case studies

Peace Camps first came about in the 1920s as 24-hour protests outside of military bases by members of the peace movement. They became topical in the 1980s due to the worldwide publicity generated by the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp.

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp was established to protest against US nuclear weapons being stored at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, England. A Welsh group called 'Women for Life on Earth" started the camp in September 1981. Tens of thousands of people came together in April 1983 to form a human chain around the 23km base. 200 members of the women's peace camp scaled the fence to the base in a stronger demonstration of protest.

The last nuclear missiles left the camp in 1991 but the camp remained in place until 2000, finally disbanding when protestors won the right to house a memorial on the site.

Other peace camps born of a similar vein include the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp, Faslane 365 and Menwith Hill in Yorkshire.

Some two million Cambodians were killed during the Khmer Rouge period, and religion was targeted for elimination. All but 3,000 of Cambodia's 62,000 Buddhist monks were murdered through forced 'disappearances', overwork, starvation, illness and outright execution.

Maha Ghosananda was a Buddhist monk who survived and worked tirelessly to restore peace and a sense of community in conflict-ravaged Cambodia. When the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1975 Ghosananda was in a period of secluded forest meditation and his master told him not to let current affairs disturb his concentration. He tried to obey but recalled crying for Cambodia every day. In 1978 he left the hermitage and travelled to the Thai/Cambodian border to work with refugees fleeing the carnage.

He established simple shack-temples in every refugee camp and taught meditation. Insisting on non-partisanship and nonviolence, these temples became neutral spaces where refugees could find moral and spiritual sustenance.

At the 1988 peace talks, Ghosananda announced to the leaders of the four armed factions that he was starting a fifth army, one of peace that would use 'bullets of loving-kindness and courage' as its ammunition.

The Army of Peace's first campaign came in 1992. Ghosananda began a four-week walk through Cambodia with a small band of monks and others, arriving in the capital Phnom Penh 1,000 strong. The marchers were a moving zone of peace for villagers who were beset by daily fighting. Expanding both tactics and objectives, they marched again and again. In 1994 to quell the civil war; in 1995 to highlight the dangers of landmines; in 1997 to show residents of former Khmer Rouge areas the power of nonviolence and in ensuing years to protest the deforestation of Cambodia.

Fighting for ideological reasons was now superseded by fighting to plunder Cambodia's forests for profit. Ghosananda believed peacemaking to be like breathing: if we stop, we die. And similarly so with deforestation:  keeping the environment healthy ensures healthy air to breath. Working with villagers he planted thousands of trees.

Ghosananda lived an itinerant life style and had no official staff. He established dozens of temples, but had no official or legal relationship with any of them. Nor did he have a school or disciples in the traditional sense. He travelled unaccompanied, arrived unannounced, and his whereabouts were often unknown even to his closest associates. It seemed he owned nothing but his robes and passport.

Maha Ghosananda died on 12 March 2007 in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. Read more about Ghosananda's life in this article:  Peace Wins: Maha Ghosananda, the Gandhi of Cambodia '.

36 years of civil war left over 200,000—mostly Mayan—people dead in Guatemala. A peace treaty was signed in 1996, but the killing has not ceased. In since 2000, 3,000 women have been found brutally murdered in Guatemala, and the numbers continue to grow. In 2006 victims numbered 663, a 16% increase from 2005.

A network of women’s organisations—stretching from the jungle interior of the Peten, to the capital Guatemala City and through to the Highlands—bravely denounce these crimes, at great risk to themselves.

Ixqik is a grassroots women’s organisation working rural in Peten to train women community leaders how to provide support and access to legal attention for victims and their families. Work by small groups like Ixqik is strengthened by national coordination by ‘Red de no Violencia’ (the Network of No Violence Against Women).

The Network attributes ever-increasing levels of violence to be complex and varied, but no doubt the heart of the problem is the impunity that continues to be enjoyed by generations of killers. Hundreds of massacres claimed the lives of thousands during the civil war, and only a handful of murderers have been brought to justice. A culture of violence against women is further sanctioned by the lack of a legal framework classifying domestic violence as a crime.

At great risk to themselves and their families, supporters of Ixqik and ‘Red de no Violencia’ continue to draw media attention to the situation, provide physical and psychological attention to survivors of violence and pressure the government to reform the justice system and end the culture of impunity.

Each year in November grassroots organisations celebrate their work and honour the lives lost in a march to Guatemala City’s Central Park where a memorial with photos, candles and flowers is held.