specific vulnerable groups.” -Birkeland 

“Benefits included protection from murder, rape, and injury due to the presence of unarmed civilian peacekeepers. The benefits were further described by ability of the human rights workers to carry out their critical work in conditions that would have otherwise been impossibly unsafe.” -Janzen

With UCP, all sides win. No one must degrade their opponent or act against their own values. UCP prevents harm without harming. 

“There is nothing new or surprising about using unarmed civilians to do peacekeeping as such. Parents, teachers, social workers, and community leaders have been successfully intervening to stop violent behavior and to protect children and adults from hurting each other from time immemorial.” – Nonviolent Peaceforce

“The protective effects of the presence of civilian peacekeepers can be regarded as twofold: Firstly, it limits the ability to inflict violence…. Secondly, the presence of peacekeepers increases the space for civilian action…. By the protection that derives from their presence, peacekeepers increase the space in which civilians can operate; the local population may act in ways that would otherwise be too risky.” -Birkeland

Providing weapons to this or that group doesn’t reduce violence. We wouldn’t treat poison in our eyes by putting poison in our mouths. 

“Violent civilian deaths in war far outnumber military deaths…. How and why does civilian peacekeeping prevent violence? It works through a number of nonviolent means and sources of power, which for different reasons cause the violent perpetrators to refrain from violence.” -Janzen

“Relationship building, capacity building, dialogue facilitation, establishment of early warning, early response mechanisms, rumor control, and other efforts that mutually support each other, reduce human suffering and create a space for local civilians to work to ensure their own peaceful futures. The sum of these activities is what has been called unarmed civilian protection.” -Birkeland

Stronger weapons may always be invented, but nothing stronger than compassion may be invented. The largest armies can lose the field, while UCPs can increase safety.

While facing risks similar to armed personnel, UCPs stay much safer. Studies have shown fatalities of UCPs are around 14 times lower than those of armed U.N. peacekeepers, “0.2% compared to 2.8%.” This challenges notions that being more armed makes one safer. -from Janzen

“We have seen how protection officers from Nonviolent Peaceforce were able to protect women in South Sudan in a way in which UN soldiers could not. UCP addresses all of the four pillars of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda: Prevention, protection, participation, and peacebuilding and recovery.  …UCP is an efficient and effective approach to support the participation of local women particularly, and civil society in general, in peace and security measures.” -Birkeland 

Even the most surgical drone strike can’t subdue our enemies. For each one killed, many more are created. –from General Stanley McChrystal 

“Whereas traditional peacekeeping operations, best known as United Nations Blue Helmets, seek to reduce violence through the implicit or explicit threat of using violence or military force against those who do not comply, unarmed civilian peacekeepers utilize nonviolent strategies to influence parties to refrain from violence.” -Janzen

UCP practices have led to “41-73% drops in shootings and killings in Cure Violence zones.”   Cure Violence reports similar reductions of violence and changes of norms in numerous studies across five continents. See: https://cureviolence.org/results/impactworldregions/

Rocks shaped like apples aren’t edible; security shaped like weapons isn’t safe. UCP helps all sides meet their needs without violence.   

 “A main reason for public reticence in supporting UCP was the belief unarmed peacekeeping was too dangerous – more dangerous than traditional peacekeeping as UCP staff have no weapons for protection… [In fact,] the fatality rate for UN peacekeeping mission staff is more than twelve times as high as for UCP front line staff.” -Janzen

“As for UN peacekeeping missions there has been a slight increase in female military personnel, but the numbers are still very low: From one percent in the early 1990s, to currently three percent. UCP and accompaniment… are in a completely different league. In Peace Brigades International, 64% of volunteers are women. In Nonviolent Peaceforce the number is 43%.” -Birkeland

World peace doesn’t mean “no conflicts,” but “nonviolence is how we solve conflicts.” Our future’s either nonviolent or nonexistent. –from Martin Luther King, Jr.

“UCP has grown significantly since 1990, as evidenced by widening geographical presence and growth of UCP organizations. Additionally, while there have been injuries and fatalities, the rate is lower than for traditional military peacekeeping.” -Nonviolent Peaceforce

“Unarmed civilian protection has been included in 23 UN and UN-related policies, recommendations, and resolutions have recognized unarmed approaches for the protection of civilians… A massive scale up of unarmed civilian protection is needed.” UCP is “more cost-effective and more likely to assist local civil society organizations to build long lasting peace.” -Nonviolent Peaceforce

What is UCP?

The Effectiveness of UCP:

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