September 2005

Coordinator :
Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente (MAN)
114 rue de Vaugirard – 75006 PARIS – France
tel : 0033 (0)1 45 44 48 25
manco@free.fr - http://manco.free.fr
Civil Peace Intervention

Definition
Civil intervention is unarmed intervention in an area of local conflict. It consists of implementing missions mandated by an intergovernmental organisation (OSCE, UN), governmental or nongovernmental organisation (NGO). The missions may carry out observation, information, interposition, mediation, cooperation or training work suited to the situation, with the aim of reducing and if possible putting a stop to violence, in order to create the conditions for a political resolution of the conflict.


Taking both sides : Civil intervention missions do not try to be "neutral", at least not in the etymological sense of the word, which is "neither one nor the other". The mandate of a peace mission aims at -if not reconciling- at least at conciliating the parties involved in a conflict. It is not to take sides with "neither of the two" adversaries, but to take sides with both. But this double commitment is never unconditional : it is always undertaken with discernment and in a spirit of fairness. The need to respect human rights and democratic conditions is always stated.


Context
For over 20 years, NGOs have been testing civil intervention missions. They are proving to be workable solutions when diplomatic efforts have failed and military action is impossible or inadequate. Sending unarmed, objective and impartial civilian personnel to a conflict zone cannot be assimilated to a "declaration of war" by the belligerents. Civil intervention missions can strengthen the role and the influence of those members of the civil society who are seeking a political solution to the conflict in which they are embroiled. Their action usually completes that of the NGOs giving emergency and development aid.


Goal
Up to now, civil intervention missions have been carried out only within the framework of NGOs whose means and goals are inevitably very limited. The Civil Peace Intervention aims at creating the right political, social and financial conditions to enable civil intervention missions to be organised and provided with all the funding they need to deal with emergencies arising in many parts of the world.
By training teams of "reservists", the idea is to supply programmes for preventing crises and rebuilding peace with qualified, specialised personnel.


Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente
(MAN)



The MAN (Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente) is a non-profit association composed of some twenty local branches situated all over France, with a national secretariat, based in Paris, which implements decisions made by a coordinating committee. Founded in 1974, it is a forum for exchanging ideas on non-violence and suggestions for non-violent actions to resolve conflicts.

The MAN aims to put forward the specific contribution of non-violence in everyday life, education and social and political fights. The MAN wants to promote the principles and the methods of non-violent strategy, to support a positive resolution of the interpersonal, intercommunity or international conflicts. By thinking, acting and training, the MAN thus seeks to promote justice and freedom.

Non-violence does not only mean refusing to resort to violence but also (and above all) combating violent situations and actions by using other means, which do not endanger the lives or the dignity of human beings, to resolve conflicts.


The MAN prepares a program of analysis and experimentation on the questions of violence and security in urban areas. Besides, it has taken part in several joint campaigns aimed at controlling arms sales and abolishing nuclear weapons, in particular. Lastly, the MAN helps to promote non-violence through education and the promotion of citizenship, as educating people in non-violence entails developing in youth a culture of non-violence based on positive actions. It is a member of the steering committee for the international decade for a culture of peace and non-violence for the children of the world.


In response to the increasing number of solicitations, the MAN offers trainings designed for non-profit and socio-educational actors. A professional network named IFMANs was created to answer to this demand.

Finally, the MAN took the initiative to create the "French Committee for Peace Civil Intervention" (Committee ICP) : a collective of NGOs, associations and movements of the civil society working on international solidarity and non-violent resolution of the conflicts.



Force won’t be the answer to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.





Looking at the escalation of violence in the Middle East, the MAN decided to act more closely with local Israeli and Palestinian peace actors and help with the political resolution of the conflict. After some years of reflection and a visit to Israel-Palestine, we decided to launch a campaign in 2004.

The objective of the campaign “Israel-Palestine : towards an international civil intervention force” is to decrease the level of violence, to protect civilian populations, to create a space for mediation between the two communities and therefore to contribute to the conditions for a political resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the deployment of an international civil intervention force.

This civil intervention force would take into account both Israeli and Palestinian concerns in its principles and acts. This solidarity with the two communities must blacklist any form of violence and encourage dialogue, along side the work of all the peace makers who have already refused the logic of violence. Made up of unarmed volunteers, the international civil intervention force will have the mission to reinforce the conditions for dialogue between civil societies by mediation activities, to observe respect for human rights and to protect the Israeli and Palestinian peace organisations.

In order to have this force created, the MAN and its partners in France, in other European countries and in the Middle East, aim this campaign at the European Union. Initially, we are asking the European Union to do a feasibility study on conditions for creating an international civil intervention force in Israel and in Palestine. Then we are asking the European Union to set up all means necessary for creating and sending the civil intervention force, mandated by an international organisation and made up of unarmed volunteers.





