Category Archives: Readings

Only the ‘Readings’ from 2021 onwards are accessible here. For older ‘Readings in Nonviolence’, please click on the “Go to our pre-2021 Archive website’ on the right, and select ‘Readings’ there.

The Peace Line – Digital nonviolence

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with Kate Laverty

Digital nonviolence: Responding to online hate without fuelling the fire

The interfaces are no longer just brick walls or painted peace lines—they are timelines, comment sections, and WhatsApp groups. In Belfast, as in so many places, the conflicts of the street are mirrored and magnified online. The click of the “share” button can escalate just as quickly as a clenched fist. A post can travel faster than a stone, and the damage can cut deeper.

We saw it this summer when young people in Ballymena were pushed to the front of riotous crowds. We have seen this recently in the wake of attacks in Connswater, Belfast, on the cars of delivery drivers. In both cases, the digital violence preceded and legitimised the physical. Hateful online comments did not just echo prejudice but gave it permission to grow.

Digital platforms are not neutral. The architecture of social media and digital surveillance can amplify division and restrict nonviolent action, creating environments where authoritarian or extremist messages gain traction. Constant use of electronic devices may impair the ability to take responsibility for conduct, manage one’s emotions, and develop strong bonds of empathy for others. Nonviolence in this space does not mean silence. Silence, in fact, can become complicity. It means choosing carefully how to respond so that we do not pour fuel on the fire. Digital nonviolence asks: What am I amplifying? Who benefits from my outrage? Whose humanity am I seeing—or refusing to see—when I respond?

Martin Luther King Jr. emphasised that nonviolence is not passive; it is active resistance to evil. It takes strength to respond with calm and understanding rather than a snarky comment or insult online. In my work, I underline the importance of seeking to win friendship and understanding, aiming for redemption and reconciliation rather than defeating individuals. In the digital realm, this means focusing on the issues and injustices at hand, not attacking the person delivering the message.

But the temptation to “clap back” is strong, especially for young people immersed in a culture of instant reaction. Yet the most powerful responses are often the ones that shift the rhythm instead of matching the beat. Sometimes that means calling out hate with humour, or choosing to spotlight kindness instead of cruelty. Sometimes it means refusing to repeat the words of hate, and instead telling the story of the people targeted.

Digital nonviolence is not only about restraining harmful responses—it can also be a powerful tool to amplify positive change. Online platforms allow individuals and communities to gain traction for causes rooted in justice, compassion, and empathy. Campaigns that spotlight human stories, mobilise volunteers, or share evidence-based solutions can create momentum without inciting anger or division.

Across the world, movements have shown how digital platforms can become instruments of nonviolent resistance. During the Arab Spring, activists in Tunisia and Egypt used Facebook and Twitter to organise peaceful demonstrations and document abuses in real time, proving that information itself can be a form of power. In the United States, the #BlackLivesMatter movement leveraged viral videos and hashtags to draw global attention to systemic injustice, turning outrage into education, advocacy, and solidarity without violence. Extinction Rebellion and digital feminist campaigns have demonstrated that online tools can coordinate lawful civil action, amplify marginalised voices, and foster international networks of support. Even under oppressive conditions, such as the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, encrypted messaging and online forums enabled citizens to mobilise safely and strategically.

Taken together, these examples illustrate that digital nonviolence is not passive—it is deliberate, creative, and deeply strategic, allowing communities to resist, organise, and build power without ever raising a fist. By carefully curating messages, using hashtags strategically, and engaging respectfully with audiences, nonviolent actors can turn the speed and reach of digital spaces into instruments of constructive influence. In this way, the internet becomes a stage for creative resistance, where attention is harnessed to lift voices rather than crush them.

In Belfast, community groups have already begun modelling this approach: highlighting solidarity vigils instead of hateful graffiti, amplifying the voices of young peacemakers instead of those stirring division, and teaching youth that “likes” are not worth the loss of dignity. Detached youth workers, when funded and supported, play a critical role here: standing in the gaps, reminding young people that what they post is part of who they are becoming and what they are creating for their community.

Digital nonviolence is not passive—it is creative resistance. As a nonviolent practitioner, my role is to bring awareness to this reality, to help young people recognise the structures that shape their digital behaviour, and to guide them toward choices that sustain empathy, justice, and human dignity.

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Forthspring website is at https://www.forthspring.org/

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Readings in Nonviolence: How nonviolent action might save Gaza

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Introduction

The onslaught on Gaza by the Israeli state and military has created a real hell on earth with starvation used as a weapon of war and destruction, death and displacement being the common experience, and no safe place to go to. In such a situation with ‘our’ states only slowly realising they should do ‘something’ – but continually dithering on what they might do – and the United States backing Israel and Israeli annihilation to the hilt of their terrible sword, we can feel powerless despite perpetual demonstrations and solidarity actions. In this article by Charles Webel there is consideration of what could be done nonviolently on an international basis. The article is taken from the 29th September 2025 edition of Transcend Media Service https://www.transcend.org/tms/2025/09/how-nonviolent-action-might-save-gaza/

How nonviolent action might save Gaza

By Charles Webel, Ph.D.

In Gaza we are witnessing an absolute hell’, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared in August 2025. With over 60 000 people killed – the vast majority civilians, including thousands of children – Gaza has become the most severe test of international humanitarian law since the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. Yet, as diplomatic paralysis grips the Security Council, the world’s most important protection doctrine remains unused.

The UN’s Responsibility to Protect (R2P) could offer a pathway forward, but only if applied through comprehensive nonviolent action rather than failed military paradigms.

A nonviolent framework for protection

R2P emerged from the international community’s failure to prevent genocide in Rwanda and in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995. This doctrine rests on three pillars: states must protect their populations; the international community must assist them; and when states manifestly fail, collective action becomes necessary. Crucially, R2P doesn’t authorise military intervention at will — it demands proportionate, multilateral responses that prioritise prevention and respect international law.

Gaza presents a textbook R2P case. The International Court of Justice found a plausible case that Israel may be committing genocidal acts. Hamas’s October 7 attack in Israel clearly violated international humanitarian law. But with entire neighbourhoods in ruins, infrastructure decimated, and over a million people facing displacement and famine, Gazan civilians are systematically deprived of life’s necessities. When one party to a conflict possesses overwhelming military superiority and civilians suffer mass atrocities, R2P becomes urgent — regardless of nationality or political affiliation.

