Civil Peace Services in Europe: an overview

Germany

Germany was probably the first country in Europe where the concept of a Civil Peace Service took root. Nowadays, Civil Peace Service is a program funded by the German Ministry of Development. The main NGO organising Civil Peace Service is Forum CPS.

In Germany, the development of a Civil Peace Service (“Ziviler Friedensdienst”) started in 1991 with a declaration (1) and subsequent work of the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg (2). A round of written interviews, done by the church in early 1992, helped spread the idea of NGOs belonging to the peace movement. The Federation for Social Defence, an umbrella of peace organisations founded in 1989, took the concept and developed its own version of it. In 1994 there were two concepts of Civil Peace Service, one by the Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg, the other by the Federation of Social Defence. They were very closely related. The main difference (3) lay in the question of recruitment: While the Church wanted the CPS to be set up as part of the military conscription system (4), the peace groups rejected that concept and demanded a pure volunteer system of recruitment (5). But the political orientation, goals, fields of activities, emphasis on training and funding were practically the same, and therefore can be described together:

The Civil Peace Service as envisaged at that time, was characterised by the following elements:

• Conflict intervention in crisis areas abroad (monitoring, mediation, being a presence, accompaniment of returning refugees, education/training, de-escalation of violence);

• Prevention of criminal violence (with reference to the Neighbourhood Safety projects in the US), and of racist/right wing violence in Germany;

• Providing the personal and logistical basis for Civilian-based Defence in Germany if needed.

• The Civil Peace Service was meant as a large-scale enterprise. The Federation for Social Defence spoke of a pool of 100,000 people within 20 years, the Church of a reserve of tenth of thousands within 4 years.

• There was to be a one-year basic training for everyone, and the Federation for Social Defence developed a curriculum for it.

• The CPS was to be exclusively funded by the Federal State.

• The organisation of CPS was not clear. The peace groups stressed its subsidiary quality, meaning that it should be at least mainly NGOs implementing CPS, while the Church remained unclear in this regard.

In outline, the subsequent developments were the following: out of an open working group at the Federation for Social Defence, a new umbrella organisation was founded, the Forum Civil Peace Service. The Forum has existed since 1994, and became legally an NGO in 1996. The Protestant Church in Berlin-Brandenburg slowly stopped its engagement when the Bishop changed, and a prominent leader, Professor Theodor Ebert, left the Board of the Church.

The middle of the 90’s saw, on the one hand, a strong concentration on the training aspect - up to the point when many supporters of the CPS considered CPS to be primarily a one-year training (6) leaving possible work in the field to the side. On the other hand, there was a short time (actually some months between December 1995 and perhaps May 1996) when there seemed to be a political opening for getting support for CPS projects in the countries of former Yugoslavia. A joint initiative by Members of Parliament of all major parties in the CPS led to hectic discussions and planning among different organisations and groups. This initiative, known as starting phase CPS (Startphase Ziviler Friedensdienst) failed in the end (7), leaving behind only the experience of co-operation between the Forum CPS and the Protestant Umbrella of Peace Services in Germany (AGDF-Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden). This experience lead to further co-operation in the later development of a training course.

Another outcome of this Startphase was the building of the Consortium Civilian Peace Service in which the Peace Services are were cooperating with the Development Organisations on behalf of civilian conflict resolution, and which proved an important factor when the Civil Peace Service was installed as an instrument of development work later.

Parallel to these developments, the Protestant peace service organisations in the umbrella “Aktionsgemeinschaft Dienst für den Frieden” started to discuss the future of their work, and came up with the definition of a Peace Expert Service (Friedensfachdienst in German) for qualified conflict work, distinguishing it from more participant-/volunteer-centered peace services(8).

The next step was marked by the interest of one German State, North-Rhine Westphalia, in supporting training for conflict resolution. Accepting the argument that civil conflict resolution in crisis areas (specifically in Yugoslavia where the State put in a lot of money) was important, and that it needed experts trained in conflict resolution to be effective in this field, it started to sponsor a four to five month training in non-violent conflict resolution for peace experts. The courses were run together by the Forum CPS and the mentioned AGDF with three of their member organisations: the Federation for Social Defence, the Ecumenical Service in the Conciliatory Process and the Kurve Wustrow, a long-established training organisation. Only Forum and the Federation for Social Defence considered these courses part of Civil Peace Service, the other three rejected that concept vehemently (9). Until now (Autumn, 2000) there have been six such courses, each with between 10 and 16 participants, partly people preparing to work in projects abroad, partly members of NGOs from other countries preparing for work at home. The international composition of the courses is an explicit objective of the organisers who strongly believe that the international character furthers the goals of the education. The courses consist of a basic curriculum of about 12 weeks, two one-week specialisations (e.g. in trauma work, civil society building and mediation), and - if needed - an intensive language course provided by a development organisation. The basic curriculum deals with issues like conflict analysis, working in a team, conflict resolution techniques, dealing with stress and trauma etc.

