Action

Civilian crisis management is a form of conflict management, in which civilian experts are assisting in rebuilding the conflict areas, managing the conflicts and preventing them from escalation. Civilian crisis management should always be put before all other means of crisis management.

The nature of violent conflicts has changed. Instead of inter-state conflicts, internal conflicts have proliferated. Often, the whole civil society is involved in these conflicts. The real threats to security are included in the broader concept of Human Security. Human security consists of various dimensions: economic, political, social and personal as well as environmental security.

There are approximately 600 million small arms in the world, of which a portion is irresponsibly transferring from conflict to another. Guns do not just kill and injure people, but increase the insecurity of societies. Action to improve regulation of world's gun trade is a substantial part of conflict prevention work. With member organizations KATU supports the international Arms Trade Treaty -process which aims to create shared rules for international arms trade.

KATU has started a new conflict prevention project in East Timor in January 2006. The overall objective of the project is to support conditions for positive peace and human security in East Timor through strengthening the role of civil society in conflict prevention and peace building through exchange of experience, knowledge and skills. The project was planned and is carried out in a close cooperation with many East Timorese NGOs.