Traditional military interventions have failed repeatedly in this region. Libya’s 2011 experience showed how R2P’s military application can worsen conflicts rather than resolve them. Gaza thus demands a different approach: sustained nonviolent intervention that protects civilians immediately while addressing the root causes of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

The international community must treat humanitarian access as non-negotiable, employing coordinated diplomatic pressure to ensure that sufficient aid reaches civilians. This means establishing internationally-monitored humanitarian corridors to and within Gaza and demanding unrestricted medical supply access. The UN Security Council should authorise civilian protection missions composed of unarmed international observers whose presence may deter violence and who document abuses. While air drops of supplies serve as interim measures, ground access remains essential for sustained civilian protection.

Sustainable civilian protection comes from empowered communities, not external force.

Military intervention by outside powers in Gaza remains politically untenable and ethically fraught. However, deploying unarmed international observers – human rights monitors, legal experts and civilian protection teams – has proven effective from South Sudan to the West Bank. An International Civilian Protection Corps, trained in nonviolent intervention and conflict de-escalation, should be established immediately. Their presence along humanitarian corridors could reduce attacks on aid convoys while providing transparent documentation of human rights violations by all parties.

Moreover, mass atrocity crimes demand serious consequences. The International Criminal Court must investigate all violations of international humanitarian law, regardless of perpetrators. Targeted sanctions on leaders and entities responsible for war crimes should follow from the UN Security Council, General Assembly or individual states. However, punitive approaches must be complemented by truth and reconciliation processes that address collective trauma. Impunity breeds repetition: accountability deters, but reconciliation heals.

Countries with close ties to Israel bear special responsibility. The United States provides approximately $3.8 billion annually in military aid to Israel. Making this assistance conditional on humanitarian access and civilian protection compliance could put immediate pressure on Israel. Clear red lines – targeting civilians, denying humanitarian access, expanding illegal settlements – should trigger major diplomatic and economic consequences for Israel. States influencing Hamas or other militant groups in Gaza must face similar pressure to uphold international human rights norms.

Lastly, civilian protection also requires addressing root causes. Gaza’s economic strangulation fuels desperation and conflict. Targeted development aid, support for Palestinian economic and political sovereignty and pressure to lift Israeli restrictions on aid that serves no legitimate security purpose are essential. Simultaneously, Palestinian and Israeli civil society organisations working for peace need adequate funding, international accompaniment and amplified voices. Sustainable civilian protection comes from empowered communities, not external force.

The uniting for peace alternative

When the UN Security Council remains deadlocked by veto-wielding powers prioritising strategic interests over humanitarian principles, the General Assembly can act. UN Resolution 377 (V) ‘Uniting for Peace’, adopted in 1950, allows the Assembly to consider matters immediately when the Security Council fails due to permanent members’ vetoes. The resolution enables recommendations for collective measures, including armed force, when necessary, to maintain international peace and security.

Historical applications reveal both potential and limitations. The Suez Crisis in 1956 marked the mechanism’s greatest success — Britain and France complied with General Assembly withdrawal demands following international isolation, leading to the first UN peacekeeping force. Conversely, the Soviet Union completely ignored Assembly calls for Afghanistan withdrawal in 1980, demonstrating this Resolution’s potential impotence against determined major powers.

Most relevant to Gaza is the ongoing Tenth Emergency Special Session on Palestine, convened in 1997 and now the longest-running emergency session in UN history. Despite numerous UN resolutions condemning Israeli settlement activities by overwhelming margins (131-3-14 in 1997), Israel has refused compliance and expressed contempt for Assembly decisions. While achieving symbolic victories like Palestine’s upgraded UN observer status in 2024, fundamental objectives remain unfulfilled after nearly three decades.

Yet, even ‘failed’ applications of Assembly resolutions create legal foundations for future accountability measures and diplomatic isolation. The overwhelming support for Ukraine UN Assembly resolutions (141 countries) demonstrates the potential for broad international consensus when states and NGOs are properly mobilised.

Overcoming Israeli opposition

Israel’s strategic relationship with major powers creates for many of its actions significant protective barriers against meaningful international pressure. However, systematic nonviolent strategies might help overcome this resistance.

Economic leverage provides immediate tools. Beyond conditional or suspended US military aid to Israel, targeted sanctions on Israeli officials blocking humanitarian aid or targeting civilians, modelled on Magnitsky-style legislation, could create personal consequences for perpetrators of human rights violations.

Corporate accountability through divestment campaigns and supply chain disruptions might initiate transparency requirements that pressure companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Gaza’s people deserve more than temporary ceasefires between devastating violence and famine.

As recently announced by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU has suspended bilateral support to Israel and proposed sanctions on ‘extremist ministers’ and violent settlers, thereby demonstrating how multinational entities can apply coordinated economic pressure even when individual member states remain divided. As Israel’s primary trading partner, representing 32 per cent of its overall trade, EU actions carry significant economic weight.

Legal strategies multiply these pressure points. The General Assembly can request International Court of Justice advisory opinions on the legal consequences of Israeli policies. Universal jurisdiction prosecutions in domestic courts for war crimes could create global accountability risks for perpetrators of war crimes and other violations of human rights. Enhanced International Criminal Court cooperation with major powers could facilitate the investigation of all such violations.

Multilateral diplomatic isolation by regional bodies – the African Union, the Arab League and others – of suspected Israeli human rights violators may put pressure on Israeli decision makers to change course. Israel could also be suspended from specific UN bodies or international organisations until its compliance with UN resolutions and international law, as was done with apartheid South Africa. Third-party mediation through neutral countries like Norway or Ireland offers alternatives to failed US-dominated initiatives.

The time for action is now

Gaza’s people deserve more than temporary ceasefires between devastating violence and famine. They deserve an international community committed to their protection through patient, principled nonviolent action.

The tools exist. The legal framework is clear. R2P provides normative authority, Uniting for Peace offers procedural pathways, and successful nonviolent campaigns – from the Palestinian First Intifada in 1987 to anti-apartheid movements – demonstrate the potential efficacy of multilateral action. What’s missing is the political will by global superpowers to move beyond failed military paradigms toward sustained nonviolent initiatives.

Success demands unprecedented coordination among international organisations, civil society and individual activists — moving beyond state-centric protection toward comprehensive strategies addressing Palestinians’ immediate humanitarian needs while building lasting mechanisms for resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Gaza can become either another failure of international protection or a testimony to nonviolent intervention’s transformative power.

The Peace Line with Kate Laverty: Atonement in Practice

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I listened to a mother tell her child he was being punished for failing to attend to her ‘because that’s what happens…’. It made me think of the retributive logic in society: punishment as justice, revenge as moral balance. And I wondered where it had come from. Why can’t we simply forgive? This was how I found myself studying atonement theology.