When in 1998 the conservative Christian-Democrat - Liberal coalition lost the elections and a new coalition of Social-Democrats and Green Party took over the Federal government, new avenues of political support opened up. The new government has started a program called Civil Peace Service that is based at the Ministry for Development, funding projects of conflict resolution abroad as well as preparation/training for such projects, and also becoming a co-founder of the North-Rhine-Westphalian course. Additionally, also the Foreign Ministry is funding projects on Conflict Prevention. The total budget in 1999 was 5 Mil DM, in 2000 17,5 Mil and in 2001 18,4 Mil DEM in the budget of the Ministry for Development (10). In 2000, there were additionally 28,6 Mio DEM for the training for OSCE personnel and Support for international activities in the fields of crisis prevention, maintaining peace and dealing with conflict” (11).

The Ministry of Development sees the CPS within the framework of development co-operation. The distinctive criteria is that the main objective of the CPS is to “support the non-violent dealing with conflict and conflict potentials” (12). Tasks of the CPS are defined as:

• support of peace potentials, confidence building measures, education (on peace activities and reduction of prejudices);

• conflict mediation (between members of interest groups, ethnic groups and religions), human rights monitoring, democracy development;

• contributions to reconciliation and reconstruction (including reconstruction of administrative structures on the local level);

The activities are based on the criteria developed for development aid like subsidiarity, principle of the least intervention and “help to help yourself”. Co-operation and acceptance with/by local partners are necessary to achieve sustainability. (13)

Applications for projects may be submitted by the six recognised development services (see above) plus the Forum CPS and the umbrella of (Protestant) peace services (AGDF). But only the six development services may deploy people in the field, which leads to the strange situation that the members of Forum CPS and AGDF then have to get the co-operation of one of these six organisations in order to place their personnel. (14)

The situation now is that there are projects funded under the program of CPS by the Ministry of Development, as well as other projects of CPS and/or conflict resolution that are called CPS without being financed by this Ministry. They usually are done under the umbrella of the Forum CPS and have a close connection to the training course, drawing their personnel from the course. There has been at least one project that was rejected - another training course, organised by the religious “Ecumenical Service”. Another problem that is criticised by participating NGOs is that projects financed by the Ministry of Development have to be approved by the German Foreign Ministry (15).

The majority of the projects carried out by peace organisations (among them the Forum CPS, Pax Christi and IFOR German branch) take place in the countries of former Yugoslavia - which is not surprising given the attention these conflicts have found in Western Europe over the last ten years. There are usually between one and three persons working in a project, sometimes Germans, sometimes internationals who participated in the course and got funding for their own work via a German organisation, sometimes a mixture of both. The Forum CPS, as well as some of the other organisations, put great emphasis on creating international teams but really multi-national teams as, for example, Peace Brigades International and Balkan Peace Team have. are yet to be created. Gender parity in the teams is another goal, and one that seems easier to fulfil. The projects mainly deal with: resettlement of refugees to Bosnia (16), trauma work (16), community dialogue (17), youth work (18) and conflict resolution training (19). They all either work on invitation of local partners, or at least have made it their policy to find local partners once they arrived in the field. (The strict rule in development work, only to operate with a local partner, seems sometimes difficult to fulfil.)

The projects financed by the Ministry of Development show a different regional distribution (20):

• Africa south of Sahara: 28 projects, 20 peace experts

• Southeast Europe: 21 projects, 18 peace experts

• Latin America: 20 projects, 15 peace experts”

• Middle East: 7 projects, 5 peace experts

• Asia: 7 projects, 3 peace experts

The peace experts in the projects have contracts for two years, have all usual social insurances, and receive the same salary as other development workers do.

The before-mentioned training course that was started by North-Rhine-Westphalia is meant to continue into the future, but suffers from some structural weaknesses. The main weakness of the course is that finding participants is a constant problem. One of the conditions of the government for funding the course is that participants must already have a contract with a development or another project organisation (21). But most development services (with the exception of EIRENE) prefer to send their people to their own, well-established preparative courses, and the Foreign Ministry also has preferred to set up its own two-week course for “Civil Peace Personnel” as they call it (22). All argue that the longer course is not specific enough for their purpose, and/or that they only hire people who already bring the knowledge with them that is taught at the course. The other weakness is that, because of the kind of funding (every year the state decides anew whether to fund one or two courses), it has not yet been possible to hire permanent staff to do the training. Until 2000 each training was done by a different team of two trainers. Then two teams got employed part-time. This situation hopefully will continue in 2001 although, every year the two public sponsors decide at the last moment whether they will give money or not. More serious is that it becomes more and more difficult to find enough participants.

