YEAR IN REVIEWFYE 2013 • 1 November 2012 - 31 October 2013

building partnerships to transformviolence and oppression

www.cpt.org

CPTers Lukasz Firla (left) and Kathy Moorhead Thiessen (right) with Sabir(center), a Kurdish shepherd injured by shrapnel from Iranian shelling.

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BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS IN 2013

Organization-wide, consultative pro-cesses often take longer than expected.The plan to develop a new articulationof CPT’s mission, vision, and values hadan initial timeline of six months. Itbecame a 3½-year endeavor! The pro-cess was worth it, building consensusand good energy throughout the orga-nization and finally culminating in 2013with the manifestation of these con-cepts in CPT’s new logo. Graphic artist Nekeisha Alexis-Baker, who created the logo, describeshow each element – the dove, thebarbed wire, and even the font andtypeface – exude a statement aboutwho we are and are becoming as afaith-full organization committed to“building partnerships that transformviolence and oppression.” As the new Executive Director, Iam thrilled and humbled to participatewith CPT at this time of re-defining andre-launching ourselves. As I promoteCPT in various countries and contexts,

I notice how people enthusiasticallyrespond to CPT’s unique approach ofnonviolent direct action undergirded byspiritual principles, social movementinvolvement, and undoing oppressionsanalysis. Thank you for your participation inand support for this experiment thatget us ever closer to being people whoare able to embrace the diversity of thehuman family and seek to live justly andpeaceably with all creation.

Sarah ThompsonExecutive Director

“...Write the vision. Make itclear on tablets so that anyonecan read it quickly...”

– Habakkuk 2:2

CPTers in Colombia invited local artist Paola, age 11 (third from right) to paintCPT’s new logo on their office wall in Barrancabermeja.

MISSION: building partnerships totransform violence and oppression.

VISION: a world of communities thattogether embrace the diversity of thehuman family and live justly andpeaceably with all creation

VALUES: christian peacemaker teamsis committed to work and relation-ships that:• honor and reflect the presence of faith and spirituality• strengthen grassroots initiatives• transform structures of domination

and oppression• embody creative nonviolence and liberating love

CPTerCaldwellManners

CPTerPierreShantz

CPTerAlix

Lozano

CPTerTracy

Hughes

CPTerLucilaPabón

ArtistPaola

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PEACEMAKER DELEGATIONSIn FYE 2013, 79 people partici-pated in 12 CPT delegations(10-14 days). Delegations offerparticipants first-hand experi-ence in supporting local part-ners’ nonviolent struggles forhuman rights and serve as aprimary mechanism for furtherinvolvement in CPT’s peace-making ministry. Delegatesserve an important advocacyrole back home on behalf ofcommunities resisting violence.

ABORIGINAL JUSTICEan ongoing presence since February 1999

CPT’s Aboriginal Justice Team (AJT) supports Indigenous communities seeking justiceand defending their lands against corporate and government exploitation. Based inToronto, Ontario, Canada, AJT partners with First Nations communities to advocatefor the basic and collective human rights of indigenous peoples; build relationshipsbetween settlers, indigenous peoples and the land; and become effective and visibleallies to indigenous peoples. In 2013, CPT-AJT accepted an invitation from ElsipogtogFirst Nation to accompany their resistance to fracking on their traditional lands.

“Creator made us caretakers of Mother Earth. Our goal as theCollective Community of Concerned Members of Signigtog is toprotect Mother Earth because we’re killing her. She’s already en-dured too much. We will lose our clean water if we sit back and allowwhat the shale gas companies are planning in Signigtog. What they areplanning is unacceptable. We do not accept the unacceptable.”

– Kenneth Francis, ElsipogtogElder and CPT Partner

CPTers Chris Sabas (left) and Stewart Vriesinga (center) in Elsipogtog (NewBrunswick) with community leader and CPT partner Willi Nolan (right).

A few of CPT’s May 2013 Palestine Delegates

BriKnisley

TomiNagai

AddieDomske

JenniferScarr

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CPT-Colombia partners with peacemakers, hu-man rights workers and communities through-out the Magdalena Medio region where civiliansare caught in the crossfire between military/paramilitary forces and their guerrilla oppo-nents. These armed groups target civilians whoare politically active or who live on landcoveted by powerful legal and illegal businessinterests. For example, multinational corpora-tions use violence to displace peasant farmersfrom their land in order to produce palm oil tosell to the Global North. Your advocacy efforts on behalf ofsubsistence farmers, indigenous communities,

women’s groups, artisan miners, displaced persons, and conscientious objectors whoorganize to overcome fear, assert their rights, and nonviolently resist assaults to theirdignity and livelihoods, do make a difference.

COLOMBIAa continuous presence since February 2001

Angie Tatiana Borque Cadena

“We want peace.We want to be free.”

– Angie Borque, age 9Las Pavas, Colombia

“...We have waited so long... Yet wehave withstood it all because we are acommunity of great faith and hope.”

– Farmers from Las Pavas,Colombiain response to a government ruling

moving them one step closerto gaining land titles

CPTer Phil Hart (left) with community leader Erik Yesid Payares (center)and Harry Peña (right) from Guayabo.

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IRAQI KURDISTANa continuous presence since October 2002

For five years, CPT Iraqi Kurdistan focused on accompanying farmers and shepherdsthreatened by Turkish and Iranian military operations and cross-border bombings.Since the March 2013 cease-fire and the beginning of a peace process and politicalnegotiations between the guerilla fighters and the Turkish government followingthree decades of war, the mountain border regions have experienced a period ofhopeful peace. Rural communities now face new threats as international oil companies intensifytheir operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. In August 2013 CPT began toaccompany subsistence farming communities in their struggle to resist displacementand destruction of their farm lands and environment. In addition, team members conduct nonviolence workshops for schools and com-munity groups. accompany civil society and women’s rights activists working for a morejust society, and advocate on behalf of political prisoners.

