:: INTERNATIONAL SERVICE FOR PEACE(SIPAZ)

The International Service for Peace () was created following the Zapatista uprising of January 1994 in Chiapas, México.

Since 1995, this permanent program, supported by an international coalition of civil organizations and religious groups, has sought to promote the action of agents at local, national, and international levels that can contribute to the process of a non-violent transformation of extant socio-political conflicts associated with structural problems related to the ongoing armed conflict in Chiapas.  SIPAZ plays a role in preventing socio-political violence in Chiapas as well as Oaxaca and Guerrero, operating from a non-violent philosophy that stresses the construction of a positive peace in these states.

SIPAZ

• Accompanies organizational processes in defense of human rights and is physically and visibly present in the moments and places of highest tension so as to try to prevent repression and violence, so that threatened persons and organizations can continue their work in promoting peace and human rights.

• Exposes the causes and consequences of, as well as responses to, socio-political conflict in Chiapas as well as in Oaxaca and Guerrero, with the intent of raising awareness and mobilizing actors at local, national, and international levels to seek out non-violent solutions.

• Works to strengthen the capacities of local groups, social agents—female and male—who work in defense of human rights and toward transformation of their conflicts in order to achieve a positive peace, and to promote and strengthen spaces for coming together and movement building.