Originally, the Forum CPS had considered striving for a special CPS-law comparable to the law for development workers. (According to the law the volunteers receive social insurance, re-integration help and unemployment benefits and are paid on a subsistence base.) In practical terms, this goal is not pursued very actively at the moment. And there are now also voices counselling against such a law because it might mean that the government would use the opportunity to reduce the social provisions made for development workers (23).

To sum up: The political openings in regard to state support and funding, as well as an accompanying intensive discussion about possibilities and limitations of peace team work, led to reshaping the concept of the CPS. Without the former concepts ever becoming formally void, the German CPS nowadays is something quite different from the early concept (24). Instead of planning for large numbers of volunteers, it now is a service of experts (“Friedensfachdienst”), the personnel being more comparable to those working in development services than to volunteers in the traditional peace services. In practical terms, it is also concentrating almost exclusively on conflict intervention in other countries, because that is where funding is to be found. (Although there is now also a Forum-initiative for an anti-violence project in Eastern Germany.) The people sent abroad under the CPS-program of the Ministry of Development are considered later to become a pool from which also OSCE and other international organisations might draw personnel (25).

Switzerland

In Switzerland a Coalition for a Civil Peace Service has been formed (26) and which has launched a referendum for the introduction of a Civil Peace Service. After the collection of sufficient signatures, the referendum (27) itself will take place at the end of 2001 or in 2002 (28).

The concept of the Swiss CPS is modelled on the German one (29). The basic goal of the CPS is to organise “unarmed, non-violent peace missions on request of non-governmental organisations, state institutions or international organisations. It thereby closely co-operates with the local organisations.” (30) The CPS is envisioned as a voluntary service of men and women of all ages, funded with public funds in the state budget. The implementation of the CPS, as well as a specific education and formation is to be handled by NGOs. A basic education in conflict transformation skills of 20 days (or 160 lessons) is intended to be free of charge and open for all people living in Switzerland. CPS deployments shall be possible both in Switzerland and abroad; people working for the CPS will have to undergo an additional preparation, and they are meant to be compensated for their work. There is no direct relationship to military service, but working with CPS should be recognised as an alternative to civilian or military service. Total annual costs for CPS are estimated as 90 Mil Francs (ca. 50 Mil US$)(31).

There have been no real pilot projects until recently, but many groups in Switzerland have been involved in volunteer peace services and doing nonviolence trainings in general. In April 2001, two leading organisations in the Coalition, the Group for a Switzerland Without an Army (GSoA)(32) and Service Civil International, have started a volunteer project in Kosovo which is modelled on the example of the earlier social reconstruction project in Pakrac/Croatia. (Which was much supported by GSoA.) Three long-term volunteers have been sent to Vushtrri to work with children and youth, specifically those who have been displaced (33), to be joined later by more shorter-term volunteers.

Netherlands

On reception of the “Agenda for Peace” by the former UN General Secretary Boutros-Ghali in 1992, the National Council of Peace Organisations has developed an “Agenda for Peace Operations” (34) to clarify the role NGOs could play in peace operations. This paper then gave the initiative to the foundation of “Burger Vredesteams” (BVTN) by the National Council of Peace Organisations (LBVO). BVTN does not have formal members, but is supported by most LBVO groups - mainly church-based peace groups, Women for Peace, PBI and others. Civil Peace Teams is now concentrating solely on training (35).

After a first consultation (with international guests) the discussion soon moved away from the deployment of actual teams, and towards organising training (36), while lobbying continued. First, a one year course was developed in co-operation with a Dutch Vocational University. But, when the initiative started to negotiate with the government for funds for the course, they found that no one was interested enough in the idea to give it financial support. The Ministry of Defence indicated that they could use shorter courses of four to six weeks. This proposal strengthened support for the already existing idea to cut shorter modules out of the one-year curriculum. Eventually a first four-week course was conceived and held in November-December 2000 (37). This course with the title “Dealing with Conflict” took place with 15 participants. It was a co-operation of BVTN and a Christian Vocational University and was meant for adult people (over 23) who work or will be working in a conflict area abroad or in the Netherlands. Participants came partly from the military and partly from peace groups. BVTN did not manage to find participants from NGOs working in conflict areas (38). The third week was an internship with different groups in the Netherlands. The content of the course was: diagnosis and analysis of conflict, how to cope with emotions (in the conflict and one’s own), cultural differences and non-violent conflict handling.