With this campaign people can :

- Order the campaign documents and disseminate them in their network
- Write cards to their political representatives, government and institutions, demanding the deployment of an international civil intervention force
- Apply for a training and a personal involvement on the ground



List of campaign partners

In France :
Coordinator : Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-violente (MAN)
Partners : Association Palestine 45 ; Coordination de l'Action Non-violente de l'Arche de Lanza del Vasto (CANVA) ; Les Casques Bleus Citoyens ; Mouvement contre le Racisme et pour l'Amitié entre les Peuples (MRAP) ; Mouvement de l'Objection de conscience (MOC) ; Pax Christi-France ; Secours Catholique/Caritas France ; Union Générale des Etudiants de Palestine (GUPS)

Support : Abnah Philistine, Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture (ACAT), Assemblée Européenne des Citoyens (AEC) ; Civimed Initiatives ; Le Collectif Faty Koumba : association des libertés, droits de l’homme et non-violence ; Collectif judéo-arabe et citoyen pour la Paix ; Cultivons la Paix ; Ecole de la Paix ; Equipes de paix dans les Balkans (EpB) ; Femmes en Noir – Paris ; Femmes en Noir – Isère ; Institut de recherche sur la résolution non-violente des conflits (IRNC) ; Mouvement de la paix ; Mouvement pour le désarmement, la paix et la liberté (MDPL) ; Service Civil International - Branche Française ; Solidaires des Israéliens contre l'occupation (SICO)

In Italy :
Coordinators : 5 individual members of 4 different organizations
Partners : ARCI-Milan ; Centro Studi Sereno Regis ; Operazione Colomba (Ass. Papa Giovanni XXIII) ; Rete dei Corpi Civili di Pace ; Berretti Bianchi ; Movimento Nonviolento ; MIR ; Donne in Nero di Padova ; Donne in Nero di Alba ; Antica come le montagne ; SCI Gruppo Sardegna ; Gruppo Abele ; Rete Lilliput Nodo Val Sangone ; Arci-Uisp "a.benetti" Massa ; Beati i costruttori di pace ; Libera: associazioni, nomi e numeri contro le mafie ; Donne in nero di Bologna ; Rivista Qualevita ; Convenzione permanente di donne contro le guerre ; SCI Servizio Civile Internazionale ; Associazione Casa per la Pace di Milano ; Rete Lilliput nodo di Pesaro ; Associazione per la Pace ; Centro Studi Difesa Civile ; Centro Gandhi di Pisa ; Quaderni Satyagraha ; Rete Radiè Resh ; Azione Nonviolenta ; Donne in Nero di Napoli ; ITACA ; Rete Lilliput nodo di Bologna ; gruppo Jagerstatter ; CIE - Centro d’Iniziativa per l’Europa ; Donne in Nero di Gubbio ; Comitato internazionale 8 marzo

In Spain :
Partners : Paz y trabajo ; Mouvement de l'Arche Espagnole ; Ahimsa ; NOVA, Centre per a la Innovacio Social

In the rest of Europe :
Association pour l'étude, la promotion et le respect de la non-militarisation et de la démilitarisation (APRED) (Switzerland) ; Centre pour l'action non-violente (Switzerland) ; Netherlands Expertise Centre Alternatives to Violence (NEAG) (Holland) ; Friedensbüro Graz (Austria) ; Université de la paix (Belgium)
+ Official support from the European Network for Civil Peace Services (EN.CPS)

On the international/global level :
Christian Peacemaker Team (USA) ; International Peacebuilders (USA)

In Israel and Palestine :
Arab Educational Institute (Palestine) ; Arik Institute for Reconciliation and Peace (Israel); Bustan (Israel); Center for reconciliation and conflict resolution (CCRR) (Palestine) ; International Palestinian Youth League (IPYL) (Palestine) ; Jerusalem Center for women (JCW) (Palestine) ; Library on wheels for Nonviolence and Peace (LOWNP) (Palestine) New Profile (Israel); One Voice – Palestine (Israel-Palestine) ; Wi'am (Palestine).
Celebrity support
The campaign " Israel-Palestine : towards an international civil intervention force " is glad to have the support of the following persons :
In France :
- AUBERT Marie-Hélène, member of the European Parliament, former Vice-Président of the French Parliament.
- AURENCHE Guy, Président of FIACAT (Fédération Internationale de l’Action des Chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture), lawyer
- BIDART-REYDET Danielle, former Senator
- BRAUMAN Rony, former president of MSF (Doctors without Border) ; professor at the Political Sciences Institut of Paris
- DE BOLLARDIERE Simone, widow of the General De Bollardiere
- DUFFE Bruno-Marie, former director of the Human Rights Institut in Lyon
- HERITIER Françoise, anthropologist, emeritus professor at the " Collège de France "
- HESSEL Stéphane, former French ambassador to the United Nations
- LONCLE François, French deputy
- MELLON Christian, Jesuit priest, former general secretary of " Justice et paix – France "
- Monseigneur GAILLOT, bishop
- Monseigneur MAUPU, bishop of Verdun, President of " Justice et Paix – France "
- MORIN Edgar, sociologist
- NORMAND Dominique, town councillor (Green)
- QUELQUEJEU Bernard, Dominican theologian
- ROUX François, lawyer
- SEMELIN Jacques, historian, research director at the CNRS

In Italy :
- CIOTTI Don Luigi, founder member of Abele Group ; president of “Libera”
- MENAPACE Lidia, journalist, supporter of the movement of women against war
- MANCINI Roberto, philosopher, University professor
- GIUDICI Roberto, trade unionist FIOM Milano
- REVELLI Marco, writer, University professor
- DALL’OLIO Tonio, former coordinator of Pax Christi Italy
- SALVARANI Brunetto, pedagogue, director of Centro educazione mondialità
- PECORELLI Marina, cooperation project manager at ARCI Milano
- MORGANTINI Luisa, Member of the European Parliament
- BIZZOTTO don Albino, founder member of “Beati i costruttori di Pace”
In Israel and Palestine :
- AVNERY Ury, Gush Shalom spokesman
- KHOURY Saman, Palestinian signer of the Geneva Accords ; coordinator of the Palestinian coalition for peace
- NUSSEIBEH Sari, director of the University of Jerusalem ; initiator of the appeal : " The people’s voice "
- YASSIEN Hussein, Palestinian signer of the Geneva Accords , member of the Palestinian coalition for peace

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