International Humanitarian Organizations Peace Brigades International Peace Brigades International (PBI), is an independent, non-religious NGO founded in 1981 in Canada, and registered with the United Nations. It sends teams of international observers into areas of conflict and provides accompaniment, always on local request. PBI's general aim is to protect a space for human rights defenders who suffer repression because of their activities. In order to do this, PBI teams maintain a presence in the area, providing accompaniment, as observers, to threatened persons or organizations, making regular visits to the conflict zones, serving as interlocutors and lobbyists to promote international coverage, and spreading information about the situation of human rights NGOs. In its work, PBI Colombia keeps permanent contact with the country's civil and military authorities, as well as with the state's control agencies, other NGOs, the diplomatic community, international organizations and other countries' parliaments and governments. PBI is funded by more than twenty-five public and private institutions of at least eight countries. This clearly allows it to be financially independent from any individual source. In addition to Colombia, PBI has worked in Guatemala, El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Canada, Haiti, Croatia, Serbia, the Philippines, Palestine and Mexico.     Award-winning initiatives Mogotes Town First National Peace Prize In 1997 the ELN launched an attack against the town of Mogotes, in the department of Santander. The mayor himself was abducted in order to make him the subject of a "people's trial", on charges of corruption. This attack and its consequences prompted the mobilization of the people of Mogotes. With the support of the diocese of Socorro and San Gil (Santander) and a number of local leaders, the fifteen thousand inhabitants of Mogotes decided to create their own Municipal Constituent Assembly (AMC) with the aim of eradicating corruption in the town and conducting an assessment of the mayor's performance by itself in order to stop violence, uproot corruption and prevent the subversive groups from deciding from them. The example set by Mogotes in terms of coexistence and vigilance exercised by the people earned the town the first National Peace Prize in 1999. The Assembly asked the mayor to resign and scheduled a new election under its supervision so on August 14, 1998, a new mayor took office. Not only has the Assembly exerted vigilance in exercise of popular sovereignty, it has also focused their activities on education for a culture of peace. Although the community has been hit by violent events since then, such as the murder of four members of the AMC in August 2000, the inhabitants of Mogotes have persisted in their efforts to achieve peace and guarantee coexistence.