France

The starting point for the French Civil Peace Service has been a volunteer law that was passed in 1995. Under this law, there is the possibility of sending “volunteers for international solidarity” work abroad.

The law (39) - decree more exactly - makes provision for French or other EU citizens who want to work abroad with a French organisation (which needs to be recognised by the state as an organisation under this decree) to have some social security for the time of the service. Volunteers have to be between 18 and 30 years old, and go abroad for a time span between 1 and 6 years. The state pays social insurance (health, life, accident, maternity, professional illness for the volunteer and his/her dependants, as well as repatriation insurance in case of illness). The sending organisations have to provide training, living expenses, travel and third-party insurance. In 1998, there were about 2.000 volunteers covered by this decree (40).

Making use of this decree, several peace and development organisations (41) came together to form a “Steering Committee Civil Peace Service” to advocate for the Civil Peace Service to be recognised under the law. After some lobbying, they eventually managed to achieve this goal , although the term peace does not appear in the official documents - “peace” is reserved for what the French army does… (42)

The goal of the French CPS is to undertake missions of non-violent civil intervention, including activities like monitoring, information, interpositioning, mediation and co-operation with local groups (43). It is meant to have a duration of 9-24 months including training. A developing reserve corps is envisaged for future deployments.

At the moment, there are two pilot projects (44) under way: One in co-operation with Peace Brigades International in Haiti, the other with the Balkan Peace Team in Kosovo. For the latter, MAN, one of the constituents of the Charter, has founded an extra “French Balkan Peace Team” (EPB). When BPT dissolved at the beginning of 2001, EPB decided to go ahead by itself, and place perhaps three volunteers with different Kosovan organisations in the divided town of Mitrovica (Kosovo). The first volunteers have taken up work in autumn 2001. The pilot projects are both fighting with the problem of finances as well as with finding suitable volunteers (45).

One of the two elements of the CPS is a training that is organised by an organisation (IFMAN) close to MAN. Originally devised as a 30-day course (now reduced to 20 days) stretched over five months in order to allow participants to attend it while working. It is open for everyone interested; there is no prior selection procedure. Still the organisers had a lot of problems finding enough participants for the first course which had to be postponed once because of lack of interested trainees. At the first training (46), in Spring, 2000 there were 12 participants (47). Subjects of the training are: non-violence (4 days stretched over 3 meetings), non-violent conflict resolution (9 days in two meetings), handling difficult situations (3x3 days), political and cultural issues (5 days), evaluation skills (3 days)(48). In 2001, another training of again three stages, of 1-2 weeks each, is under way.

Austria

The Austrian Peace Services are also a member of the European Network for Civil Peace Services. But, they are somewhat distinctive compared to the hitherto presented initiatives because they are, up to now, primarily staffed by young men who are COs and choose a peace service abroad instead of regular civil service.

Austrian Peace Services was founded as an association in 1993, with the Austrian FOR as one of its primary initiators. It offers voluntary and unpaid positions of usually 14 months in projects in the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro at the moment; there have also been projects in Albania and Slovenia). For men who are COs the 14 month service is recognised as an alternative to civilian service. Because of this, the majority of volunteers are COs. They have the additional advantage that their work is financed by the Austrian Ministry of Interior. Nevertheless, the project tries to encourage women to become volunteers, although they have to be financed by other sources (donations, womens’ groups, churches, Ministry for Environment, Youth and Family). Until the beginning of 2000 there had been 79 men and 16 women doing the service, 10 to 12 at the same time (49). At the moment (December 2000), there are eleven civil peace servants (50).

Austrian Peace Services distinguish four types of projects: human rights and peacebuilding; youth and social work; support of higher education (at the universities of Sarajevo and Podgorica); womens solidarity (51). The volunteers are placed with local projects that they support through their work (52). The volunteers are offered a four week training, including subjects like conflict, role of volunteers, psychological consequences of war, history and present situation in the Balkans and a few days of language training (53). The training is divided in two blocs and held in Croatia; in between, the volunteers do a one-week internship in their future project.

Recently, Austrian Peace Services has started to discuss broadening the spectrum of its projects, and to include a more qualified professional Peace Expert Service at the side of the existing projects where the learning experience of the volunteers themselves is the primary motive. The impulse for this discussion probably was as much a spill-over from the above described discussion in the German peace services as the assumption that conscription will be probably abolished in a few years (54). For both kinds of services the name “Civil Peace Service” is now used. As a “voluntary peace service” the service is meant to be about one year long. The emphasis is to rely on co-operation of the volunteer in existing projects and peace organisations. The participants are to attend a longer training that would enable them to work directly on conflict transformation (55). The CPS is expected to be supported by the state, but carried out by a plural number of NGOs. Austrian Peace Services proposes institutionalisation as a foundation would take care of the funding, and demands a law on peace services.

