Democracy

Peace Brigades International (PBI) has been the leading organization for unarmed protective accompaniment and observation of human rights in conflict areas for over 30 years. International teams accompany threatened activists who work for peace, democracy and justice.

The Federation for Social Defence (German: Bund für Soziale Verteidigung, BSV) is an independent, non-governmental organisation based in Minden, Germany, that unites people and organisations of pacifist and antimilitarist conviction. The BSV was founded in 1989 as an umbrella organisation to promote social defence and other alternatives to the military, and to work for total disarmament. Its creation was the result of a big conference on social or civilian-based defence held in Minden, Germany, a year earlier. Currently, we actively support civil rights groups in Belarus and Ukraine, are engaged in advocacy work to promote the concept of Unarmed Civilian Peacekeeping (UCP), and seek to counter the militarization of youth in (German) schools through peace education.

The Anne Frank centre in Berlin is a partner organisation of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Its main focus is to promote across Germany the memory of Anne Frank and her famous diary. The activities of the Anne Frank Zentrum seek to strengthen the values of freedom, equality and democracy and combat Antisemitism, racism and discrimination. The Anne Frank Zentrum displays the exhibition »Anne Frank. here & now« in Berlin and coordinates travelling exhibition projects throughout Germany. It develops proposals that serve to explore the causes and consequences of the Holocaust and it also offers special one-day events, seminars and opportunities for continuing education. The pedagogical programs developed by the Zentrum are especially aimed at young people, who are encouraged to become more active citizens, more aware of their societal responsibilities and also to learn to make the most of their freedom to participate in society.

Third World Saar Campaign (Aktion 3. Welt Saar) is a social organization that is not linked to any political party. We are not involved in any projects in the Third World because we think that we do not have the right to develop people in other countries. Our objective is to make a difference in Germany. For centuries, Europe has forced its ideas about development upon other countries and thereby destroyed development programs that were already in process. Now it is time to put an end to this kind of violent development policy.

Since we are not associated with any political party, we refuse to focus on one individual objective. Some people expect us to stand up exclusively for topics related to the Third World and stay out of German politics because they assume we cannot achieve anything anyway. But instead, we interfere because we care. We want to bring about changes in Germany.

As an organization that is not linked to any political party, we commit ourselves to topics such as fair trade, world trade, nutrition, political asylum, racism, migration, energy policies, anti-Semitism, militarization, ecology and development policies. Above all, we try to do something about the unequal distribution of goods in the world. We intend to make sure that everyone has access to intellectual and material resources and does not live in poverty and misery.

We, the Third World Saar Campaign,

• are financed by our members and sponsors and are not linked to any political party, church or lobby;
• annually organize 120 events and campaigns independently or in cooperation with other organizations;
• establish networks, link up groups and people and initiate campaigns;
• recommend speakers and provide counselling for the organization of events;
• publish the results of our research and studies on a regular basis.

GONG is a non-partisan citizens' organization founded in 1997 to encourage citizens to actively participate in political processes. GONG conducts non-partisan monitoring of the election process, educates citizens about their rights and duties, encourages mutual communication between citizens and their elected representatives, promotes transparency of work within public services, and manages public advocacy campaigns and encourages and helps citizens in self-organizing initiatives.

The highest GONG body is the Assembly composed of all GONG members. It convenes once a year when it adopts the annual report and chooses Council and Supervisory Board members. Executive Board members are appointed by the Council.

GONG functions through its office in Zagreb, Croatia and GONG's regional partner is Delta organization from Rijeka, Croatia.

GONG conducts its activities within 4 main program domains:

1. ELECTORAL SYSTEM PROGRAM DOMAIN
   Main goal: achieving high democratic standards of the Croatian electoral system which ensures transparency and political participation of all informed stakeholders.
2. GOOD GOVERNANCE PROGRAM DOMAIN
   Main goal: achieving high standards in governing of institutions and political authority representatives who distinguish themselves by honesty, responsibility and openness to the public.
3. ACTIVE CITIZENS PROGRAM DOMAIN
   Main goal: promoting activism, educating and instigating citizens and CSOs to activism and cooperation.
4. CROATIA AND EU PROGRAM DOMAIN
   Main goal: achieving high standards regarding transparency, deliberation and participation in the process of adjusting to the EU standards.

Forum for Freedom in Education is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation, which has been active in Croatia since 1992 and was registered in 1998 in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Associations.

The main goal of Forum is to introduce the educational standards of the contemporary democratic society into the Croatian education system.

The members of the Forum are education experts, experienced practitioners and academics, professors and teachers, parents and students that want to improve on various education issues.