At the heart of nonviolent atonement theology lies a simple but revolutionary claim: God is not the author of violence, but its victim and healer. The cross is about exposing human violence, forgiving it, and transforming it through love. This view invites us into the presence of a God who refuses to return harm for harm.

As J. Denny Weaver puts it: “The narrative of Jesus does not depict God as a God of violence, but rather as a God who overcomes violence through suffering love.” The cross, then, is not the site of divine punishment, but divine solidarity—Jesus identifying fully with those crushed by injustice and inviting us to do the same. In this light, Jesus’ death is not payment demanded by God, but the consequence of human fear. What is revealed on the cross is not divine anger, but the depth of human violence—and the unshakable mercy of a God who forgives even while dying at our hands.

This understanding resonates deeply with the founding vision of Forthspring, born in west Belfast out of a longing for healing between communities scarred by sectarian violence. Forthspring’s mission—to bring Catholics and Protestants, families and youth, together across lines of suspicion—mirrors the essence of nonviolent atonement: not the erasure of difference, but the refusal to let difference justify violence.

These theological insights do not stand alone within Christianity. They resonate deeply with the wisdom of Islam, which frames God primarily as Ar-Rahman, Ar-Rahim—The Most Merciful, The Most Compassionate. “My mercy encompasses all things,” says God in the Qur’an (7:156). It is a view that calls both Muslims and Christians to reflect God’s mercy in the world—to build societies where justice heals rather than punishes.

While Buddhism has no doctrine of atonement, the Dhammapada teaches: “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal law” (verse 5). This is similar to Jesus’ prayer on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Both voices—Jesus and the Buddha—refuse the logic of vengeance and instead offer a way to break the cycle of suffering.

Forthspring, working in a context of interreligious and intercommunity tension, offers space for these shared values to take root. Our work is not about denying religious difference, but harnessing the spiritual common ground that refuses violence in the name of God.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned a world healed by love, not domination. His concept of the Beloved Community is where nonviolent atonement comes to life: a world where justice and mercy meet, where former enemies share tables, and where systems of harm are transformed into spaces of healing.

As King wrote, “At the centre of nonviolence stands the principle of love.” That love is not sentimental—it is courageous, rooted in the conviction that every person has inherent dignity, even the wrongdoer.

For those of us working in community, especially with youth affected by violence, the implications are urgent. At Forthspring, children are not taught to carry the burdens of the past, but to question them, transform them, and lay them down; adults model restorative justice rather than retribution; diverse faiths sit together in the shared conviction that peace is sacred, and violence is not inevitable.

AVP at 50: A Global Gathering of Peacebuilders

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by Lisa Oelschlegel

This year, the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) marked its 50th anniversary with an international gathering in New York, bringing together hundreds of facilitators from around the world to celebrate and commemorate our shared journey and look towards the future.

AVP is a grassroots movement active in more than 60 countries, including Ireland, where it has been running for over 30 years. In Ireland, we deliver transformative, experiential workshops across 11 prisons. Each workshop is co-facilitated by trained incarcerated facilitators alongside volunteers from the wider community. Together, we create spaces of genuine human connection, spaces where a sense of belonging can take root and where moments of real change emerge, often quietly and unexpectedly. Our workshops help participants develop conflict transformation skills and tools to build healthy, trusting relationships. They foster collaboration, open dialogue, and a shared commitment to non-violence.

In May, our long-standing AVP facilitators Claire, Donna, and AVP co-founder Jenny travelled across the Atlantic to represent AVP Ireland, carrying with them the voices, creativity, and contributions of many others who could not attend in person but who have been integral to this journey for many years.

At the gathering, they shared stories, artwork, and poetry created by incarcerated facilitators in Ireland – powerful glimpses of what AVP means to those whose lives it has touched. They also reflected on recent developments in Ireland, including work on community building, consensus-based decision-making, and nurturing strong relationships through open communication. Claire and Donna led a particularly impactful breakout session on AVP workshops that explored the links between gender and violence, sparking rich discussions about gender, identity, power, and personal transformation.

The international gathering was moving in ways that are hard to put into words: breakout sessions, stories of change, cultural exchanges, and a visit to Green Haven Prison, where AVP first began in 1975. One participant summed it up beautifully: “We all felt it—whether separated by distance or by walls, we are one family.”

We also learnt about how outside of Ireland, AVP has found its way into many other places too: schools, refugee camps, and community centres around the world. The New York event was not only a moment to reflect on the past and present, but also an opportunity to look forward: expanding youth engagement, strengthening trauma-informed practices, supporting prison re-entry programmes, and reimagining how AVP shares its message more widely. Whether through work with young people, in prisons, in communities, or with those returning from prison, AVP continues to grow in relevance, reach, and hope.

If you would like to learn more about AVP or become part of this journey, we would love to hear from you!

Website: www.avpireland.ie
Email: info@avpireland.ie
Follow us: Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn

– The INNATE photo album on AVP is at https://www.flickr.com/photos/innateireland/albums/72157645765804171/

Pope Francis and nonviolence: Let’s move towards a “Nonviolent Culture”, an “Other Way”

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by Sylvia Thompson, Tralee

On the death of Pope Francis, on Easter Monday 21 April 2025 an email came from Pax Christi International with the following: “A Compendium of Pope Francis’ Use of The Term “Nonviolence” in Statements, Interviews, or Other Papal-Related Texts in English: 2013-2025” https://paxchristi.net/a-compendium-of-pope-francis-use-of-the-term-nonviolence/

The Compendium was drawn up by Ken Butigan, Executive Committee Member of Pax Christi International’s Catholic Nonviolence Initiative and Coordinating Committee Member of The Catholic Institute for Nonviolence. Butigan wrote that, in a series of books, presentations, statements, and interviews, Pope Francis called us to this “other way”: active nonviolence, a core Gospel value that combines the rejection of violence with the power of love and reconciliation in action.

I found it compelling reading and will share some favourite texts and quotes from it and may this inspire you to consult it for reference, read it in full or better still, try to ensure that this legacy is not only treasured but acted on.

“Let us make nonviolence a guide for our actions both in daily life and in international relations. And let us pray for a more widespread culture of nonviolence that will progress when countries and citizens alike resort less and less to the use of arms.” – Pope Francis April prayer intention: ‘For a nonviolent culture.’ 2023.

Amid the enormous violence and injustice our world faces—what the Holy Father has called “a third world war fought piecemeal,” there is …a “global culture of violence including permanent war, growing poverty, threats to civil liberties, ecological devastation, the enduring terror of nuclear weapons, and the scourge of the structural violence of racism, sexism, and economic injustice and other forms of systemic injustice “ – Ken Butigan Pope Francis urged the world to confront this catastrophic suffering, not with more violence, but with a nonviolent revolution of tenderness and again to confront the reality of violence with active and transformative Gospel nonviolence.

