IASC Weekly (NY and GVA): 'Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping' - what's next?
New York
Participants in New York: Conference Room S-2725BR is located on the 27th floor in the UN Secretariat building. A UN ID card is required to enter the UN Secretariat. Participants in Geneva: The Room XXII is on the first Floor in the E Building. Enter the Palais des Nations through Door 40 and walk down. Room XXII is on your left side.
How can civilians in situations of violent conflict, such as in South Sudan, Philippines or Myanmar, be protected? How can 'unarmed civilian peacekeeping' contribute to increased protection? The organisation 'Nonviolent Peaceforce' (NP) promotes, develops and implements 'unarmed civilian peacekeeping' (UCP) to protect civilians in these situations. NP envisions that this method "using proven nonviolent strategies, is recognised as a viable alternative in preventing, addressing, and mitigating violent conflicts worldwide." (NP website)The UN Secretary General's Report on the Protection of Civilians (S/2012/376) states that non-governmental organisations also play a long-established and key role in the protection of civilians. But what is UCP, how does it work in practice and how effective is it? How does it link to other notions of 'peacekeeping' and 'protection'? And what are some next steps? The IASC Secretariat is pleased to host this event, providing a space to discuss and better understand this concept from those who have applied it in situations like South Sudan, Mindanao and Myanmar. We are pleased to welcome the following panellists from Nonviolent Peaceforce.
Rolfe Carriere, Senior Advisor (joins in GVA) Atif Hameed, International Programme Director and former Country Director in the Philippines (joins in GVA) Tiffany Easthom, Country Director South Sudan (joins in NY) Mel Duncan, Founding Director (joins in NY)
The panellists will discuss the following: Introduction to Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping (UCP) The role of this work in cease-fire monitoring with examples from Mindanao and Myanmar Protecting civilians in Jonglei Next steps for UCP, including an e-learning course