Peace Activism Campaign
Give Power to nonviolence!
Project duration: January-December 2026
What do we mean by nonviolence?
Nonviolence is the active practice and strategy of refusing to use physical, verbal or psychological harm to achieve ones objectives. Instead nonviolent dialogue, education and compassion are sought as alternatives pathways. The focus of nonviolence is therefore on forgiveness and compassion for and reconciliation with the opponent instead of engaging in hate practices. Nonviolence is a tool to political and social change and research has shown that nonviolent movements succeeded about twice as often as violent ones in the 20th century, with successful examples of nonviolent civil resistance for civil rights movement such as ending racial segregation or gaining voting rights.
Background
Over the past few years interest in volunteer camps has stalled, with numbers of participants in camps having significantly decreased. Trying to understand the “why” behind the phenomenon, the Peace Activism Campaign was designed as a tool to re-frame and re-affirm SCI’s identity as a peace movement and a peace organization, rooted in its anti militarist beginning. Through this campaign we wish to encourage volunteering in the long-run as a social and civil service.
The research that created the base of the campaign was carried out during the year 2024 and aimed to determine what Peace Activism meant for each of the branches in the SCI network as well as how it materialized for the movement. Each organisation had its own interpretation of nonviolence and Peace Activism, showing the variety of perspectives and work within our network. Through this information we created a common campaign, representing SCI’s view on Peace Activism all over the world.
While there are different variations of Peace and Peace Activism, the research showed that the entire network sees peace as prioritizing concrete actions over symbolic ones (Deeds not Words) and focusing on positive peace that is more than the absence of war, focusing towards active efforts to create a just and equitable society. The activities each of our branches is using to promote peace were also varied, ranging from educational activities such as workshops or toolkits; practical actions, like long-term volunteering and peace messengers, and including also advocacy actions such as lobbying or campaigning. In this context, volunteer camps that foster peace by bringing people from different countries and cultures together were particularly recognized as an important tool for peacebuilding.
Overall, the research supported the understanding that even though the number of volunteers in camps decreased, SCI should continue to create these camps as a central tool for peacebuilding. Following these conclusions, a framework was created for the global campaign that would allow all of our branches to introduce their peace activities in all the different shapes and forms that they are organized.
Activities
The Peace Activism Campaign aims to combine a variety of activities. It includes both internal and external events as well as activities that focus on different levels of peace ranging form internal peace, peace with others to peace with nature.
The activities fall under the following three categories:
Awareness raising activities
Demonstration “Stop the War”
The activity hosted by VIA Netherlands will gather a group of people to speak out against the ongoing war in Ukraine and act as a symbol of active resistance against all forms of war.
Engagement activities
Facilitation training: how to give and receive feedback in co-facilitation and/or collective projects
The 3-day training course organised by SCI Belgium, taking place from the 13-15th of March, creates the space for 16 participants to learn essential skills in conflict management, nonviolent communication, management of needs and emotions and the usage of pacifism in everyday life.
Participating branches
Funders