This “other way” is not avoidance, or appeasement, or aggression, or attack. It is a dramatically different way of being in the world, of working for peace, of building movements and systems, and of being faithful to the vision of Jesus – a recognition of the primacy of diplomacy over the noise of arms.

“Living, speaking, and acting without violence is not surrendering, losing or giving up anything, but aspiring to everything.”

“This is not the same as weakness or passivity; rather it presupposes firmness, courage and the ability to face issues and conflicts with intellectual honesty, truly seeking the common good over and above all partisan interest, be it ideological, economic or political.”

“To be true followers of Jesus today…includes embracing his teaching about nonviolence”, “In the most local and ordinary situations and in the international order, may nonviolence become the hallmark of our decisions, our relationships and our actions, and indeed of political life in all its forms,” and may we “make active nonviolence our way of life.” – Pope Francis, Message, for the Celebration of the Fiftieth World Day of Peace, 1 January 2017, “Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace”

“…I think of nonviolence as a perspective and way of understanding the world, to which theology must look as one of its constitutive elements.”

“Before the scandal of war, in the first place, our concern must not be for talking and discussing, but for weeping, for helping others and for experiencing conversion ourselves. We need to weep for the victims and the overwhelming bloodshed, the deaths of so many innocent people, the trauma inflicted on families, cities, and an entire people. …But we also need to experience conversion, and to recognize that armed conquest, expansionism, and imperialism have nothing to do with the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed. Nothing to do with the Risen Lord, who in Gethsemane told his disciples to reject violence, to put the sword back in its place, since those who live by the sword will die by the sword (Mt 26:52), and who, cutting short every objection, simply said: “Enough!” (cf. Lk 22:51). – Vatican News, June 30, 2022:

“In our complex and violent world, it is truly a formidable undertaking to work for peace by living the practice of non-violence!” – World Day of Peace: Nonviolence: A Style of Politics for Peace, 2017

Speaking to all religious leaders in 2017, in ‘Pathways to Peace’, he said “we also have a special responsibility to be and to live as people of peace, bearing insistent witness that God detests war, that war is never holy, and that violence can never be perpetrated or justified in the name of God. We are likewise called to trouble consciences, to spread hope, to encourage and support peacemakers everywhere. –

Francis does not let anyone off the call – older age included:

“Old age is no time to give up and lower the sails, but a season of enduring fruitfulness: a new mission awaits us and bids us look to the future.” Message of the Holy Father Francis for the Second World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly (24 July 2022).

Pope Francis launched an impassioned plea for nations to set aside war and the threat of nuclear destruction. “…there is no occasion in which a war can be considered just. There is never a place for the barbarism of war, especially not when contention acquires one of its most unjust faces: that of so called ‘preventive wars.’” The choice to follow the path of nonviolence and continued existence, concluded Pope Francis, lies with us.

When asked about an encyclical on nonviolence, Pope Francis replied” “Yes, the plan exists, but the next Pope will do it… There are other projects on the back burner. One of them is on peace. It’s maturing. I feel I will do it when the time comes. …I don’t feel ready yet to write an encyclical on non-violence, I have to pray a lot and find the way.”

So now we wait or rather call on Pope Leo and I don’t think he needs much encouragement judging by his first words on being elected “Peace be with you all”.

On May 30, 2025, Pope Leo XIV issued a powerful call for nonviolence as a way of life, urging individuals and communities to resist the global surge of hostility. Addressing over 300 peace movement representatives gathered in the Vatican, the Pope declared that “nonviolence, as a method and a style, must characterise our decisions, our relationships, our actions.” This audience marked the one-year anniversary of the “Arena of Peace” gathering in Verona, where Pope Francis met with these same groups in May 2024.

Building on that momentum, Leo XIV, already known for his pastoral clarity and cultural sensitivity, offered a deeply human reflection on the moral imperative of peace: “There is too much violence in the world, too much violence in our societies,” he said, listing war, terrorism, human trafficking, and a broader “culture of aggression” that permeates daily life. In contrast, he stressed that children and young people “need experiences that teach them the value of life, dialogue, and mutual respect.”

In his remarks, the Pontiff elevated those who suffer injustice yet refuse vengeance. These witnesses, he said, are “the most credible protagonists of nonviolent peace-building.” He emphasised the need for “a different way of life — nonviolent at its core,” and challenged attendees to embody that in everyday choices.

Quoting his predecessor Francis, Leo XIV noted that peace begins by “standing with the victims and seeing from their perspective.” This outlook, he said, can disarm hearts, change minds, and expose the injustices of systems “that kill and are built on a throwaway culture.”

He also invoked St. John Paul II’s teaching that peace “is an indivisible good: it is either for everyone, or for no one,” highlighting the communal dimension of true peace. Acknowledging the long road peace requires, Leo XIV added that conflicts should not be ignored or erased, but rather “recognised, embraced, and endured together.”

The pope’s vision, grounded in Catholic Social Teaching, reaches beyond the Church’s walls. “The Gospel and the Church’s social doctrine can serve as a meaningful compass for everyone — believers and non-believers alike.” Seven Themes of Catholic Social Teaching | USCCB

The most poignant moment came when Leo XIV honoured two audience members: Maoz Inon, an Israeli whose parents were killed in the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack, and Aziz Sarah, a Palestinian whose brother was killed by the Israeli military. The Pope recalled their public embrace in Verona — a gesture of courage and reconciliation that moved the crowd to applause. “That moment remains a sign of hope,” he said. In a world overwhelmed by conflict, Pope Leo XIV offers a counter current — rooted in dignity, courage, and the conviction that peace is a disciplined act of love.

And finally in July 2025 in a message to participants in Pax Christi USA’s annual National Assembly, a conference focused on “Reclaiming the power of nonviolence in a broken world”, Pope Leo says “efforts to promote nonviolence are all the more necessary” in a world facing the challenges including war, division, and forced migration.

“In the midst of the many challenges facing our world at this time, including widespread armed conflict, division among peoples, and the challenges of forced migration, efforts to promote nonviolence are all the more necessary. Pope Leo invited participants to recall that “after the violence of the Crucifixion, the Risen Christ’s first words to the Apostles offered peace,” a peace that is “unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering”.

