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Organization: Service Civil International (SCI)
The following information may be cited or quoted as long as the source is accurately mentioned and the words are not taken out of context.
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Postal address of organization/institution

St-Jacobsmarkt 82, B-2000 Antwerpen, Belgium

E-mail address of organization/institution

info@sciint.org

Website address of organization/institution

www.sciint.org

Telephone of organization/institution

+32.3.2265727

PRIORITIES: All of the organization's domains of culture of peace activity

EDUCATION FOR PEACE
HUMAN RIGHTS
DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION
UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY
INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

TOP PRIORITY: The organization's most important culture of peace activity

UNDERSTANDING, TOLERANCE AND SOLIDARITY

PARTNERSHIPS AND NETWORKS: What partnerships and networks does your organization participate in, thus strengthening the global movement for a culture of peace?

CCIVS-UNESCO
UNOY-Peacebuilders
War Resisters International
World Social Forum

ACTIONS: What activities have been undertaken by your organization to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence during the ten years of the Decade? If you already made a report in 2005, your information from 2005 will be included in the 2010 report.

SCI is an international movement working for peace, tolerance and justice with around 40 branches and 100 partner organisations in Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

The main activity of SCI is organising long and short-term voluntary work projects to give young people from different countries an opportunity to live and work together on a project with the aim of breaking down barriers between people and increasing international understanding.

In the last years, SCI worked on developing peace education tools. One of the main means for transferring the knowledge and tools on peace education was via trainings and seminars, through e-mail communication and via the websites www.sciint.org and www.spaceforpeace.net.

Also new type of workcamps was created, so-called Peace Voluntary Projects. These are short or long term voluntary projects with pro-active peace building or peace education as a major element. Whilst all SCI camps are peace building in some way (an international group living and working together, resolving conflicts, and working to contribute to another society), Peace Voluntary Projects have a larger and more obvious peace building element. Some branches have as well incorporated a higher level of peace education into preparation seminars for volunteers that are going to other projects.

SCI focuses also very specifically in peace activities. This is done through work of working groups, as is Conflict Resolution group which specializes in conflicts and conflict resolution, and Peace Messengers Network, which exists since 2008. This is a group of volunteers who each year visit/join a workcamp/seminar and run a workshop about peace (education).

In past few years, SCI organized a number of peace seminars and trainings. In 2008, the Conflict Resolution team organized a seminar "Volunteering in Conflict Areas". The aim was to bring activists together from SCI in order to define a strategy how SCI should work in conflict areas.

Another activity was the “Peace Education Seminar 2007” in Poland, with a topic on non violent communication, focusing on communication in daily life and peace-work. Participants in this seminar followed the training in non-violent communication according to the principles of Marshall Rosenberg.

In 2007-2008, SCI Sri Lanka organized a “Non Violent Conflict Resolution” project for religious leaders. This programme was well received and had an important impact in resolving local conflicts with the intervention of religious leaders.  Another project was organized in Macedonia, with a title of "Promoting Multiculturalism"

SCI organizes as well other type of peace activities. To name one, SCI India has formed Peace Cells in twelve Colleges near Mumbai and is carrying out different activities where SCI India in cooperation with like-minded organizations involve students in various peace activities  (as for example the "World March for Peace and Non-Violence" or in signature campaigns, street plays, peace rallies, debates and discussions on "Violence vs Non-violence", etc).

During the last five years quite some branches organized workshops also around the International Day of Peace.

PROGRESS: Has your organization seen progress toward a culture of peace and nonviolence in your domain of action and in your constituency during the second half of the Decade?

We did see progress within our organization (especially the value of peace came back in all our activities), however, concerning the outside world working for a change is a long process. We reached quite some people (about 10000-12000 volunteers in the last five years) and made progress in our work in conflict areas.

OBSTACLES: Has your organization faced any obstacles to implementing the culture of peace and nonviolence? If so, what were they?

It is difficult to reach a wider public than our own organization, peace seems not an attractive topic. Sometimes the importance of peace-session was not well understood/recognized. On world level there are political and financial crises. On practical level: lack of funding, lack of media-attention, difficult to find neutral ground.

PLANS: What new engagements are planned by your organization in the short, medium and long term to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence?

We would like to network more with like-minded organizations, continue with the peace messengers concepts and volunteering in post-conflict areas. At the short term (2010) we plan a peace education seminar in the Asia Pacific region, anti-war camps and educational projects about the North-South gap.

GLOBAL MOVEMENT: How do you think the culture of peace and nonviolence could be strengthened and supported at the world level??

SCI is already spread over more than 40 countries. Practical involvement of volunteers at microlevel is important, as well as the spread of words and deeds.

Culture of peace and non-violence could be supported at the world level if the topic “peace” was more in the media. Governments should put it more on their agenda (stop the arms-trade). An international convention on the right to an education to non-violence would be also welcome.

There is also a need for raising awareness that without a peaceful society, all the things that people expect, like social justice and human rights cannot flourish. Many people are concerned with economic development and reducing poverty, but need to see that you need a culture of peace to achieve this.
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Organization: Service Civil International (SCI)

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