During the past 20 years, main activities of the Forum include creating and implementing education programs for methodological training of the teaching professionals, non-violent conflict resolution, health education, civic education, student scholarships, and training in the field of methodology of teaching.

The Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) grew out of various direct forms of peace-building in Western Slavonia, such as the Voluntary Project Pakrac, from 1993 to 1997). CPS aims at promoting the values of non-violence, social justice, respect for human rights, tolerance, and accepting differences through participative methods such as peace education, research, and through publicly advocating peace-building.
CPS operates through two complementary programs – peace education and peace-building public policies, with a focus on human and minority rights, human security, combating discrimination, asylum rights, education policies, and on dealing with the past.
CPS considers that through building a network of educated citizens, who are skilled in employing the values of peace-building, it contributes to the process of creating an active and influential civil society. By strengthening active and interested citizens, CPS acts as a driving force in promoting a positive and sustainable peace. CPS wants to share its peace-building experience with all interested citizens at the local, regional, and global level.
Through public events and public actions, CPS aims to influence the public, the media and state structures, as well as encourage them to be more active when it comes to the processes of facing the past, articulating peace-building policies, and the peace-building programs.
Today, The Centre for Peace Studies deems the following activities to be fundamentally essential for reducing the unjust distribution of power within society, and for the active transformation of conflict:
• Education for peace, non-violence, and on human rights;
• Advocating peace education within the system of formal education;
• Specialized education for implementing standards of protection of human rights, and for the implementation of anti-discriminatory norms;
• Transforming traditional concepts of security policies into concepts of the individual’s security;
• Fight against xenophobia and racism, advocating global human solidarity through the affirmation of asylum rights, as well as supporting the integration of foreigners based upon the principles of interculturalism;
• Advocating intercultural dialogue, and re-examining the traditional concepts of dominant identities;
• Individual work with victims of human-rights violations, and helping them to create a normal life as fulfilled members of our society;
• Reducing social-economic injustice and the exclusion of certain groups within society;

Public Policy Program. CPS follows all public policies dealing with issues identified as relevant within the extensive and positive context of peace-building. Those issues include – anti-discrimination, asylum rights, human security, interethnic relations, intercultural dialogue and peace education.
CPS works on public policies from the initial process of drafting and analyzing a particular policy; through which, CPS advocates a change or modification of a policy; conducts research and make recommendations as a basis for a certain policy and/or advocates for a new one. CPS advocates for extensive social change in all of the aforementioned issues. Through education and advocate campaigns, CPS addresses the public; while through research, analysis, and expertise, CPS contributes to changes in legislation.

Peace Education Program. CPS’s peace education program consists of: 1. Peace Studies as a holistic interdisciplinary peace-education program for interested citizens and citizens; 2. MIRamiDA Youth – a program for invigorating young people who are active in their own communities; 3. Human-Rights Schools – a training program for high-school students; 4. Trainings for Trainers as an empirical methodical trainings program for disseminating empirical participative peace education.

The Pantheater Hamburg e. V. is a group of professional actors who perform their own plays for children, adolescents and adults all over Germany. These plays are related to development policy in our One World. The group acts in schools, cultural centres, theatres and congregations, but also at public events, such as the Church Congress, meetings on the national level, conferences, congresses, fairs, as well as at events and project weeks in the context of global learning, development policy and environmental policy.

Bookable Event: Explorations in the One World

"Explorations in the One World" are multimedia and scenic travel narratives intended to provide information and encourage commitment to various subjects in an entertaining way. The explorations in Chile, Mexico, India, South Africa, Tanzania, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil and Ghana deal with the struggle for democracy and social justice, fair trade, the situation of street children, racism, the privatisation of drinking water and solar power. They also deal with dignity, identity and much more.

This event includes the performance of an act and a subsequent dialogue with the audience. Moreover, the actors offer to participate in follow-up workshops.

We invite to conferences, seminars, congresses, professional workshops and informal meetings. People from different backgrounds, positions and interests come together to inspire each other in thought, faith and practice. The centre of all our endeavours is the open dialogue which takes the differently minded serious without denying one's own position. The issues of our conferences derive from impulses given by our own staff, participants, guests and working groups assisting the Academy.

The workshop “Solidarische Welt e. V.” (founded in 1980) wants to offer possibilities together with the world store in Augsburg for united action beyond borders. This includes educational work, fair trade, the work for a humane asylum and the support of single projects abroad. We work independently, of benefit to the public and regardless of political parties. Our work is performed in an honourary capacity and full-time. We offer regular series of events: Asia days, African weeks, fair week and peace actions. Moreover, single events, an educational material place, a public library and a north south-info archive. We publish north south information for teachers regularly.