“Jesus continues to send His followers into the world to become creators of peace in their daily lives”. Therefore “it is all the more important for a Church capable of reconciliation to be present and visible” in parishes, neighbourhoods, and especially on the peripheries of society. Pope Leo expressed his hope that the National Conference would inspire members of Pax Christi USA to work to make their local communities “‘houses of peace’ where one learns how to defuse hostility through dialogue, where justice is practiced and forgiveness is cherished”.

By doing so, he said, “you will enable many more people to embrace Saint Paul’s invitation to live at peace with their brothers and sisters”.

So now we call on Pope Leo to issue a much needed and urgent encyclical on nonviolence, maybe it is already in preparation!

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INNATE is pleased to publish input on nonviolence from religious or secular viewpoints and contributions have included reflections from Buddhist and Jain perspectives. This valuable contribution on nonviolence in the Catholic tradition, with relevance to others, is from long time peace and green activist Sylvia Thompson in Co Kerry.

Children’s rights in Ireland

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Note of Panel Discussion held in Birr Library, 16th August 2025:

From Cáin Adomnáin to Today – Exploring the Evolution of Children’s Rights in Ireland

by Caroline Hurley

Background

For Heritage Week 2025, the Museum of Childhood Ireland/Músaem Óige na Éireann, teamed up with Birr Library to create a series of exhibitions, workshops and a panel discussion. Entitled Seen And Heard, under the theme, Exploring Our Foundations, the project traced the story of children’s rights in Ireland from Cáin Adomnáin to the present day.

Key among the activities hosted was the Seen and Heard Panel Discussion, ‘From Cáin Adomnáin to Today – Exploring the Evolution of Children’s Rights in Ireland’, from 1.30 to 3.00pm Saturday 16 August 2025. The panel consisted of historians and children’s rights advocates describing and discussing children’s rights from early Irish law to present day protections and future ambitions.

Location choice was not accidental. Birr, Co Offaly became the birthplace of one of the world’s earliest child protection (and international humanitarian) laws – the fascinating Cáin Adomnáin, written in 679 AD. Also known as the Lex Innocentium (Law of Innocents*), Cain Adomnáin dates back to the Synod of Birr in 697 AD. The law gave protection to women, children, clerics and other non-arms-bearing people in time of strife, and was the first such known law in the history of Western Europe, if not the world. A copy of the book, Cáin Adomnáin, illustrated by artist Caroline Conway, is on permanent display in Birr Library.

The event was filmed, for viewing soon on the museum’s website. Irish Sign Language interpreters accompanied speakers. The panel was co-chaired by Eoin Murphy, youth rights citizen advocate; and Marie Baker, former Supreme Court judge with experience in Constitutional law relating to children, now Electoral Commission Chair.

Four panellists took part. Based in Birr, Dr James W. Houlihan is a retired solicitor and historian whose doctoral research culminated in the critically-acclaimed book, Adomnán’s Lex Innocentium and the Laws of War (Four Courts Press, 2020), a detailed exploration of Adomnán’s Text (currently out of print but queued for reprint.) Combining his legal expertise with rigorous historical scholarship, Houlihan situates this early medieval Irish code within the broader evolution of children’s rights.

Donnah Sibanda Vuma works for Limerick based NGO, Doras; supporting and promoting the rights of migrants in Ireland, and has particular concerns about the direct provision system. Donnah is currently undertaking a Masters in Peace and Development Studies.

Eamonn Carroll has practised as a family lawyer for over 30 years, championing child rights in the courts. A longtime family mediator, he spearheaded the establishment of Collaborative Practice for family law in Ireland.

Formerly of the Migrant Rights Center Ireland who organised Young, Paperless and Powerful, a creative youth project for undocumented young people, Mairéad McDevitt is a Dublin based Youth & Community worker and youth migrant rights consultant, focusing on those impacted by immigration policies.

Panel Presentations

Chairperson of Museum of Childhood Ireland, Majella McAllister opened the event, thanking about thirty people present for coming. She outlined elements and goals of ‘Seen and Heard’; the first event on Birr’s Heritage Week programme; fittingly, given the town as birthplace of Cáin Adomnáin/Lex Innocentium. She outlined objectives of the Museum of Childhood Ireland, designed according to United Nations principles, open to citizen participation, and putting into practice the ideal of cherishing all equally. The Museum serves both Irish people and the diaspora. She conveyed apologies from former children’s ombudsman and museum board member, Emily Logan.

Chair Marie Baker introduced James W. Houlihan, world expert and author on the Cáin Adomnáin text, whose subject matter of noncombatant rights and protections during war was not really formally developed again until the twentieth century.

James welcomed everyone to Birr. He framed Cáin Adomnán, translated as the Law of Adomnán, known also as Lex Innocentium, as a child protection measure introduced thirteen centuries ago. Contemporaneous Irish Annals refer to the text and enrolment ceremony. From Donegal, Adomnán was the ninth abbot of Iona, after St. Columba who founded the monastery there. Adomnán used his influence to persuade church and lay leaders to come to Birr to agree his inspired law on the glorious occasion of the 697 Synod convened by him.

The list of guarantors , all of whom probably attended, survives. At the top of the secular list is then Irish High King, Loingsech mac Óengusso, followed by 50 lesser kings. Bishop of Armagh, Fland Feblae mac Scandlin, heads up the list of 40 ecclesiastic leaders. These luminaries, about one hundred, are presumed to have gathered at the gates of St. Brendan’s Monastery, (now in ruins) bordering Emmett Square near Birr library. Remarkable in intent, substance, and delivery, the law was conceived to defend the defenceless, the non-arm-bearing non-combatants; to assure immunity to the harmless and innocent. Relevance to the current moment, in Gaza, Ukraine etc. is glaringly obvious.

Mankind’s humanity was now being commemorated, particularly relating to children, because Adomnán took a radical initiative in what was then an incredibly inegalitarian and hierarchical society where authoritarian kings were unquestioningly obeyed. Dr. Houlihan sketched the social and legal situation in 7th century Ireland. The Brehon Laws applied, with inequitable rules and restitutions linked to status, except when it came to children up to seven years old, who, whether progeny of king or commoner, received equal legal protection.

Also, when an adult female was killed, a significant penalty had to be paid, in contrast to all males over seven, requiring little or none. These rule outliers gave Adomnán enough to make the case that penalties should also be paid for boys killed until they reached manhood. He was able to convince prominent social figures, expected to hold entrenched views and enmities, to change their minds. Historical research confirms that this is the first such law of its kind, prefiguring the Geneva Convention, to be promulgated in Europe and perhaps in the world. As lawmakers flurry to revise shortcomings emerging in international law, the importance of Cáin Adomnáin grows even greater as a foundation stone to build on.

