By Ethan Vesely-Flad
Human rights accompaniment refers to unarmed international presence for the protection of communities and civil society organizations in areas of violence and conflict threatened as a result of their human rights and peace-building work. The practice has been tested on the ground in many regions of the world, from the Americas to Asia to Africa, led by organizations whose mission statements express commitments to the goals and processes of nonviolent resistance, participatory democracy, and peace-building.
The Fall 2011 issue of Fellowship magazine – published since 1918 by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR, http://forusa.org) – will address the ideology and practice of human rights accompaniment within the context of the upcoming tenth anniversary of FOR providing protective accompaniment to the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó, Colombia.
Commentary from Peace Community members, FOR staff, and volunteer accompaniers past and present will be featured, as will perspectives from other NGOs and civil society organizations that have been providing international accompaniment across the world. Articles will discuss the methodology and definition(s) of accompaniment as well as first-person commentaries on the experience of providing accompaniment or being accompanied.
We seek short (500-800 word) articles representing the following topics:
- analysis of accompaniment: its effectiveness as a strategy for ending violence and promoting nonviolent social and political change
- experiential stories by accompaniers and accompanied communities
- diverse religious and spiritual perspectives on the reasons for engaging in accompaniment
- poetry
Space constrictions will necessitate that not all submissions will be published. Some articles may be published online, with permission of the author.
For further questions, please contact Ethan Vesely-Flad (editor@forusa.org) or Moira Birss (moira.birss@gmail.com).
Deadline for submissions: October 25, 2011