Nonviolent Peaceforce
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| Established | 2003 |
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| Type | International NGO |
| Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium |
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Region served
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Worldwide |
| Website | nonviolentpeaceforce |
Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP) is a nonpartisan unarmed peacekeeping organization with the goal of protecting civilians and reducing violence in areas affected by armed conflict. NP holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and has been endorsed by nine Nobel Peace Prize laureates, including the Dalai Lama and former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In 2016, Nonviolent Peaceforce was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
The organization was founded by David Ray Hartsough, a US Quaker and civil rights activist, and Mel Duncan, former US member of the Nicaragua coffee/cotton brigades during the Contra war of 1984. The organization, first prompted by a 1999 citizens' conference in The Hague, was founded in New Delhi in 2002.
Mel Duncan served as Executive Director until 2009, in Minneapolis, MN. The central office moved to Brussels, Belgium in 2010 under Executive Director Tim Wallis, while retaining its U.S. operations in Minneapolis, as of December 2013[update] near the Loring Park neighborhood. The organization was led by Doris Mariani until 31 May 2016, when interim Executive Director Tiffany Easthom took over. The organization has central offices in St. Paul, MN, and Brussels, Belgium, and a United Nations advocacy office headed by Mel Duncan in New York City. It is registered in the US as a 501(c)(3) organization and in Belgium as an AISBL.
The pilot project of NP was started in 2003 in Sri Lanka. Nonviolent Peaceforce peacekeepers were at work there between 2003 and 2008 but they could not stop the war that reoccurred in 2008 and came to an end only when the SLA defeated LTEE in May 2009. After 2009, NP continued work in the country for two years, mainly on child protection, helping to integrate former child soldiers back into everyday life, and working with local communities to bolster their own self-protection capabilities. In 2011, NP officially closed its mission in Sri Lanka.
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