Community Peacemaker Teams
has a full-time peace force of over 30 activists working in Colombia, Iraq, the West Bank, Chiapas, Mexico and Kenora, Canada.
Another component of CPT's work is to engage "...congregations, meetings and support groups at home to play a key advocacy role with policy makers.
"[2] This has raised the question of what distinguishes them from similar "secular", organizations; "All the groups resemble one another other in that they all work to stop violence, but according to CPT's Web site, it has an advantage over secular groups: "In Muslim areas, the Christian nature of CPT helps to create confidence because of a shared sense of monotheism."
The group does not believe that its Christianity might also put it at a dangerous disadvantage in areas of the world where religious tensions run high.
At the conference, Sider criticized Mennonites and Brethren in Christ for reducing their practice of peace witnessing to simple conscientious objection: Unless comfortable North American and European Mennonites and Brethren in Christ are prepared to risk injury and death in nonviolent opposition to the injustice our societies foster and assist in Central America, the Philippines, and South Africa, we dare never whisper another word about pacifism to our sisters and brothers in those desperate lands....
Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, they have worked with and advocated for families of people detained by the U.S. Military and collected stories of detainee abuse.
The hostages were shown on a video broadcast released worldwide on 29 November by Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera.
CPT initially made no mention of appreciation to coalition forces for their efforts to free the hostages in its statement, but did so in a later addenda after considerable media attention.
CPT co-director Doug Pritchard stated that they did not want a "military raid" to occur and preferred to work with diplomats.
Since the community members returned to their homes in 2001, the team has had a nearly daily presence in the area to support the people, work to prevent intimidation by both AUC and FARC and document human rights abuses if they occur.
[14] CPT has, in the past, also been involved in Chiapas, Mexico, where violence had erupted between the Zapatista Army of National Liberation and the Mexican government.
[15] In Chiapas, CPT partnered with a Christian civil society group called Las Abejas (the Bees) that shares a commitment to pacifism.
The organisation inter alia supports Palestinian nonviolent resistance to the occupation in coordination with Israeli and international organizations.
Part of the team's daily routines includes school patrol, and monitoring settler violence and soldier home invasions.
[22][23] On 29 September, two CPT members, Kim Lamberty and Chris Brown were severely injured in an ambush, when five masked men armed with a chain and bat attacked them as they were escorting Palestinian children on the route.
Lamberty told The Washington Post that she was beaten while she was on ground and "saw the group go back through the grove of trees and into Ma'on Ranch".
[29] Since November 2009, Community Peacemaker Teams has been escorting schoolchildren of Al Bowereh on their way home from school, to protect them from settlers violence.