Besides the projects abroad, Austrian Peace Services also aims at establishing an Austrian component (community, region or national).

At the moment, ÖFD suffers from the restrictive policy of the new Austrian government in regard to alternative service, which means that it faces serious funding problems for its future work.

Italy

Two Italian organisations, the Associazione per la Pace and the Centro Studi Defesa Civile are members of the European Network for Civil Peace Services.

Since the reformed law of conscientious objection and civilian service in 1998 has recognised the possibility of a service abroad, there are several NGOs who make use of this provision to send missions to the Balkans, staffed by Conscientious Objectors doing their alternative service (56). Their work is mainly about technical and humanitarian aid, but there have been a few projects with some relationship to conflict transformation.

Some organisations, specifically both of those mentioned above, aim at the institutionalisation of White Helmets at the UN or OSCE, and also work for the creation of a Women Peace Corps which would supplement the work of the COs.

In regard to training, there is a lot going on in Italy. For example the Peace University at Rovereto offers basic courses in conflict transformation of one week, and international courses (in English) of two weeks. The Centro Studi Difesa Civile has developed a one-year curriculum for a masters’ degree. The first course is meant to begin in autumn/winter, 2001.

Britain

In Britain, the hitherto most recent initiative for a Civil Peace developed in 2001 when it was realised that a British project was needed in addition to seeking support for Nonviolent Peaceforce in Europe. Under the name of Peaceworkers UK, the goal of the organisation is to win support from government, private funders and the British peace movement for a British Civilian Peace Service. There are only bare outlines of the project yet, but it seems that Peaceworkers UK, like the Dutch coalition, might concentrate on providing training, hoping that the people trained would then find work abroad with international governmental or NGO missions (57).

European Civilian Peace Corps (initiative at European Parliament, 1995*)

Starting out as an initiative of the late South Tirolean politician and activist Alexander Langer, there was in the middle of the 1990s an attempt to find support for a European Civil Peace Corps at the European Parliament, co-ordinated by Ernest Gülcher, a former assistant to Alexander Langer.

The idea was to establish a European Peace Corps for conflict interventions in crisis areas. It took up the so-called “Bourlanges/Martin-report” adopted by the European Parliament on May 17th, 1995 in Strasbourg that states: “a first step towards a contribution to conflict prevention could be the establishment of a European Civil Peace Corps (including conscientious objectors) with training of monitors, mediators and specialists in conflict resolution” (58).

The first proposal spoke of a standing force of 1.000 people (300-400 professionals and 600-700 volunteers) in the starting phase that could be expanded later. Its personnel would consist of specialists in peace, human rights and development co-operation work, humanitarian aid specialists, and people coming from administration, judicature and police. The ECPC is meant to be an official body, set up by the EU and functioning under the auspices of the EU. It would draw its legitimisation from a mandate by the United Nations or the OSCE (59).

Its tasks would be monitoring, prevention of violence, strengthening dialogue and confidence building, mediation, negotiation with local authorities, facilitation of the return of refugees and the like (60).

In 1995/1996 a task force group was set up which met several times and discussed pilot projects in Vukovar (Eastern Slavonia) and Kosovo among other things. Members of the Task Force included personalities like Arno Truger (Stadt Schlaining) and Alberto l’Abate besides representatives of the Quakers, EBCO, PBI and different members and assistants of the European Parliament.

Nothing came of the pilot projects, but the work in the European Parliament continued. In 1999, the European Parliament decided on a recommendation to the Council to establish an ECPC, and mandated the Commission to produce a pilot study. The political discussion of a new European Foreign and Security Policy including strengthened civilian participation overlapped the work on behalf of ECPC At this point, it is not too clear whether the concept of the ECPC will be part of this political stream, or be drowned in the complexities of European administration, and whether it might correspond with the idea of Civil Peace Services as a clear instrument of NGOs (61).

European Network for Civil Peace Services

The European Network for Civil Peace Services (EN.CPS) was formally founded in 1999, but there were meetings as early as 1997 and 1998. Participants in the Network (which does not have formal members) are at present: Oesterreichische Friedensdienste (Austrian Peace Services; Comité de Gestion du Service de Paix (France, an umbrella of several groups, among them Mouvement pour une alternative noviolente); Independent Society Human Rights in Georgia (Georgia)(62); several German groups: Forum Civil Peace Service (Germany)(63), Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (64), Living Without Armament (Ohne Rüstung Leben)(65); Foundation for Human Rights and Peace Education (Hungary), Associazione per la Pace and Centro Studi Difesa Civile (both Italy), Norwegian Peace Centre (66), Groupe for a Switzerland Without an Army (GSoA), Foundation Civil Peace Teams (Stichting Burger Vredes Teams, Netherlands) and as new members Peaceworkers UK. In addition, usually several guests participate. At the last meeting, there were e.g. a representative of Azione Noviolenza (Italy) and Bund für Soziale Verteidigung (Federation for Social Defence) Germany. The co-ordinator of the Network, Janne Poort van-Eeden, is a staff person at IFOR.

