PBI-Canada attends PBI General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal

Published by Brent Patterson on December 3, 2024

First posted on November 19, 2024.

Peace Brigades International-Canada attended the Peace Brigades International General Assembly in Lisbon, Portugal this past November 11-13.

The assembly brought together 35+ people to discuss a Global Strategic Plan that will inform our work through to 2030 and to debate and reach consensus on numerous proposals, including our proposal to explore the formation of a PBI-Turtle Island initiative to accompany Indigenous land defenders.

The meeting brought together representatives of the teams who physically accompany defenders in Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras.

There were also representatives of the Kenya, Nepal, Nicaragua and Indonesia teams that support defenders.

Along with PBI-Canada, there were also representatives from the PBI teams in Germany, Spain, Catalonia, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United States, Switzerland, Norway and Italy.

And along with staff from the International Office in Brussels there were key members of the International Council, essentially PBI’s global Board.

While the assembly was a forum to discuss the Global Strategic Plan noted above and organizational and administrative issues, and to connect in-person to further enable the online meeting spaces that occur throughout the year, it all remained very much grounded in our shared purpose of ensuring the protection of human rights defenders who face tremendous risks because of the work they do.

At PBI-Canada our next step now is to write an operational plan for 2025 based on the approved Global Strategic Plan and to further develop the concept of a new Peace Brigades International-Turtle Island initiative.

Stay tuned!

NOTE: If you normally mail a year-end donation to support our work, there are ways to continue that support before December 31. You can now make a donation by Interac e-Transfer by emailing  your donation to direction@pbicanada.org. In the “Message” field, please note if you would like a charitable tax receipt and include your mailing address. As before, you can also make a donation via CanadaHelps.org by clicking here, as well as directly on our website by clicking here.