Civilian losses are always a factor in armed conflicts, and many of the late 20th and early 21st centuries’ conflicts, such as the second Sudanese civil war, were marked by armed groups’ deliberate use of violence against civilians as a tactic for furthering their political and military goals. The UN noted, however, in an October 2015 report that there’s a lot that even people without military training can do to help and described “unarmed civilian protection” as “a method for the direct protection of civilians and violence reduction that has grown in practice and recognition.” One organization doing such work is Nonviolent Peaceforce - a nonprofit that to date has trained 5,050 people worldwide as unarmed, nonviolent protectors of civilians in global armed conflicts from Sri Lanka and Myanmar to South Sudan and the Middle East. Joining today’s show to talk about their work is the organization’s founding director, Mel Duncan.