There is no budget for En.CPS and few agreed principles on which co-operation is based. The only joint project so far - besides annual meetings which are hosted by participating organisations in turn - has been participation in the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office, a lobbying office seated in Brussels, and run together by civil conflict transformation organisations. In the future, there might be co-operation between some organisations having staff in Kosovo, with the objective of placing a joint funding application with the European Commission.

The EN.CPS has a website and the addresses of the participants and associated groups can be found there.

Notes

• (1) : “Stellungnahme der Kirchenleitung der Evangelischen Kirche in Berlin-Brandenburg zur Frage des zivilen Friedensdienstes (15.10.1991), in: Ziviler Friedensdienst. Reader zum Hearing am 26.2.1994 im Haus der Kirche (Berlin)

• (2) : Explanation: In Germany there are only two major churches, the Roman-Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. The latter is organised in regional branches comparable, if not identical, to the political States. They are an important political factor, wielding considerable influence with the governments at all levels.

• (3) : There are a few others as well, e.g. regarding the time allowed for setting up the CPS.

• (4) : In Germany all men are subject to conscription. Whoever refuses military service out of ethical reasons (CO) is allowed to do an alternative Civil Service. (A term also in German sounding very similar to Civilian Peace Service.). The concept of the Church was that conscripts would be allowed to choose between military service and CPS, while the right to CO would continue to exist. Additionally, the CPS would be open to women and ‘other social groups’. (Civilian Peace Service. Operational Units for a Policy of Non-violent Means. Declaration by the Executive of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg of July 8, 1994, regarding a Civilian Peace Service. Concept translated from German by Hans Sinn.

• (5) : Ziviler Friedensdienst. Ein Konzept des Bundes für Soziale Verteidigung, April 1994

• (6) : “Ausbildungsplan für die Freiwilligen des Zivilen Friedensdienstes (ZFD)", written by: Kurt Südmersen, Helga Tempel and Konrad Tempel, ed. ForumCPS, Minden 1996

• (7) : The main reason for its failing was the lack of support by the Ministry of Development, then in the hands of Minister Spranger from the CSU-the more rightwing Bavarian sister party of the Christian Democrats. The Ministry argued that Development Services have dealt with conflicts all along, and that there was no need for a new type of service.

• (8) : Usually three or four kinds of peace services are distinguished: “Social Peace Services” which mainly serve the personal growth of the - young - participants, and concentrate on social work; “Expert Peace Services” where the focus is on the conflict resolution work, not on the learning experience of the participants and where people usually are professionals not volunteers paid on a subsistence base, and Development Services concentrating on creating just structures. Sometimes a fourth group, so-called ‘qualified volunteer services’ are distinguished as something in between the first two.

Sources: Müller / Berndt 1998 and the paper “Friedensdienste und Friedensarbeit unterstützen und qualifizieren”- written by a working group of the Protestant Church in Germany in 1996;

Evers 1996; Ropers 1999.

• (9) : This conflict had mainly to do with the old conflict about conscription and CPS - it took the CPS a long while to get rid of its flavour of being related to conscription or even a general compulsory service although it was mainly one person- the before-mentioned Theodor Ebert -holding up this element.

• (10) : BMZ 2001:4

• (11) : MdB Winfried Nachtwei, “Gewaltvorbeugung konkret: Unterstützung internationaler Maßnahmen der Krisenprävention und Friedenserhaltung durch die Bundesregierung”, Berlin 16.10.00, source: www.muenster.org/gal/nachtwei. The other years, the budget has been similar.

• (12) : There has been quite a discussion on the role of development services, and their relationship to conflict work. The starting points were that the development services hold the position that they had always dealt with conflict, while the CPS representatives assumed that the CPS had special goals and tasks that need specifically trained personnel and should be looked at as a new instrument of peace work. I think that without over-simplification it can be said that these two positions got much closer when actual comparison of the work set in. See for example: “Entwicklungsdienst-Friedensdienst 1996 and Ropers 1999

• (13) : Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung, “Ziviler Friedensdienst - Ein neues Element der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (Rahmenkonzept)", Bonn, 9.6.1999 (printed in Evers 2000:358 ff)

• (14) : Until now (November 2000) 45 projects with 78 staff persons have been granted. The majority of them are carried out by the traditional development services (Dienste in Übersee , Deutscher Entwicklungsdienst, Weltfriedensdienst). A few are carried out by EIRENE, and some others by the Forum CPS or its partner organisations using the Catholic “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Entwicklungshilfe-AGEH” as the formal project organisation. (There are only 6 recognised development services, and only these 6 may receive funds under the CPS program by the Ministry of Development. The Forum CPS is not one of them and therefore had to build a co-operation with the AGEH.) Source: internal information by the Ministry of Development.

