Elizabeth F. Boardman
Taking A Stand : A Guide to Peace Teams and Accompaniment Projects
(Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers, 2005, 159pp.)

Taking A Stand joins a useful collection of books dealing with peace teams as a form of third-party crisis intervention by non-governmental organizations: Ed Griffin-Nolan Witness for Peace (Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) deals with efforts on the frontier of Nicaragua. Liam Mahoney and Luis Euguren Unarmed Bodyguards: International Accompaniment for the Protection of Human Rights (Kumerian Press, 1997) studies the efforts of Peace Brigades International especially in Central America.  Tricia G. Brown(Ed); Getting in the Way (Herald Press, 2005) is a collection of essays on individual experiences and reflections by members of Christian Peacemaker Teams.  Arthur Gish Hebron Journal (Herald Press, 2001) is drawn from his journals in Hebron, Israel also with Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Elizabeth Boardman writes basically for the person thinking of joining such peace teams, especially the mature person like herself with a job, children, a husband, and a settled
place in the community.  We often think of peace team members as young and with few family responsibilities of the Peace Corps image, but as Boardman points out, there are a growing number of people in their sixties, often retired, who are joining peace teams or peace fact-finding delegations.

Thus drawing on her own experience in Iraq with the Iraq Peace Team - an outgrowth of Voices in the Wilderness - just before the second Gulf War, and on interviews with persons having experience in other settings and with other organizations, she deals with the questions one asks oneself and questions one is asked by one's friends and neighbors.  The book is primarily useful for the preparation stage, for the period of deciding if this is what you should be doing.

As she notes "When we speak of peace teams and accompaniment projects in this book, we are thinking primarily of small groups of people going under the auspices of a sponsoring organization to a foreign land for weeks, months, or sometimes a year or two, to take a stand against some injustice or violence that is happening there.  Peace teams may physically get in the way of hostile maneuvers, or they may come close to the action as observers so that they can send back reports to the media, to decision makers, and to the alternative press and the peace movement.  Accompaniers literally accompany or escort local activists in a conflict situation as they go about their work, to help protect them from harm, and to be able to testify to decision makers in the western world about what is happening in the areas."

Most of the peace team sponsoring organizations have periods of training during which the questions Boardman asks herself are also asked collectively, and there is a period of reflection during which the person and the organization can consider if this is the best person for the situation.  However, in practice, there is often a small 'window of opportunity' in which to act, the number of volunteers is limited, trainers may be busy elsewhere, funds are in short supply. There is really a process of self selection for mature people who are thinking and growing personally.

The sponsoring organizations have little back up facilities to help the people in the field.  As Boardman writes "The organizations running peace teams and accompaniment projects are far from perfect.  Running an efficient and effective organization is hard to do, especially if:
- you are an activist with no training or experience in management;
- organizational decisions are made by consensus;
- participants are independent thinkers of all ages and temperaments;
- participants come from all over the country or the world;
- the work is being done in far-flung and sometimes dangerous places;
- you don't have enough money and have to rely on volunteer labor, often inconsistent;
- you are practicing civil disobedience, i.e. breaking a law;
- team participants are sometimes anxious and frustrated, and take it out on you".

Elizabeth Boardman is a member of the Society of Friends and shares a Quaker outlook on the importance of relationships rather than on a credo or an ideology.  Although most of the people in peace teams are influenced by Gandhi's ideas on non-violent action, she deals primarily with the importance of relations with 'helpers' back home who raise funds, send out emails, prepare talks, and give moral support; with relations between peace teams members themselves; and especially with the population of the country in which the team is working.  It is important to see the Self behind the image.  She quotes from Mahony and Eguren "There are good reasons to trust the veracity and analysis of the victim over that of the attacker.  But this bias must be tempered by the recognition that even heroic human rights activists who risk their lives every day may be ill-informed and mistaken in their analysis, and they may lie.  A death squad leader or dictator, in turn, might be intelligent and may be telling the truth. An activist for justice may, without contradiction, be quite power-driven, and a military officer quite susceptible to moral persuasion."

Elizabeth Boardman sums up her advice: "To get into this work, you've got to have courage, be determined, find time, raise money or spend a good chunk of your savings, leave your family, master a lot of new information, travel in a strange place, do without many amenities you are used to, live in crowded circumstances, be on the job all the time, and sometimes risk your life and safety.  Despite all this, however, people constantly speak of it as the greatest experience of their lives."

René Wadlow