Who we are
Vision
Peace Brigades International (PBI) envisions a world in which people address conflicts nonviolently, where human rights are universally upheld and social justice and intercultural respect have become a reality. We believe that enduring peace and lasting solutions to conflicts cannot be achieved by violent means.
Mission
PBI works in countries where communities experience violent conflict, intimidation and repression. PBI works to open a space for peace in which conflicts can be dealt with non-violently. We use a strategy of international presence and concern that supports local initiatives and contributes to developing a culture of peace and justice. We work at the request of human rights defenders and in response to their needs. We believe that lasting transformation of conflicts cannot come from outside, but must be based on the capacities and desires of local people. We avoid imposing, interfering or getting directly involved with the work of the organisations we accompany. We don’t provide financial support or development aid to the organisations we work with.
Strategy
Our work is effective because we take an integrated approach, combining presence on the ground alongside human rights defenders with an extensive network of international support.
PBI's international presence aims to accompany both political and social processes through a joint strategy of deterring violence and promoting active non-violence. Our international teams of volunteers use methods such as protective accompaniment, peace education, independent observation and analysis of the conflict situation. In addition, PBI learns about, develops, and models forms of nonviolent intervention.
PBI defends the defenders.
On the ground we provide direct protection and support, to keep defenders alive and help their activism thrive. Our international volunteers accompany at-risk activists and communities, standing shoulder to shoulder with them in a display of solidarity that deters violent attacks. In addition, unlike other organisations in this space, we also provide longer-term support - from security monitoring and psychological assistance to communications and capacity-building training.
PBI also protects through advocacy, which helps create the right security, policy and political environments in which defenders can carry out their work.
We provide defenders with a platform they otherwise would not have, to amplify their voices, ensuring that their calls for rights and freedoms are heard by those who can make a difference. Finally, we send a powerful message to defenders: you are not alone.
The role of PBI UK
Office team
Trustees
Patrons
Donors
The role of PBI UK
PBI UK is one of 16 PBI country groups whose work provides crucial support for our field projects in Guatemala, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico and Kenya (as well as our capacity building projects in Indonesia and Nepal). We do this in several ways:
Recruiting and training field volunteers
Recruiting and training volunteers and keeping them safe in the field is essential to protective accompaniment, providing visible international support and credible fact-finding.
Using discussions, presentations and role-plays, our two day orientation weekends explore PBI’s role and how protective accompaniment works. The emphasis is on looking constructively at how volunteers might react in a range of situations and helping candidates reflect on their suitability and readiness to become field volunteers.
Read more about volunteering with PBI in the field.
Raising the profile of PBI and those we protect
Increasing the profile of human rights defenders and their work helps to protect them. Through traditional and online media, social networks and a programme of speaking tours by visiting defenders and returned field volunteers, we reach out to the general public, the legal community, universities, religious groups and others.
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Raising funds
A diverse funding base bolsters PBI’s protection work by showing the parties in a conflict that many contributors are interested in safeguarding the legitimate nonviolent work of accompanied human rights defenders.
Read more about our fundraising and ways to donate.
Donate now via Justgiving
Building political networks
PBI field volunteers are walking symbols of international support for human rights defenders, communities and organisations at risk.
Establishing ongoing dialogue and relationships with political decision makers is a key element of PBI UK’s support for threatened defenders. Through our support network, PBI can call upon influential individuals and groups in times of emergency or heightened threat.
Office team
Ben Leather, Director
Kate Fanning, Head of Development
Christina Challis, Advocacy Officer
Ben joined as our Director in 2022.
Ben's human rights career began in 2008 as a field volunteer with PBI Mexico, before leading the organisation's advocacy work in-country. At the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR), he lobbied alongside activists from around the world for human rights defender protection, corporate accountability, and a stronger UN. Ben then went on to work for Global Witness, where he investigated abuses linked to natural resource exploitation, and campaigned on human rights and environmental issues. Before joining us, he worked at Kamara, training NGOs in risk management, and leading investigations into the perpetrators of attacks on social justice leaders. As a consultant, he has provided training on security, advocacy, and strategic engagement with international human rights mechanisms.
Kate is the Head of Development at PBI UK. She has worked for various human rights and environmental organisations including Human Rights Watch, Greenpeace, and the Fund for Global Human Rights in outreach and major gift fundraising, with a focus on resourcing grassroots activism and initiatives. Kate previously worked in academia, teaching courses in human rights, civil society, and international relations.