• (15) : BMZ 2000: 10

• (16) : Pax Christi in Zenica/BiH and Benkovac/Croatia, IFOR in Bosanska Dubica/BiH. For this work as well as the following see: “Friedensfachdienst ist machbar!” (ca 1999)

• (17) : Forum CPS in Kosovo

• (18) : Forum CPS in Kosovo, Friedenskreis Halle in Jaice/BiH, Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights Osijek which has deployed five multiethnic peace teams to communities in Eastern Slavonia

• (19) : Friedenskreis Halle inJaice/BiH, Forum CPS in Kosovo

• (20) : An initiative started by the Kurve Wustrow but now being independent in Sarajevo/BiH

• (21) : BMZ 2001:6

• (22) : If participation were open for individuals, probably no problem of finding participants would arise. There is enough interest in the course to fill it with people ready to pay for it themselves. Source: verbal information by the former Co-ordinator of the course, Martin Zint.

• (23) : At the moment, these courses are directly organised by the Ministry. There is a plan to hand training and administration of this personnel over to a private organisation -which one has not yet been decided. (Source: verbal information by VLR Martin Fleischer at the annual meeting of the ‘Plattform Zivile Konfliktbearbeitung’, 23-24.11.00 in Iserlohn.)

• (24) : There are two possibilities of improving the situation of the Peace Experts, one is to have a new law covering the special needs of these peace workers, and another is to get the Peace Services (i.e. ForumCPS and AGDF) acknowledged as a special sort of Development Organisation, which would mean that they could send out personnel on their own similar to the Development Services. Finding out that the politicians don’t want to get involved in such details, the Forum decided not to insist on these alterations during the next two years of this present government.

• (25) : But I think it would be a wrong picture to think that this development was caused only by external pressure. It might be correct to say that the external pressure speeded up evaluations of present peace team projects, discussions on length and quality of services, of skills needed to do conflict resolution, and the need to pay personnel if qualified personnel was desired.

• (26) : Rahmenkonzept of the BMZ, a.a.O.

• (27) : Interessengemeinschaft Ziviler Friedensdienst, Berchtoldstr. 5, Ch-3012 Bern.

• (28) : The Swiss referendum system works as follows: Within a certain time frame 100,000 signatures are needed. After they are handed in, the State must organise a referendum - usually two to three years later. Here more than 50 % of the votes are necessary for the referendum to pass. The government is then forced to make the decision of the referendum a law.

• (29) : Members of the coalition are among others terre des hommes, Centre Martin Luther King, SCI, Schweizerischer Friedensrat, Group for a Switzerland without an Army, several party - and other youth organisations and the Schweizerisches Arbeiterhilfswerk.

• (30) : “Argumentarium: Für einen freiwilligen Zivilen Friedensdienst”, ed. GSoA, without date (ca. 1998)

• (31) : Proposed new Art. 8bis, paragraph 6, according to the Text of the GSOA Initiative for a Civil Peace Service. Source: internet (www.gsoa.ch/europe.solidarit.htm); Leitbild für einen freiwilligen Zivilen Friedensdienst (ZFD), Arbeitspapier der IG ZFD, November 1999

• (32) : For the basic education open for every person in Switzerland 35 Mio Francs and for the additional preparation for deployments 12 Mio f(or estimated 1.200 participants per year); for 100 people deployed ca. 36 Mio Francs. 5 Mio are administration costs.

• (33) : The GSoA was founded in 1982. It first became known by organising and winning astonishing support for a referendum on the abolition of the Swiss army. The referendum, which took place in 1989, got 35.6% agreement from Swiss voters. Almost ten years later, in 1997, GSoA, started a new double initiative: simultaneously, it collected signatures for the introduction of a Civil Peace Service and, again, for the abolition of the Swiss army. They managed to get about 110,000 signatures for each of them - the one for the CPS some 3.000 more than the other one (According to gsoa zitig No 83, source: www.gsoa.ch/zeitung/83/14.html ).

• (34) : Medienmitteilung: Eine Brücke der Solidarität: Freiwilligeneinsatz im Kosovo, 10.4.2001.

