I. Campaign in Europe
a. European meeting of NP and ENCPS in Rumania
b. Partnership project with NP
c. Irak training project


II. Link with the Middle-East
a. Training for French volunteers on the campaign
b. Campaign coordinators mission to the Middle-East
c. Link with local Israeli and Palestinian organizations


III. European lobbying
a. Analyzis work
b. Strategic planning
c. Meeting with MEPs





Documents attached :
- Minutes from the meeting in Rumania
- Letter for the volunteers’s training
- Presentation of the campaign coordinators’trip to Middle-East
- MEND description
- LOWNP project description
- List of partners
- D.Hammerstein mission report

I. Campaign in Europe
a) European meeting of NP and ENCPS in Rumania
In April 2005 the annual meeting of Nonviolent Peaceforce-Europe and EN.CPS (European Network for Civil Peace Services) took place in Roumania. Ariane RENDU represented MAN and had the chance to do a short presentation of the campaign.
Some 40 representatives of european NGOs participated to the meeting. Some of these NGOs were already partners of the campaign.

ENC.PS decided to support officially the campaign (although its members will have to give their own position on the campaign, in order to have their names put on the campaign documents).

Individual contacts were made after the meeting, with PATRIR (Roumania), NOVA (Catalunia, new partner), Forum ZFD (Germany) and the Norwegian Peace Association (Norway).

Enclosed the minutes of the meeting in Roumania.


b) Partnership project with NP
Within a Middle-East working group, Nonviolent Peaceforce is investigating the possibility of sending a nonviolent peaceforce to Israel and Palestine. Ariane is part of this working group and shared he campaign with the other members.
A NP consultant spent 3 months in Israel and Palestine to evaluate the need and the faisability of sending such a force. She wrote a report which will be the basis for further discussions.

MAN would like NP to become a strong partner of the campaign to give a more international orientation and make a stronger lobbying to the European Union and UN. In order to have NP as partner, an official request will be made to the NP-IGC (International Governing Council).
If the partnership is accepted, the european NP staff could contribute in defining a better lobbying strategy to the european institutions and help building the project.

The European Mos (Member Organizations) and the European representatives of the IGC are invited to give their support to this MAN-NP partnership proposition

c) Irak training project
Following the World Social Forum in Porto Allegre, in January 2005, a several NGOs started working together on a project of nonviolence training to Iraqi NGOs who asked for it. MAN, with NOVA (Catalunia) and Un Ponte per... (Italy) are working together to set up a training, which should start in December 2005 in Jordan.

NOVA asked the Catalan Development Agency for a grant on this project which also includes the campaign (funding its mission to Israel-Palestine in November 2005)


II. Link with the Middle-East
a) Training for French volunteers on the campaign
During the last campaign meeting, in Aprile 2005, we decided to train more volunteers on the campaign. Those people should be activists in MAN or in the partner-organizations. After the training they will be able to represent the campaign on the local and regional level (in France) : meeting with political representatives, contact with the media, conferences etc.).

This training would be organized in 3 times :
- a training week-end (presentation of the campaign, simulation games, analyzis of the current political situation etc. ) – sept/oct 2005
- a trip to Israel-Palestine (meeting with local partners, experimenting civil peace intervention) – oct/nov 2005
- a “feedback” weekend (impressions, suggestions, perspectives) – dec 2005

This training session is open to 10 people maximum. Funding is not covered : people interested will have to ask their NGO/local group or ask for institutional grants individually.

See letter for the volunteers’s training enclosed

b) Campaign coordinators mission to the Middle-East
In order to keep uptodate with the current political and social situation in the Middle East and in order to redefine the campaign according to it, a mission to Israel-Palestine will be organized for the campaign coordinators in the beginning of November 2005.

Participants will be : 2 to 3 French coordinators of the campaign (MAN + other), 1 Italian partner, 1 NOVA partner (who submitted the grant request) and 1 or 2 European Members of Parliament.

Programm : it is planned to meet with local organizations (partners or not) and political Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Contacts have to be made.

See presentation of the campaign coordinators’trip to Middle-East enclosed

c) Link with local Israeli and Palestinian organizations
Contacts are taking place with local organizations, not yet partners.

Example :
- Nonviolence Middle East and Democracy (MEND) : not yet partner but interested
See their description enclosed
- Library on Wheels for Nonviolence and Peace (LOWNP) : new partner
See their project presentation enclosed

However keeping in touch with local partners with the distance is not an easy task. Both trips to Israel-Palestine will certainly help keeping the contact with stronger links and try to answer their needs as best as possible.

See list of the partners enclosed.


III. European lobbying
a) Analyzis work
A trainee is working for MAN on a analyzis of the European institutions and their position towards conflit resolution and towards Israel-Palestine.
A report on each aspect will be made to let everyone know about it and better understand.

b) Strategic planning
Following the in-depth analyzis of political position of the European Union, a lobbying strategy will be made and will allow targeting the right institutions, the right people according to European Union evolution on the civil intervention sector.

The support of the NP staff in Brussel would be in that sense very useful in the definition and follow-up of the lobbying strategy

c) Meeting with MEPs
In order to follow up our first lobbying step towards the European Parliament, started in December 2004, we should meet the MEPs interested by the campaign next September in Brussel.
For now 4 MEPs from Spain, England, Italy and Tcheque Republic showed their interest.

One of them David Hammerstein (Spain) went to Israel-Palestine last February.
See its mission report enclosed


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