Community Peacemaker Teams builds partnerships to transform violence and oppression

CPT places teams at the invitation of local peacemaking communities that are confronting situations of lethal conflict. These teams support and amplify the voices of local peacemakers who risk injury and death by waging nonviolent direct action to confront systems of violence and oppression.

CPT understands violence to be rooted in systemic structures of oppression. We are committed to undoing oppressions, starting within our own lives and in the practices of our organization.

CPT enlists spiritual communities and individuals in an organized, nonviolent alternative to war. CPT’s initial roots among Mennonites, Church of the Brethren and Quakers have spread into a broad multi-faith network that supports spiritually-centered peacemaking, creative public witness, nonviolent direct action, and protection of human rights.

Our Work Includes:

Accompanying our partners as they work nonviolently to defend their rights and communities.

Advocacy: amplifying the stories and voices of those experiencing violent oppression.

Human rights observation and reporting.

Solidarity networking: partnering with individuals and organizations to work toward change.

Guiding Principles

Undoing oppressions

This is the lens through which CPT conducts our work. We believe that violence is a symptom of underlying systems of oppression (sexism, racism, heterosexism, colonialism, capitalism, imperialism) that perpetuate acts of violence. We seek to address these root causes at an interpersonal, organizational, state, and global level.

Decolonization

Much of our world has been violently colonized by empires throughout history and continually oppressed through racist, extractivist, and capitalist systems of destruction. CPT advocates for decolonization: dismantling these systems of oppression and moving towards systems of caregiving, balance, and mutual aid.

Partnerships

Our work is built on partnerships and led by local peacebuilders. We only work in spaces where we have been invited to join together with established initiatives, and we are committed to long-term relationships with our partners who resist oppression every day, not only during emergency situations. 

Creative Nonviolence

CPT supports nonviolent resistance movements and wages nonviolent direct action to confront systems of violence and oppression. We believe in creative nonviolent action as a tool for sustainable transformation rooted in liberating love.

Spiritually-guided

CPT was born out of a Christian community’s response to increased militarism and violence. We have since grown into a diverse group of peacemakers, many of whom draw inspiration for their nonviolent practices from multiple spiritual and philosophical understandings and beliefs. We know and celebrate that the sacred is recognized and revealed in many traditions and tongues, identities and images, colours and cultures. 

Collective Liberation

We understand each of our teams’ struggles for justice—while diverse and contextually nuanced—as united together for collective liberation. We cannot dismantle the structures of oppression without the knowledge and experience of our diverse identities. Together, we will overcome.    

Anti-militarism

The grasp of the military-industrial complex on our world not only results in the destabilization and defunding of our communities but also contributes to the ongoing climate crisis, endangering the collective survival of our global community. CPT is an active part of anti-militarism movements like School of the Americas’ Watch, Apartheid-Free Communities and other coalitions and initiatives that work toward dismantling false ideas that police and military keep us safe. By unmasking the capitalist underpinnings of the military, it becomes evident that militarism is not about safety but profit. CPT rejects all military and police intervention and demands the reallocation of public funds toward community-based initiatives for care. We keep us safe.

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Our Mission, Vision and Values

Mission

Building partnerships to transform violence and oppression.

Vision

A world of communities that together embrace the diversity of the human family and live justly and peaceably with all creation.

Values

Community Peacemaker Teams is committed to work and relationships that:

Honor and reflect the presence of faith and spirituality
Strengthen grassroots initiatives
Transform structures of domination and oppression
Embody creative non-violence and liberating love

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