• (35) : Dated October 1994

• (36) : I have to thank Bart Horeman from BVTN for additions and corrections to an earlier draft of the description of the Dutch project.

• (37) : The following description is taken from the “Third Quarterly Report about the Civil peace Teams the Netherlands (BVTN), 15.10.2000, Janne Poort-van Eeden.

• (38) : Fourth Quarterly Report on the Civil Peace Teams in the Netherlands (BVTN), February 17, 2001.

• (39) : Information from Bart Horeman (e-mail communication, 16.07.01)

• (40) : Décret No 95-94 of the 30th January, 1995.

• (41) : Compte rendu de la réunion du Comité de Gestion Service Civil de Paix du 21 Janvier 1998.

• (42) : Signers of the Charta are: Comité Catholoque contra la Faim et pour le Développement (CCFD), Coordination de l’Action non-violent de l’Arche de Lanza del Vasto (CANVA), Délégation Catholique pour la Coopération (DCC), Institut de recherche sur la Résolution Non-violente des Conflits (IRNC), Mouvement pour une Alternative Non-Violente (MAN), Pax Christi and Les Verts. (Charte du service civil de paix).

• (43) : Verbal information by Christian Brunier of MAN.

• (44) : According to the Charta.

• (45) : It still needs to be confirmed that there are only two.

• (46) : See minutes of the Balkan Peace Team General Assembly, 18.-19.11.2000 in Bonn

• (47) : The next training took place in Spring 2001.

• (48) : None of whom, incidentally, was interested or suitable for work with Balkan Peace Team which was the reason why the deployment of a French BPT team had to be postponed for one year. Verbal information by Bertrand de Villeneuve and Christian Brunier of MAN.

• (49) : “Interventions civiles non-violentes. Formation des volontaires. Projet (15 octobre 1998)”.

• (50) : Marion Thurswald, “Friedensdienst ist Frauensache”, in: FriedensDienste Nr. 1/00, p. 3-5

• (51) : “Report Austrian Peace Services (ÖFD)", December 2000.

• (52) : Goals of the CPS are listed as: prevention of violence, search for possibilities for the ending of violent conflicts, and for sustainable solutions for all conflict parties; (re)constitution of peaceful situations (material and social reconstruction, a functioning community and society, reconciliation); support and co-operation with people and groups who work at the place of conflict for these goals.

• (53) : For example again the Osijek Peace Teams where also German ‘Peace Experts’ have been placed.

• (54) : “Programm der ÖFD-Ausbildung, Sommer 1999”, in: FriedensDienste 98/99, p. 27.

• (55) : Thurswald a.a.O.

• (56) : “Ziviler Friedensdienst. Vorrang für zivile Konfliktbearbeitung. Ein Konzept der Oesterreichischen Friedensdienste”, Steyr 1999, p. 4.

Austrian Peace Services is going? to offer an open training spread over several months in 2001.

• (57) : Personal communication by Alberto l’Abate, Giovanni Scotto and by Birgitta Meier; Report : “Seminario internazionale: Servizio civile, interventi di pace all’estero, corpi civili di pace, 4.11.2000; Centro Studi Difesa Civile “Civilian Defence and the White Helmets Project” 1998.

• (58) : 1st Quaterly Report of Peaceworkers UK, April 2001, and verbal information by Mareike Junge and Tim Wallis.

• (59) : Quoted after the “non-paper” “For a civilian United Nations’ and European Union’s Peacecorps, some ideas, perhaps unrealistic” by the Green Group in the EP, July 1995.

• (60) : Arno Truger, The concept of a European Civilian Peace Corps (ECPC), July 1996, third draft; Debiel/Fischer 2000:20f.

• (61) : “Non-paper” from 1995, a.a.O.

• (62) : See “Minutes of the Expert-Meeting on European Civil Peace Services, Brussels, 27 November 2000”, written by Heinrich Böll Foundation and EN.CPS, and Debiel/Fischer 2000.

• (63) : Georgia has not been included in the CPS list above because the report the Georgian organisation made to EN.CPS indicates that they are in the very first steps towards a CPS. They mention a seminar in January where “several organisations expressed their will on creating a joint network of Civil Peace Services in the region and launching co-ordinated activities.” Otherwise, the organisation concentrates on training work, networking with organisations in other parts of the Caucasus, and the creation of two public libraries in conflict zones. (Quarterly Report to the EN.CPS, spring 2001)

• (64) : HCA Germany has organised a conference on European Civil Peace Services, but otherwise is not active in this field.

• (65) : Living Without Armament has been sending a few volunteers to the former Yugoslavia and has funded local peaceworkers in these countries under the CPS scheme.

• (66) : No information available on their work.