PBI's Past
PBI was founded in 1981 following a historic meeting of non-violence activists on this Canadian Island.
Grindstone Island
In 2025, PBI adopted a Global Strategic Plan to provide a roadmap for the organization’s continued fight for justice over these specific years.
2025-2030
Established in 1994, this South American field project rapidly grew to become PBI’s largest deployment, sometimes utilizing up to 40 field volunteers simultaneously.
Colombia Project
This PBI co-founder hosted the international secretariat in his home in Walla Walla, Washington until it was formally transferred to Philadelphia in 1984.
Daniel or Dan Clark
This four-letter acronym is used globally to refer to the local female activists PBI is tasked with protecting
WHRD
In 1983, PBI deployed its very first short-term international peace team to this Central American nation to deter hostilities during the Contra War.
Nicaragua
As tech threats against activists grow, PBI’s modern capacity-building includes training local human rights defenders in this specific type of digital safety.
Cybersecurity
Launched in 2013, this PBI field team is the organizations first accompaniment project in Africa.
The Kenya Project
In 1981, PBI’s founders recruited this famous U.S. folk singer to PBI’s first International Council which was composed of the founders plus fifteen additional individuals.
Joan Baez
The work of PBI is guided by four principles including international character, horizontality, non-violence and this principle meant to preserve PBI’s independent third-party status
Non-partisanship
The initial concept of an unarmed “peace army” or “brigade” was heavily inspired by the Shanti Sena, an initiative originally organized by this famous global peace leader.
Mahatma Ghandi
Referred by UN agencies as a “risk multiplier,” this crisis can create extreme weather events, etc. that exacerbate the underlying human rights issues impacting land, environmental and Indigenous rights defenders.
Climate crisis or climate change or global warming
In 1990, an armed confrontation between local police, the Canadian army, and members of the Mohawk community of Kanesatake who opposed the expansion of a golf course onto Indigenous burial grounds prompted PBI to form this project.
North America Project
In 1958, PBI co-founder George Willoughby sailed on The Golden Rule, a protest boat that directly inspired the later formation of this massive global environmental organization.
Greenpeace
PBI’s mandate is to defend human rights and to carry out this four-word concept that gives human rights defenders the literal and political room to do their vital work safely.
Make space for peace
In 1989, PBI volunteers famously provided protective escort to this indigenous rights activist and future Nobel Peace Prize winner during her first return to Guatemala from exile.
Rigoberta Menchú
To ensure long-term local resilience, PBI’s evolving model focuses heavily on this strategy, which aims to empower local communities to manage their own protection without relying indefinitely on international presence.
Capacity building
While field teams operate globally in places like Mexico and Honduras, PBI’s International Office has been located in this European city since 2018.
Brussels
He suggested the final name of “Peace Brigades International” during a coffee break at the 1981 founding meeting after it was first voiced by Narayan Desai.
Charles or Charley Walker
Twenty years after its founding, PBI was awarded this prestigious international prize, widely considered the “Nobel Prize for human rights.”
Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders
The urgent need for 24/7 round-the-clock “escorting” was realized in Guatemala after the brutal murder of a founder of the Mutual Support Group, better known by this acronym which represents the organization’s name in Spanish.
GAM
To analyze and adapt these forward-looking operational directions on a global scale, PBI gathers members from across the entire organization for an international meeting held once every this many years.
Three years
Due to increased travel restrictions on the team and internal challenges within PBI, PBI closed its initial project in this country in 2011, but successfully resumed capacity building efforts for local human rights defenders there in 2014.
Indonesia
Liam Mahony and Luis Enrique Eguren co-authored this book which documents PBI’s early field strategies for civilian protection
Unarmed Bodyguards
Physical presence, physical accompaniment, advocacy, observing, reporting, capacity development, peace education, psychosocial support, and building local, regional and international support networks are all strategies used as a part of PBI’s unique model of human rights protection referred to as this.
International Protective Presence or Accompaniment