Konrad Tempel / Helga Tempel / Liz Law October 6th 2003
Guiding Principles for Civil Peace Services
1 General Intention of CPS Teams Work
2 Operating Details
1 Mission Statement of CPS Teams Work
1 The general intention is to promote Civil Peace Services (CPS) as an instrument of nonviolent conflict transformation within grassroots and medium levels of society.
CPS teams stand for long-term peacebuilding as well as medium to long-term civilian (non-military) conflict intervention and prevention. CPS teams give non-partisan help to conflicting parties seeking assistance in transforming violent conflicts non-violently.
CPS teams work in a pragmatic and constructive way for a culture of peace, for dialogue between peoples, religions and individuals, for the support of democracy and for the respect of human rights thus strengthening structures of civil society.
2 We are aware of the complexity of social conflicts and of the limitations of third party involvement. We know that realistic and sustainable solutions often need long-term endeavours. Therefore we regard our engagement and intervention as part of long-term processes towards better understanding and cooperation. We refrain from aiming at quick visible results.
3 We wish to assist the conflict parties to achieve their own common goals nonviolently. Therefore we refrain from suggesting or imposing our own favourite ideas for handling the conflict to the parties. In addition we are aware of differing political and religious views of people involved with EN.CPS and are determined to avoid missionary-like attitudes.
2 Operating Details
1 Actual Field Projects
- in general:
1.1 We primarily intend to empower people to work towards nonviolent conflict transformation and to promote dialogue between all groups of society
1.2 We are aware of the relevance of emancipatory aspects of peace-building and try to avoid mere technical ways of handling conflicts
- goals and methods:
1.3 We carefully explore and consider regional cultural, economical and political conditions for our work
1.4 We will roughly outline specific steps and goals at the beginning, when we are working in the field with our local partners we will formulate these more exactly
1.5 We choose multi ethnic approaches, where appropriate
1.6 1.6 We are looking for the common needs and wishes of people in conflict and intend to encourage and support cooperation via common interests
1.7 We agree on clear rules for internal and external cooperation and make these rules available to those concerned
1.8 We guarantee quick exchange of relevant information and strengthen media contacts in conjunction with the responsible organisation
1.9 We document our work as agreed before and provide any detail which is needed in the office of the responsible organisation
- precautions:
1.10 We care for the safety of our local teams and staff members
1.11 We have procedures in place in event of an outbreak of violence or continuing violent struggles
2 Responsible Organisations
2.1 We work on the basis of humanitarian concern and human rights focus
2.2 We provide the financial prerequisites by private and public sponsors and try to increase support by encouraging sympathizers
2.3 We provide appropriate management, structures, manpower
2.4 We care for effective work, for instance through regional coordinators
2.5 We work strictly independently in agreement with partner organisations
2.6 We handle our internal management according to the rules in the field of conflict and work by consensus, not through hierarchy
2.7 We strive to raise the profile CPS through publications, consultations, media contacts, by spreading case studies, success stories and other appropriate methods
3 Teams
3.1 We work in international or at least in bi-national teams, only exceptionally as individuals
3.2 We include local activists in planning and implementing our work, whenever possible
3.3 We live with the people we are assisting, whenever possible, and try to avoid a siege mentality
3.4 We strive to build and to maintain trust
3.5 We insist on highly skilled workers in conflict transformation and take care to increase the capacity of local staff to carry out work themselves
3.6 We encourage continuous learning for all people involved
3.7 We provide supervision, whenever possible
3.8 We wish to be good listeners and to understand even unexpressed feelings, wishes and thoughts, language development is emphasised
3.9 We will take care that everybodies' philosophy of life and everybodies' faith is respected and will guard that such views neither directly nor indirectly are inflicted upon others
4 Local Partnership
4.1 We support every party which commits itself to deal nonviolently with the conflict, with respect for the other side and the will to be in dialogue
4.2 We respect gender and cultural diversities
4.3 We estimate the values and cultural rites of our partners
4.4 We try to avoid hierarchic approaches
4.5 We offer paid and unpaid work to local staff, where necessary and possible
5 Relevant Field Organisations + Institutions
5.1 We wish to include experience and expertise of development and relief agencies, of human rights groups and other civil initiatives and to try to cooperate on all levels, where appropriate
5.2 We understand our work as part of multitrack endeavours to promote dialogue and cooperation and to transform conflicts
5.3 We build Peace Alliances with others, whenever possible, respecting the wishes of our local partners
6 Working Process
6.1 We think in categories of process and joint learning and are not primarily&Mac226;running a project and look at the project as a means not an end goal
6.2 We therefore welcome even tiny and inconspicuous signs of development instead of mainly struggling for visible presentable results
6.3 We want to work purposively and effectively, yet we know that unexpected side issues and unintended consequences can be extremely influential and even lead to exceeding planned effects, we watch the “do no harm” rule
6.4 Running a process means for us to be sensitive to different dimensions of our work and to be flexible to adjust our attitudes and behaviour to plan according to new circumstances and new insights
7 Transparency + Accountability
7.1 We work as openly and transparently as possible on all levels, except in cases where confidentiality is necessary to protect lives and the integrity of local partners
7.2 We feel accountable to all private and public promoters and sponsors of CPS work and prepare and publish regular reports