CFSC Service

There is no way to peace.  Peace is the way.

~ A.J. Muste

Can We Make Peace the Way?

A training at the International Middle East Media Centre which publishes stories of non-violent efforts for peace and change.

In these first decades of the new millennium, the challenges to the goal of humans living peacefully and sustainably on the planet Earth are formidable. For three hundred and fifty years, Friends have been relying on their testimonies of integrity, equality, peace, community, simplicity, and most recently, ecology, to guide them in building towards this goal.   From Independence in India to the International Solidarity Movement (in Palestine), from pottery water purifiers to natural farming, alternatives have been articulated and tested, and we actually do know that peaceful and sustainable living are possible.  The challenge to dismantle the un-peaceful, un-sustainable systems remains.

Because it arises organically from the leadings of Friends, our work can seem fragmented and unconnected.  But there are underlying logical connections. To demonstrate, let us begin with the Gandhian principle that we should BE the change that we want to SEE in the world.  Our program IS an innovator and implementer of non-violent prevention of armed conflict, and of non-violent intervention. The change that we want to SEE in the world, and which we will use our experience to advocate for and to build, is that Canada and the United Nations and the other countries where we work BECOME innovators and implementers of non-violent prevention of armed conflict, and of non-violent intervention.

Our situation and conflict analysis is “human rights based”, that is, responding to strategic needs, and “human needs based”, that is, responding to practical needs.

In the line of non-violent prevention of armed conflict, we support community-based social, environmental and economic alternatives. Why? Because when local people have more control over the provision of their human needs, they can better balance the differing interests in their societies, and thus prevent the injustice that can motivate armed conflict.

In the line of prevention, we also defend human rights and civil liberties because they are the basis of positive security, and we promote disarmament. United Nations-based international agreements are important standards for this work.  We also build non-violent, unarmed conflict resolution and security alternatives.

In the line of intervention, we support strategies that are consistent with the preventive strategies, but designed to be effective in the midst of violent conflict.

Project Information:

Community-based Work Outside Canada:

• Alliance for Self Reliant Peacebuilding, a coalition of community based organizations in Indonesia, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.  (page under construction)
• Central African Friends Building Peace, projects of Quakers in Burundi, Rwanda and North and South Kivu, provinces of D. R. Congo.
• International Middle East Media Centre, a project of Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between Peoples.
• Peace Education in Jamaica, a project with the Quaker Jamaica Concerns of Toronto Monthly Meeting and the Jamaica Education Council  to support the development of a peace education plan and related curriculum for Happy Grove High School in Hector’s River, Portland, Jamaica. It is anticipated that this model will become both sustainable and transferable to other schools in the area. Further information is available in our March, 2010 trip report.
• Project Muinda, a service committee of Kinshasa Monthly Meeting in D. R. Congo.

Work on Canadian Policies Related to Peace:

• Afghanistan: Canada’s Role
• Nuclear Disarmament: the Time is Now (under construction)
• Palestine and Israel: Promoting Peace
• Responsibility to Protect: A Call for Peaceful Intervention

Note: Several projects listed under “human rights” are directly related to building peace.