Photo: Héctor Hugo Arreola Galván and Elizabeth Guadalupe Mosqueda Rivera from Espacio OSC in front of the Prime Minister’s Office in Ottawa, September 2025.
Peace Brigades International-Canada coordinator Brent Patterson contributed to the writing of the “Defence chapter” in the recently-published Alternative federal budget 2026-27: Bridge to independence report.
Among the actions recommended in the Defence chapter:
“The AFB will allocate funding for multilateral engagement, diplomacy, peace and stability, including for a Civil Peace Service (CPS) to promote human rights and peace on a long-term basis in crisis zones and conflict regions and to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in Mexico to address the threats they face from military and security forces.”
Starting on September 20, 2025, Manuel Jabonero Prieto, the advocacy coordinator for the Peace Brigades International-Mexico Project, accompanied Héctor Hugo Arreola Galván and Elizabeth Guadalupe Mosqueda Rivera from the Civil Society Space of Organizations (Espacio OSC) in Ottawa to present proposals to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists.
The PBI-Espacio OSC delegation met with Members of Parliament, Global Affairs Canada officials, and civil society representatives including Stuart Trew, the senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The delegation highlighted Canadian Prime Minister Carney’s recent announcement that Canada would provide $9.9 million in funding for United Nations-led projects in Mexico. They suggested Canada put a similar amount of funding to strengthen the under-funded Protection Mechanism.
Photo: The delegation meets with Liberal Member of Parliament Judy Sgro, the Chair of the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade.
The following month, Trew noted in his presentation to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT):
“In light of the new Canada-Mexico Action Plan, I think it would be beneficial to strengthen cooperation with Mexico in areas like human rights as well by supporting the Protection Mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists which is under the jurisdiction of the Mexican government. This benefits Canadian businesses by giving them greater assurances that their Mexican operations are not going to be involved perhaps involuntarily in human rights violations.”
Civil Peace Service
The “Der Zivile Friedensdienst” website explains: “The Civil Peace Service (CPS) is a programme for violence prevention, civil conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Currently, around 380 international peace workers are active in about 45 countries. The Civil Peace Service is funded by the German Government.”
In 1959, Perth, Ontario-based Hans Sinn, who co-founded Peace Brigades International in September 1981, travelled to Germany to speak about his vision for a Ziviler Friedensdienst, a civil peace service (CPS).
Peace Magazine notes: “In the early 1990s, he spoke in Berlin, at the Evangelical Academy in Berlin, which had developed its own proposal for a CPS. By 1999, Ziviler Friedensdienst had become the first fully operational Civilian Peace Service in the world.”
Since its formation, more than 1,200 experts have supported peacebuilding efforts in 60 countries around the world. It is also a significant funder of the human rights work done by Peace Brigades International.
We continue to follow this.
Further reading
–Photo-journal of PBI-Mexico accompanied Espacio OSC advocacy tour in Canada on Protection Mechanism (PBI-Canada, September 26, 2025)
–Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives notes the Protection Mechanism in Mexico at House of Commons committee presentation (PBI-Canada, October 10, 2025)
–PBI-Canada seeks to strengthen the accompaniment of human rights defenders with the European Parliament office in Ottawa (PBI-Canada, September 15, 2026)
–PBI-Canada and PBI-Mexico meet with the Embassy of Canada in Mexico to highlight the need to strengthen the Protection Mechanism (PBI-Canada, February 27, 2026).