Christina was previously a consultant with OHCHR. Her career began in 2017 as an intern with ANUE. From there, she joined Front Line Defenders in 2021, providing urgent action support to human rights defenders at risk globally, including a secondment supporting the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. She has been an activist in Ireland since a young age, advocating for asylum seeker rights, marriage equality and decriminalisation of abortion. She studied international law and human rights in both Ireland and Finland, specialising in gender and human rights, refugee rights, and armed conflict.
Chris Poole, Finance Officer
Chris joined the team in 2019, having previously worked for the MS Society, Grant Thornton LLP and the Audit Commission. He is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant and manages PBI's accounts.
Walter Nyabadza, Advocacy and Legal Officer
Katya Kerrison, Administration and Finance Officer
Walter is a human rights lawyer from Zimbabwe who relocated to the UK due to the situation of risk which he faced in his home country as a result of his human rights work. In Zimbabwe, Walter kicked off his legal career as a Public Prosecutor, a position which he left in protest after witnessing gross human rights abuses and selective application of the law by the Government of Zimbabwe. As defence counsel, he represented many political activists, Trade Unionists and workers in the lower and superior courts of Zimbabwe.
Katya’s career began as a support worker for women and children who have fled domestic violence and human trafficking in Bristol. This experience led her to undertake a master’s program in Human Rights and Humanitarian Action at Sciences Po University, where she specialised in Gender and Migration. During her master’s, she also completed two internships with Save the Children International in the Context Analysis and Foresight Unit and the Child Protection Minimum Standards Working Group.
Trustees
The members of our Board of Trustees come from a broad range of backgrounds and experience in the public, private and charity sector. They work in a voluntary capacity, meeting regularly to help guide PBI UK's strategy and policy, and decide how funds are spent.
Sophia Kerridge
Sophia joined the board after almost three years in Colombia with PBI, where she was a member of the field team in Barrancabermeja and a field team coordinator in Bogota. Sophia is a barrister undertaking a third six at 5 St Andrew’s Hill, working in criminal, extradition and regulatory law.
Alexander Roche
Alexander is PBI UK’s Vice Treasurer - a qualified accountant who works as Financial Planning & Analysis Manager for Peel Ports Group. He has previously volunteered in Cambodia as a financial consultant to an educational charity, Bookbridge Cambodia.
Steve joined the Board to support on finance. He has recently retired following a long career in NHS finance, holding Finance Director posts in NHS Trusts in England and a Health Board in Wales.
Steve Webster
Shirin Marker
Rachel Cox
Claire Davis
Shirin is a Solicitor at Bindmans LLP specialising in public law and human rights.
Rachel is the interim Campaign Leader on the Land and Environmental Defenders at Global Witness where she investigates and advocates for the rights and protection of land and environmental activists worldwide.
Claire is Vice President at Luminate – a global foundation working to enable people to fully participate in civic and political life, to safely challenge power, and to access information. She manages Luminate’s People, Culture & Global Support operations and strategy and provides HR advisory services to its partners. Claire has extensive experience working with senior executives and managers to embed people practices and operational efficiencies for healthy workplaces. She spent 11 years working for an open-source technology company and advising entrepreneurs of technology start-ups on organisational design & development.
Patrons
Sir Nicolas Bratza
Sir Nicolas Bratza served as President of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from November 2011 to October 2012. He was appointed Vice-President in 2007 and was elected Section President twice. He has served fourteen years as a Judge of the Court, elected in respect of the United Kingdom from 1998 until 2012, when he retired from the ECHR. First called to the bar in 1969, Sir Nicolas served from 1993 to 1998 as the UK Member of the European Commission of Human Rights, becoming Chamber Vice President in 1997.
He has been a member of the Advisory Board of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law since 2005 and has served as both Governor and Vice Chairman of the British Institute for Human Rights (BIHR). In 2013, he was appointed President of the Advisory Board of the BIHR, which works to raise awareness about human rights in the UK. Sir Nicolas has earned doctorates from the University of Essex and the University of Glasgow and is an Honorary Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford.
Lord Carnwath
Lord Carnwath was called to the Bar at Middle Temple in 1968. He practised in parliamentary law, planning and local government, revenue law and administrative law. He was Junior Counsel to Inland Revenue from 1980 to 1985. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1985, and was Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales from 1988 to 1994.
