What is an Accredited Peace Professional?
Accredited Peace Professionals are Peace Professionals with a new kind of courage – the courage to wage peace:
Everyone can be a citizen of peace. Some are called to make it their vocation. Some practice in other fields but have additional peace credentials. Like tradespersons, environmentalists, doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers, soldiers, and other professions, proof of effective implementation is necessary for accreditation. CPSC provides provides accreditation based upon a set of standards and competencies. (See Accreditation Assessment Process)
Effective Peacebuilding Cannot be Left to Good Intentions Alone
- Peace work is also a discipline.
- It is a professional field.
- It requires extensive knowledge, expertise, and experience.
- It draws on decades of lessons learned through experience
Civilian Peace Service Canada (CPSC) is an exciting initiative that recognizes the critical need around the world for specialists in conflict prevention, resolution, and transformation. Like other professions, standards of practice will gain credibilty and respect for peace workers, and lead to more effective practice of their skills and application of their expertise.
This is necessary to:
- distinguish those who have taken a few weeks of peace-related training from those who have years of related training and/ or /experience,
- apply appropriate values and principles critical to this field of practice, and
- build credibility for peace practitioners with decision makers and the broader public.
For this reason, CPSC has developed a methodology for accrediting Peace Professionals.