The chair then asked Eoin Carroll to sum up developments in children’s law. He expressed delight at being present, while starkly aware of the theme’s relevance to ongoing global conflicts. Progress had steadily been made away from harsh Victorian statutes, such as corporal punishment, especially with the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Having it written down makes a difference. Eventually Ireland began to draft parallel laws, such as the children’s rights referendum resulting in a 2012 Constitutional amendment prioritising children’s own voices and best interests.

Work in court had changed a lot. The Children’s Rights Alliance did great work. Judges and other parties were receiving appropriate training, resulting in better understandings and outcomes. Disputes about child custody heard in district courts were complex. Authority was giving way to flexibility and support. Court representation for children is now routine, although children in care, especially those with special needs, disabilities, and Travellers, are still often let down by inadequate services. Frequently, agencies have to be pressurised and cajoled into providing services children are entitled to. Accountability generally works, for example, when the court requires named service providers to appear in court. The problem now is not process but availability of resources, impeding implementation of rulings.

Next, the chair introduced Donnah Sibanda Vuma, child advocate who, after coming through Ireland’s international protection system with three children in 2014, brought first-hand knowledge to her role. She commended Ireland’s stance championing children’s rights; less so, failures to enact those rights. She warned that marginalised children were being excluded, and left behind which, in light of Ireland’s history of institutionalisation, was alarming. Would detention centres be condemned in future like Magdalene Laundries? To prevent this, she suggested being ambitious, going for true equality so that no child would ever face street or structural violence, and the most vulnerable would never be abandoned between child protection cracks, as happens to this day.

Mairéad McDevitt agreed that there was a disconnect between laws and process, and how they play out in children’s lives i.e. provisions fall short to address poverty, overcrowding, health needs etc, imperilling safe dignified existences. Today’s legal framework only covers some children. Citing migrants, she demonstrated that migration is very common. Nearly everyone does it at some point. A mindset conflating migration with impermanence leads to assumptions damaging for children, because residency status determines futures and ability to plan. Migrants, especially those undocumented, have fewer options, more obstacles. Destructive features of the family reunification policy ignore circumstances, hampering adjustment. Wealthy Ireland is not rushing to fix these issues. The EC legal framework adds to challenges by not accounting for socio-economic realities like homelessness, which leaves children in dangerous vulnerable places. Statutes are easy; incarnating them, not so much. Ramifications are very serious for children impacted.

The chair noted that the citizenship referendum set progress back, with paternalism remaining in the system, but in any case, the court could not be held responsible for all failures.

Panel Discussion & Close

A discussion then took place about what could be done to improve matters. Suggestions included: adopting the Lundy model, ensuring children have choices, agency, and spaces to play, listening that isn’t just a box-ticking exercise; informing and educating all parties and the public; instituting child and family approaches cross-departmentally for all policies; harnessing political will which not only drives narratives but determines systemic results; creating opportunities to talk and reduce hate; and service auditing, which proves effective.

The chair said that children need to know that rights come with obligations, for example, if the voting age was reduced to 16, a controversial topic open to political manipulation. The chair said the youth have been left a mess to clean up. At least reports of the Ombudsman show they were listening. and the role was advancing, including more recommendations on homelessness, IPAS (International Protection Accommodation Services), and other urgent hindrances. On that note of hope, the event was brought to a close.

Related Activities

Concomitantly in the library, a thought-provoking exhibition created by the Museum of Childhood Ireland, working with artist Fergal McCarthy, explored the history of children’s rights in Ireland. This work incorporated school visits with children in Birr and Dublin and workshops with local Birr groups Biorra le Gaeilge and Elm Grove House, IPAS Centre and was carried out using the Lundy Model of participation. Open to adults and children of all ages, the exhibition highlighted fascinating children’s rights milestones through imaginative and curiosity-sparking drawings by the artist and collaborating groups. Creative drop-in workshops with the artist were held through the week. A specially-created suitcase—filled with interactive games and hands-on activities about children’s rights— stayed with the exhibition in Birr Library until Saturday 23 August, offering ongoing opportunities for discovery and engagement throughout Heritage Week.

Endnotes

*On 21 September 2024, International Day of Peace, Lex Innocentium 21st Century was launched in Birr and Lorrha as a new people’s or popular law on war, based on the original 697 CE law enacted in Birr at the Synod instigated by Adomnán, abbot of Iona, as reported here – https://innatenonviolence.org/wp/2024/10/01/news-october-2024/

Author’s reflection: law and money only go so far. Auditing and accountability as mentioned engage commitment and action, while fairness and kindness improve everything making disappointments tolerable. Regaining humanity is the shared universal necessity.

The Peace Line with Kate Laverty: The Violence of Language – Microaggressions, Tone, and Dismissal

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We are delighted that Kate Laverty will be joining us as a regular columnist under the title ‘The Peace Line’ – this among other things relates or refers to the geographical location of her work based in Belfast. Welcome, Kate – Ed.

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Forgiveness is one of the most underappreciated forms of social glue — a quiet, resilient bond that holds relationships together in the face of rupture. This month, I was reminded that in youth work, our most dangerous moments are not always defined by obvious conflict or visible harm, but by the subtle and insidious violence we can do with our words.

In a moment of frustration, I spoke too quickly and with too much authority. I corrected before I connected. I forgot that the space I was in — the youth centre — belongs to the young people first. My presence there is not a right, but a privilege, one that must be exercised with humility and awareness.

This moment invited me to reflect on how language, though often taken for granted, can be a site of harm. As practitioners committed to nonviolence, we often focus on physical acts — what we do or do not do. But language, too, can wound. Microaggressions, dismissive tones, or the casual erosion of someone’s agency through a poorly chosen word — these are forms of violence that cannot be undone with good intentions alone.

Philosopher Judith Butler reminds us that “language sustains the body, but it can also threaten its life” (Excitable Speech, 1997). Words can be acts — performative in their consequences — especially when spoken from a position of authority. In youth work, the harm of language lies not only in what is said but in who is speaking and how power flows in that interaction.

Microaggressions are often unintentional, but their impact is cumulative. They function as small, repeated reminders of hierarchy, exclusion, or disrespect. A raised voice. A sarcastic tone. A public correction that ignores context. These subtle cues can strip young people of dignity, agency, and trust — even if spoken with the best of intentions. Derald Wing Sue, who has written extensively on microaggressions, emphasises their “invisibility” to the perpetrator and their emotional toxicity to the recipient. When repeated, they shape environments where young people feel diminished rather than empowered.