He was appointed as a High Court judge on 3 October 1994, in the Chancery Division, and received the customary knighthood. He served as Chairman of the Law Commission from 1999 to July 2002. He was promoted to the Court of Appeal on 15 January 2002 and, as is customary, became a member of the Privy Council. He served as an appointee to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom from December 2011 to March 2020.
Julie Christie
Julie Christie is an Academy Award-winning English film actress, best known for her roles in films such as Dr Zhivago and Don't Look Now.
She is a passionate supporter of the human rights movement and recently supported PBI by reading our BBC Radio 4 appeals.
Professor Jeffrey Jowell QC
In 2011, Professor Jeffrey Jowell QC was knighted for his services to human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. A barrister with Blackwell Chambers, in 2010, Sir Jeffrey became the inaugural Director of the Bingham Centre on the Rule of Law, created after the retirement of Lord Bingham. He is Emeritus Professor of Public Law at University College London and Chair of British Waterways’ Ombudsman Committee and, until recently, was a member of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. From 2000 to 2011 he was the UK’s member of the Council of Europe’s Commission for Democracy through Law (The Venice Commission).
Sir Peter Roth
Sir Peter Roth has been a High Court Judge since 2009 and is currently the president of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. Called in 1976, he took Silk in 1997. As a barrister, his areas of practice were wide ranging, including commercial law, human rights, European and sports law. In 2007 he was named 'EU and Competition Silk of the Year' at the Chambers Bar Awards. He has been a Visiting Professor at King's College, London University, is Chairman of the Competition Law Association and a member of the London Court of International Arbitration. He chairs PBI UK's Lawyers Advisory Committee.
“PBI is a relatively modest organisation – but its contribution has been remarkable. It has shown how protective accompaniment by unarmed international volunteers can bring security and support to those courageous defenders of human rights in places where this is most needed."
Lord Scott of Foscote
The Rt Hon the Lord Scott of Foscote was a Law Lord and remains a member of the House of Lords. During his career, he has been Attorney General of the Duchy of Lancaster, Chairman of the Bar, Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster, and a Lord Justice of Appeal. He has also held the posts of Vice-Chancellor of the Supreme Court, the head of the Chancery Division, and Head of Civil Justice. From 1992 to 1995 Lord Scott conducted a government inquiry into the export from the UK to Iraq of defence-related equipment and related prosecutions. His Report was published in February 1996. He was a Non-Permanent Judge of the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal from 2003 to 2011, and is still a judge of the Civil and Commercial Court of Qatar. Lord Scott is a patron of PBI UK, and was a member of the Alliance for Lawyers at Risk delegation which visited Kenya in December 2014.
John Dew
John Dew is a British ex-diplomat who was in diplomatic service from 1973-2012 and served in various roles, such as FCO Head of Latin America and Caribbean department 2000-2003, British Ambassador to Cuba 2004-2008, and British Ambassador to Colombia 2008-2012. He has a strong record of supporting human rights defenders, including during his time as British Ambassador to Colombia, when he visited various HRDs, including those accompanied by PBI. He has repeatedly expressed his admiration and support for the work of defenders and stressed the need for accompaniment work. He has been working as a print artist since retiring from diplomatic service in 2012.
Helena Kennedy QC
Helena Ann Kennedy QC, FRSA, HonFRSE is a Scottish barrister, broadcaster, and Labour member of the House of Lords. In 1972, Kennedy was called to the bar at Gray's Inn. Among her many cases, Kennedy acted as junior counsel for child murderer Myra Hindley during her 1974 trial for plotting to escape from Holloway Prison.
Donors
Our work is only possible because of the generous individuals and organisations who support us. We are very grateful to the grant-giving charitable trusts who fund our work, including the Evan Cornish Foundation, the Network for Social Change and the Tinsley Foundation.
Thank you to Simmons & Simmons LLP, the Clifford Chance Foundation and Matrix Causes Fund for supporting our work with rule of law and environmental defenders, and to the W F Southall Charitable Trust and the Allan and Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust for enabling us to raise the profile of defenders through ‘Right to Defend: Portraits of Resilience, Hope and Solidarity’.
We also want to extend our thanks to those funders supporting at-risk land and environmental rights defenders: the Frederick Mulder Foundation, the Law Society Charity, and the Open Societies Foundation.
And finally, thank you to all everyone who has donated to our cause but chosen to remain anonymous.