Annual review: PBI-Canada’s “transformative proposition” of extending PBI’s protective accompaniment into a “Northern” territory

Published by Brent Patterson on October 29, 2025 October 29, 2025

Peace Brigades International has released its Annual Review for 2024 titled Together We Rise: Standing Up for Equality, Justice, and the Future of Our Planet.

Holistic protection

 It notes that “PBI takes a holistic view of protection” that includes:

Protective accompaniment: Highly trained volunteers from around the world physically accompany human rights defenders in situations of risk. Recognisable by their distinctive PBI vests, volunteers spend at least a year providing a protective presence and helping deter potential threats.

Advocacy: We connect human rights defenders with national and international actors, creating platforms to amplify their voices. These advocacy efforts ensure defenders are recognised and heard, encourage governments to fulfil their protection duties, and mobilise international support to help deter attacks.

Awareness raising: With four decades of experience behind us, we are a trusted source of information and expertise. We use this to raise awareness of human rights issues and mobilise support by sharing information in a range of creative formats.

In numbers

It further reports that PBI provided protective accompaniment to over 3,900 human rights defenders in 2024.

This includes 2,184 defenders fighting for land, environmental, and Indigenous Peoples’ rights, 1,014 defenders fighting for peace, justice, and the rule of law, and 702 defenders  fighting for women’s rights and gender equality.

PBI is comprised of 90 staff members from 38 different countries with 291 volunteers, 90 of whom provided direct protection to human rights defenders.

This was done on a budget of € 6.236.256 (CAD $10.08 million) of which €4.657.735  (CAD $7.53 million) was spent on holistic protection.

Standing Up for the Rights of Indigenous Defenders in Canada

The Annual Review also highlights:

“Another key aspect of this work is the recognition that human rights violations can happen anywhere.

The construction of a new gas pipeline through the unceded ancestral territory of the Wet’suwet’en Nation in northern British Columbia is a prime example. For the Wet’suwet’en people, this move didn’t just violate their legal right to consent. It was an assault on their spiritual and cultural heart.

For the people who come to the land’s defence, violence, forced evictions, raids, and murder — often carried out by the Canadian Mounted Police — are a daily reality.

 It is a fight PBI follows closely. Last year, we monitored court proceedings of three defenders charged with contempt, raising awareness of their case and the risks they and other Indigenous communities face. We also conducted research into the weapons used in historic attacks, met with the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Water, published articles and held public events to highlight Canada’s constitutional failings.

This last year also saw our team in Canada begin developing a framework to extend PBI’s protective accompaniment into a “Northern” territory. This transformative proposition would mark a move away from traditional models and start to recognise and address the human rights abuses that threaten us all.”

The Peace Brigades International Annual Review 2024 can be read in full here.