“We havefought andresisted forgenerationsagainst differ-ent powersand survived.But this timeour struggleis against ourown Kurdishgovernmentand the oilcompanies.If they persist,our world will be completely destroyed and we will have to leaveforever.“ – Farmer from Gullan Village, Ranya district

“There are so manycreative ways ofnonviolence. I hadno idea.”

“I learned that I canget my rights in apeaceful way.”

“I want to learnmore!”

– Comments from students participating in a CPT nonviolence workshops.

A Kurdish farmer (right) from Hajji Ahmed shows CPT theland that was taken by Exxon Mobile.

CPTers Mohammed Salah (left) and AnnikaSpalde (center) lead a nonviolence workshop ina Suleimani high school.

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PALESTINEa continuous presence since June 1995

CPT-Palestine supportsPalestinian-led, grassroots,nonviolent resistance tothe Israeli Occupation andthe unjust structures thatuphold it. Based in the Old Cityof Hebron (al-Khalil inArabic), team membersaccompany school chil-dren harassed by Israelisoldiers, monitor militarycheckpoints, and docu-ment abuses by Israelisoldiers and settlers.Team members alsoaccompany communitiesthreatened with forcedeviction in firing zone 918in the South Hebron Hills. In fye 2013, CPT-Palestine issued a report called “Occupied Childhoods” whichdocuments the mistreatment of children in the Old City and H2 (occupied) neighbor-hoods of Hebron. Israeli soldiers arrested children as young as seven and eight yearsold in clear violation of international law. See the report at http://goo.gl/t4apB.

CPTers in Palestine monitor Israeli soldiers’ and settlers’ treatment of Pales-tinians during weekly “Settler Tours” through the Old City of Hebron.

Israeli soldiers arrest frightened eight-year-oldPalestinian school boy in Hebron.

“We have to persist with our commitment to nonviolent resistancewhich means we’ll face all the Occupation policies through nonvio-lent actions and demonstrations [with] solidarity and support fromInternationals and Israelis until the end of the [Israeli] Occupation.”

– Coordinator of the South Hebron Hills Popular Committeereferring to 8 villages in “Firing Zone 918” that face demolition

to make way for an Israeli military training ground.

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FINANCIAL SUMMARYFYE 31 October 2013

Previous YearIncome Comparison

Income

TOTAL INCOMEExpenses

ProgramPeacemaker CorpsAdministrationOther

TOTAL EXPENSES

$596,200$140,900$117,200$ 69,800$ 85,400$ 16,900

$1,026,400

IndividualsCongregationsDelegationsEstate GiftsGrantsOther

$454,900$470,000$ 58,100$ 39,100

$1,022,100

Contributions FYE 2013 FYE 2012

3,196298300

3,784330330

IndividualsCongregations & GroupsDelegations

Previous YearExpense Comparison

Praywith CPT.

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Your prayers, actions, anddonations help sustain ourpeacemaking partnershipsin Palestine, Iraqi Kurdis-tan, Colombia, Canada,

and around theworld.

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PERSONNELCPT’s Peacemaker Corps is made up oftrained peacemakers committed to full-time, part-time, or Reserve service. InFYE 2013, 212 people, including teninterns, served in CPT. Corps mem-bers and interns come from or live inAfghanistan, Australia, Brazil, seven

Canadian provinces, six Colombiandepartments, Czech Republic, Egypt,England, Germany, India, Iraqi Kurdis-tan, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand,Palestine, Philippines, Poland, Scot-land, Sweden, Taiwan, Wales and 27U.S. states plus Washington, DC.

STEERING COMMITTEECPT is sponsored by:• Church of the Brethren/On Earth Peace (COB/OEP)• Friends United Meeting (FUM)• Mennonite Church Canada(MC-Canada)

• Mennonite Church USA (MC-USA)• Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America (BPFNA)• Basilian General Council (BGC)• Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF). The work of CPT is guided by aSteering Committee made up of repre-sentatives from sponsoring denomina-tions and groups, CPT’s PeacemakerCorps (PC) and Race Relations Council(RRC), and members at-large (AL).

Steering Committee Membersserving in FYE 2013 were • MarianoAvila (Michigan), AL • Jason Boone,MC-USA • Tony Brown, MC-USA• Adriana Cabrera, RRC • Lukasz Firla,PC • Thomas Goodhart (New York),AL • Julián Gutiérrez, PC/RRC • OmarHarami (Jerusalem), AL • Rachel Long,COB • Rafael Lopera, BGC • CarolMason, OEP • Brian Meritt, PPF • EricOlfert, MC-Canada • Garland Robert-son, PC • Chris Sabas, PC • PierreShantz, PC • Rachel Stacy, FUM • IngerStyrbjörn, PC • Wilson Tan (Singapore),AL • Brian Young, FUM.

CONTACT CPT • www.cpt.orgUSA • P.O. Box 6508 • Chicago, Illinois 60680 • Tel: +1-773-376-0550 • Fax: +1-773-376-0549• e-mail: peacemakers@cpt.orgCanada • 25 Cecil St., Unit 310 • Toronto, Ontario M5T 1N1 • Tel: +1-416-423-5525• Fax: +1-416-423-7140 • e-mail: canada@cpt.org

CPT Steering Committee meeting in March 2014 in New York, USA.

Omar

Inger

Pierre

Wilson Chris

Eric

Carol

RafaelRachel S.

MarianoThomas

Brian Y.

Brian M.

ReginaShands-Stoltzfus