What I experienced was not a breakdown in behaviour, but a breakdown in presence. I forgot to listen before I spoke. I forgot to pause. And I forgot that leadership in youth work is not about control — it’s about invitation. It’s about standing with, not speaking over. As Marshall Rosenberg argues in his work on Nonviolent Communication (2003), we must distinguish between language that is life-alienating and that which is life-affirming. Language that diagnoses, demands, or labels can sever connection; language that listens, names needs, and offers presence can restore it.

In Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970), he describes the act of speaking with — rather than speaking to or about — as a form of liberation. Nonviolence, then, is not just a political principle; it is a relational discipline. It calls us to examine how our tone, timing, and temperament communicate either power or partnership. Language can either extend dignity or withdraw it. It can close down conversations or open up space for transformation.

In youth work, as in all human relationships, there is a sacred responsibility to speak with care. Our words must be guided by empathy, not ego. We must remain vigilant about how easily the tools of language — when untethered from reflection — can become instruments of harm.

This experience humbled me. But it also reminded me that language, like youth work itself, is never neutral. It either honours the humanity in the room or diminishes it. The true work of peace begins with how we speak, and whether our speech makes space for others to be fully seen. – – – – –

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Duchas by Helen Henderson

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Duchas (Irish Gaelic) Duthchas (Scots Gaelic) : identity, being and belonging in nature or place. A sense of origin, relations, interconnectedness, heritage, tradition and identity.

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I am inviting you to come with me, on a Turas, a journey, from disconnection to connection, from exile to belonging, from extraction to restoration, from decolonising to re-indigenising,

We all come from somewhere, we all have ancestors, we all are sustained by the eco-systems that provide us with air, water, food and ground to stand on.

Imagine a jigsaw puzzle on a large table, depicting a detailed picture made up of thousands of small pieces. It is as if this puzzle was thrown up in the air, falling, fragmented all over the floor, like a trauma memory. No sense of chronology or story. In many ways, trying to understand our history here on this island is like trying to put the pieces of this jigsaw back together to make sense of what happened to this place and people. Why do we not have the full story?

Is mise Helen agus is as Doire me. I was born and raised in Doire-Derry-the Oak Grove in what would be perceived as a Protestant-Unionist-Loyalist cultural background. Originally, I viewed history as the problem, the reason that we are still stuck, and I had no appreciation of how history is re-lived every day in the place that I come from. When I started working in youth and community work, we focused on promoting ‘good relations’ to foster trust between the two main communities in Northern Ireland. I had no knowledge of the colonial and imperial project that was Ireland for hundreds of years, and ultimately still is Ireland today. Good relations work was not interested in the root causes of the most recent conflict in the North and seemed to place all the blame for ‘our troubles’ on the working class communities that were most impacted by the violence.

I later moved into ‘Global Education’ where we educated teachers about the structural causes of poverty and inequality across the globe and the damage caused by our capitalist and extractive systems. Here, I learned more about colonisation across the world and the impact of that in ‘developing countries’ but the local conflict and context seemed to be invisible. This illuminated the fact that our capitalist system is built on an invisible foundation of racism, white supremacy and slavery and this is still very much the case today. Slavery has not gone away, it is just well hidden. Trade, Aid, Debt continue to be used to maintain a status quo and ultimately keep poor countries poor and condense the wealth within a few powerful hands and corporations. The issue of decolonisation was pursued in an academic, conceptual, ‘heady’ way but seemed to be hard to put into practice or a real life local context.

As I started digging, a book called ‘The Ghost Limb’ written by Claire Mitchell resonated with me, as she explained her feeling of being detached from her Irish identity as a Protestant from the North. She had a sense that key parts of her identity were severed, but still haunted her as a wound or a longing. She connects with the story of the United Irishmen and the Rebellion in 1798 as a pivotal moment in history where Protestants and Catholics united against the British Imperial Powers and suffered one of the most brutal crackdowns and slaughter. Without going into a full essay on Irish history, the learning for me was about one of the most effective tools of colonisation: Divide and Conquer. I could see the ‘Protestant-Catholic-Sectarian’ story in a systemic light and see that this was not purely a good relations issue between two groups of people who just couldn’t get along. I embarked on a personal reckoning about what this meant for me, my ancestry and my role going forward as an ‘alternative’ protestant.

I embarked on a Triscele place based mentoring programme developed by 3 sports practitioners that sent me on an ever deepening pattern of three spirals: 1. The sacred nature connection 2. Ancestry and power 3. The stories we create through culture. Over the next few years I had the privilege to meet folk from across the world including Maori, Native Hawaiian, Menominee, Lakota and Inupiat. These folk were encouraging and supportive and advised that we have a responsibility to find out more about our own Ancestors, restore our connection to Land and Nature, and to learn the language of the Land. The way back to healing, peace and well-being was through the process of re-indigenising ourselves to our place, traditions and eco-systems. We needed to do our own digging.

There are shared values across many of the Indigenous Nations including: Nature as teacher and expert, Nature connection as sacred, Welcoming and hosting, sharing and collective care, honouring the Ancestors, gratitude practice, reciprocity and the inherent appreciation for the interdependence of all living things. These values are obvious and evident in Indigenous world-view and practices. Whilst there is a lot of work needed to push back against the pervasive individualism and disconnection in our communities, I believe that these indigenous values are evident here on this island. We just need to know where to look and how to practise them.

People can know things in different ways including an embodied way, an ancestral way, a spiritual way and the intellectual way of knowing is overly dominant in heavily colonised western societies. During the lockdown, I was delivering trauma training and was teaching folk about how every single human being has a reptilian, mammalian and human set of wiring and the rational brain is the most recent part of our ‘human’ wiring. We take the world in through our senses as raw data, which is passed through the reptilian brain, then the mammalian, and eventually the human brain gets the information and makes up a story to explain it all. It is a lot more complex than this, but this transformed the way that I worked as an educator, inviting people to build a relationship with their body, their felt sense and trust the knowledge that comes from attunement to the natural world. Our bodies are a wonderful tool for re-indigenising and this is a practice that deepens our sense of connection and empathy for all living beings. To notice is to honour.

Putting the two words of Indigenous and Ireland together in the same breathe creates all sorts of conversations. It is an invitation to dialogue about how we find our way home, back to the land and back to a way of being in the world that is not harmful, divisive and extractive. Some people don’t want the discomfort of the conversation and prefer to make a judgement. Historically, here in the North of the island, folk from very different sides of the conflict and world views sat around the table and talked, shared, cried, laughed and recognised the common humanity in each-other. We were able to move beyond the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ and sit down with people who were labelled ‘dissident’ ‘terrorist’ or ‘sectarian’.

