Gandhi had proposed the creation of a "Peace Army" composed of a nucleus of people, prepared for nonviolent intervention, who worked on the prevention, containment and overcoming of acute armed and social conflicts before, during and after the outbreak of hostilities. Since the 1960s, the idea of Gandhi has been taken up by numerous movements, associations and international organisations which have initiated the experimentation of nonviolent interventions in conflict areas, forming themselves into Civilian Peace Corps.
The Civilian Peace Corps are constituted by groups of civilians who enter into areas of conflict as third parties in order to defend Human Rights, protect civilians directly affected by the war, prevent the violent escalation, promote confidence building activities and build nonviolent solutions through nonviolent tools.
The main Civilian Peace Corps, internationally recognised, are: Peace Brigades International, the Community Peacemaker Teams, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Nonviolent Peaceforce, the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel. Among these, Operazione Colomba is the Nonviolent Peace Corps of the Comunità Papa Giovanni XXIII Association.
Since its foundation, the international presence of Operazione Colomba has been serving as a deterrent against Human Rights violations and conflict escalation, decreasing the level of tension and violence. Especially the concern, on the one hand, of being denounced internationally through the Human Rights monitoring activity carried out by its volunteers and, on the other, of creating diplomatic incidents if international volunteers were involved in the clashes discouraged perpetrators from committing crimes.
OPERAZIONE COLOMBA
