WILPF is one of the longest-standing women’s peace organizations in the world. We take great pride in our history - from our establishment in 1915, when 1,136 women from 12 countries came together in the Hague to discuss how to end World War I, to legendary actions such as the 1995 Peace Train when 230 women from 42 different countries crossed two continents to reach the Fourth UN Conference on Women in Beijing, China.  We look to our past and celebrate key moments and actors such as these that have shaped the WILPF movement;  we also learn from, listen to, and support and encourage the ideas of younger generations.

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"WILPF was born ... at an International Congress of women which met in Holland from April 28 - 30, 1915, nine months after World War I began. The world seemed "hypnotized by blood." The Second Battle of Ypres, in which poison gas was used was underway, and would result in 100,000 casualties. By the war's end on November 11, 1918, at least 10 million would be dead, 20 million wounded. "Into this atmosphere of carnage," writes one historian,  WILPF was born."

 

Founded in 1915, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is one of the world's oldest continuously active peace organizations, WILPF has international offices in Geneva and sections in over 30 countries (I would have to check on the current number) including the United States. WILPF takes action to oppose war and the root causes of war, to promote peace, social justice, racial equity and women's empowerment. WILPF has consultative status in the United Nations. Its members have included five Nobel Peace Prize Laureates: Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Linus Pauling, Alva Myrdal, and Dr. Martin Luther King."

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Excerpt from Generations of Courage, a brief herstory of WILPF,  printed in 2024.