Our bodies, minds and communities are so hypercolonised that often we can’t even see it. The social programming that I received, through education, media, church and state were so strong and contained very clear messages about women, religion, the Global South, and was largely euro centric, individualistic and racist. It would be a miracle if I got to adulthood without some very challenging perceptions and ideas. We cannot ignore issues of power, patriarchy and privilege and in Ireland, and across the earth, the playing fields are not level. I believe that the process of decolonising involves as much painful unlearning of the social programming as it does learning. It also involves a collective process and dialogue in that we cannot ‘fix’ these issues in our heads or on our own, or by simply saying ‘Well, I am not racist/sexist/ablist’.

Our current media can offer a lot of posturing and virtue signalling about these issues but not much real life action or digging to the root causes. It is quick to point the finger and demonise and I am not sure if that is the long-term answer to our human race living peacefully and cooperatively together. Core values of equality, cooperation, compassion and collective care are what make us human and connect us through our common humanity. I don’t have any answers or solutions but I long to find a way back to our rightful place, as a flourishing part of this wonderful eco-system that we are blessed to know.

Divide and Conquer is still alive and well today, so let’s sit down and have a chat and a cup of tea.

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Helen Henderson has spent most of her working life in the third sector, and has a background in youth work, community development and peace building. She managed a community centre based in Derry/Londonderry, St Columb’s Park House, developing programmes promoting non-violent activism, participative democracy and compassionate leadership and also worked for an international NGO as a Global Education manager. Recently, Helen secured a Board appointment as a Commissioner for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and co-founded Indigenous Ireland https://indigenous.ie/ as a voluntary collective group of people and organisations who are committed to decolonising and re-indigenising minds, bodies, education and eco-systems. 

READINGS IN NONVIOLENCE

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l ‘Readings in Nonviolence’ features extracts from our favourite books, pamphlets, articles or other material on nonviolence and related areas, or reviews of important works in the field (suggestions and contributions welcome)

N-E-U-T-R-A-L-I-T-Y

A song for our times by John Maguire

People are free to use this new song by wordsmith John Maguire as the struggle continues against the Irish government’s plans to ditch the Triple Lock on the deployment of Irish troops overseas and get even more involved with NATO and EU militarism –

John Maguire says – These are the words of a song that at least might lift the spirits a little in these troubled times.  It goes to the tune of ‘The Wearing of the Green’, which starts: 

Oh Paddy, dear, and did you hear the
News that’s going round?
The shamrock is by law forbid
To grow on Irish ground

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The Government need all our help – they’re such a sorry band! –
So we’ve to spell out certain words that they don’t understand,
Or maybe they don’t want to hear, and simply won’t see why
Our policy’s N-E-U-T-R-A-L-I-T-Y!
We knew we weren’t the greatest, but we tried to do our best,
Until our leaders said: ‘Let’s join The Big Guns of the West!
Let’s throw our values overboard, let’s really clear the decks
And join the Milit’ry-Industrial C-O-M-P-L-E-X!’


CHORUS:
We won’t sell it out; we’ll spell it out, and tell the whole world why
We’re sticking with N-E-U-T-R-A-L-I-T-Y!

Some decades past, up in Belfast, our leaders worked for peace.
They used their wit, and did their bit to help the slaughter cease.
Then Tony said: ‘Peace has its price, and here’s ‘our Bill’, you see:
You’ll have to sign on the dotted line with NATO’s PfP.
We’re taking over the UN, we’ll use it when it suits,
But we’ll decide who’s wrong or right, and where we plant our boots.
Forget the UN Charter, we now make the rules, you see:
(Just not a word to Mairéad M-A-G-U-I-R-E!)’

CHORUS

We turned down Nice and Lisbon, and were told to vote again.
But  still we kept on questioning, so in desperation then
They swore to us ‘From the UN we’ll never turn away!
We’ll give you a T-R-I-P-L-E  L-O-C-K!’
That was their solemn promise, and they swore that it was sound.
Don’t let them take it from us: by their words they are still bound.
Let’s work to rescue the UN from NATO’s dire control
That’s the way to save our planet, that’s the way to save our souls!

CHORUS

Witness as a form of nonviolent resistance

Eco-Awareness, Readings, ,

by Kate Laverty

Witness is one of the quietest, yet most powerful forms of nonviolent resistance. To witness is to stand present—to injustice, to suffering, to oppression—and refuse to look away. It is an act of moral courage that declares: “I see, I will not be silent, and I will not allow harm to happen unnoticed.” In a world where denial and distraction often shield systems of power from accountability, the simple act of being present becomes radical.

Witnessing has deep roots in civil rights movements, truth commissions, and protest traditions. From the silent vigils of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to those who document state violence and systemic racism, witness serves not only to expose truth but to humanize it. It resists the erasure of lived experience, especially of those most marginalized, and demands that we reckon with it.

As a practice, witness involves listening with empathy, showing up in solidarity, and holding space for stories that are too often ignored. It does not demand control or impose solutions, but rather insists on the dignity of those suffering and the responsibility of those who can act.

In Northern Ireland, the legacy of witness can be seen in peace trails, remembrance vigils, and community storytelling initiatives that bridge divides. It creates pathways for reconciliation by fostering empathy and shared truth. 

We’re beginning our own community storytelling work in Forthspring Intercommunity Group, building on the Five Decades Project. And I’m learning, witness is not passive.  It disrupts silence. It holds power to account. It reminds the world that someone is watching, someone cares, and someone will remember. And in that remembering, injustice begins to lose its grip.

As a form of nonviolence, witness teaches us that presence matters. That showing up, with compassion and conviction, is a force for change. It is the first step in transforming pain into peace.  In a world where denial and distraction often shield systems of power from accountability, the simple act of being present becomes radical.

Youth workers know this intimately. In the face of genocide in Palestine, our ability to act has often felt limited. Donations to provide aid or extract families are necessary but ad hoc; they respond to crisis but don’t shift the underlying structures. What remains, consistently and insistently, is our witness. Bearing witness—through protest, through vigil, through conversation with young people—is sometimes the only tool we have to resist, to raise awareness, and to show unwavering solidarity.

Events like the IPSC Barclays Belfast protest (Saturdays, 11:00–13:00) and the Aldergrove (Belfast International Airport) Peace Vigil (Second Sunday of each month, 14:00–15:00) are more than symbolic. They are anchoring points in a brutal news cycle—reminders of our collective commitment to justice. These acts of public witness keep me focused. They reaffirm that being seen, standing still, and refusing silence is a form of protest that honours our value of nonviolence.

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Kate Laverty is director of Forthspring Intercommunity Group in Belfast. Contacts: director@forthspring.com and 07746984833

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