Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence

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Overview

Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence born Bristol, England October 21, 1867 (d. 1954). Suffragist leader. Early member Fellowship of Reconciliation. Founding member, Women's Peace Party and WILPF. Opposed World War I and punitive postwar policy. Jailed six times; force-fed.

Quotations

“[T]here could be nothing negative about the idea of peace. War is the negative. Peace is the effort of the human brain applied to the organization of human life and being of the peoples of the world on the basis of cooperation.” (Addams, Women at the Hague, p. 67)

“[T]he only chance of permanent peace in Europe lay in a just settlement after the war...[not] to make the Treaty of Versailles an instrument of vengeance.” (My Part, p. 323; photo “Noordam”, 1915)

Fanny Petterson

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Overview

Fanny Petterson (née Falkman) born Narva, Estonia April 18, 1856 (d. 1915). Swedish peace pioneer. Professor of modern languages. Founded Society of International Concord. Organized Stockholm Peace Congress, 1910. Started peace education group, 1915.

Quotations

“I wish you all, brave organizers and participants, the best success of your valiant efforts, and agree with you wholeheartedly in your righteous protest against this terrible war.” (message to women’s peace conference The Hague, shortly before her death, Bericht Rapport p. 228; photo Linea-rose)

Michele Picard

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Overview

Michèle Picard born Grenoble, France April 20, 1955. Judge International Criminal Tribunal Yugoslavia (ICTY) 2008; Human Rights Advisory Panel Kosovo 2007; President Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia 1997.

Quotations

"The Trial Chamber finds Momčilo Perišić guilty. The Srebrenica tragedy stands as one of the darkest chapters in European history since World War Two. While the Srebrenica enclave was designated as a safe area, the VRS fiercely attacked civilians, as it had previously done in Sarajevo. The VRS’s victims were, again, numerous and defenceless. The Srebrenica atrocities shattered families and left behind countless broken homes." (Sept. 6, 2011 judgment, § 1837-8, 1861; photo ICTY)

Marthe Pichorel

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Overview

Marthe Pichorel (née Collard) born Cherbourg, France August 10, 1878 (d. 1968). Militant pacifist; French syndicalist leader of teachers. Fired as teacher for pacifism, 1917. Condemned wartime “blind hatred” of the enemy, prophesying ill future; signed women’s manifesto against World War II, 1938.

Quotations

“I am convinced that women can do much for the abolition of war, and they will fight with all their strength and all their activity to achieve this goal, because, more than men, they have the horror of these bloody battles, bloody [events which] crush the hearts of mothers and wives. So let us work to waste no time to work: the work is arduous and delicate, but we will never fail!” (appeal on eve of WWI, L'Action Féministe (Laxou-lès-Nancy)-Gallica; photo yves.cordelle.free.fr)

Ursula Plassnik

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Overview

Ursula Plassnik born Klagenfurt, Austria May 23, 1956. Austrian Foreign Minister, 2004-08; European delegate to reform of UN Human Rights Committee. Led negotiations on Croatia and Turkey's admission to European Union; as President of European Assembly, brought all members back to unity talks, 2005.

Quotations

"The fight against terrorism must, therefore, be carried out with full respect for human rights and the rule of law." (June 19, 2006 speech to UN; photo Wikipedia)

Caroline Playne

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Overview

Caroline Playne born Avening, Gloucestershire, England May 4, 1857 (d. 1948). Historian of war and peace. Anticipating WWI, co-founded National Peace Council, 1904. Authored paper “The Evolution of International Peace”, contrasting internationalism of Tolstoy, etc. with contemporary Social Darwinism. Attended International Peace Council, London, 1908. Opposed WWI, working with Relief of Distressed Enemy Aliens, Union for Democratic Control, Nailsworth Peace Association and National Peace Council. Banned from Hague Women's Peace Congress, 1915. After the war she published four books on the neurosis of war; also wrote biography of first woman Nobel Peace laureate, Bertha von Suttner.

Quotations

On the British rush to war: “And they felt, in their hearts, intense relief that there was to be no more negotiating, no more thinking, no more heeding, only rushing on, on, gloriously, splendidly on, all traces kicked over, all bridles thrown away!” (photo Senate House Library)

Marie Pleissner

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Overview

Marie Luise Pleissner born Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany May 19, 1891 (d. 1983). German Quaker war-resister; opposed WWI, joining “Never War Again”; early member International FOR; founded chapter of World Peace League of Mothers and Educators 1932; urged Quaker aid to Jews; fired as teacher 1934; arrested 1939; survived 8 months in Ravensbrück prison; postwar member of Saxony legislature; active in peace movement.

Quotations

“One cannot fall lower than into God’s hands.” (on release from prison, “Short biographies of German Quakers during the Nazi regime”; photo quaekernachrichten)

Hanna Poddig

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Overview

Hanna Poddig born Osterladekop, Jorg, Lower Saxony, Germany November 11, 1985. German anti-nuclear protester and “full-time activist.” Blocked uranium shipment Gronau, 2012; refused fine, jailed 110 days.

Quotations

“I believe in direct actions that interfere directly in the process. It's not about destructive measures, but to interrupt normality.” (May 3, 2017 Project A; photo gessnerallee.ch)

Maria Pognon

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Overview

Maria Pognon (née Rengnet) born Honfleur, France February 19, 1844 (d. 1925). French journalist; radical feminist, pacifist, and socialist. Co-founded International Union of Women for Peace, 1895; International Association of Journalist Friends of Peace, 1897. President, French League for Women (LFDF), 1893-1904.

Quotations

“[I]n the teaching of history educators ought to set forth the barbarity and injustice of wars and develop in their pupils an admiration of savants instead of great conquerors, violators of justice and right.” (International Women’s Congress, 1899, in Advocate of Peace, Nov. 1900, p. 218; photo parisenimges)

Lydie Polfer

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Overview

Lydie Polfer born Luxembourg City, Luxembourg November 22, 1952. Luxembourg Foreign Minister, 1999-2004, during European expansion by nine new states, and European Charter.

Quotations

"The role and the fundamental objectives of the Council of Europe have never been called into question, and it continues to play an essential part in the process of European unification. Over the decades this organisation has carried on its work behind-the-scenes, patiently and persuasively consolidating the noble culture of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, while at the same time giving major social issues all the attention they deserve." (Nov. 7, 2002; photo 2007 cornishong wiki)

Marie Popelin

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Overview

Marie Popelin born Schaerbeek, Brussels September 17, 1846 (d. 1913). First Belgian feminist; educator who founded Alliance of Women for Peace through Education 1898; first Belgian woman lawyer 1888; organized International Feminist Conference Brussels 1897.

Quotations

On the goal of her school: "To create, not a free woman, such as in the disordered imagination of some delirious clerics, but a liberated woman, honorably liberated, by work, by talent and by science." (Eliane Gubin, Dictionnaire des Femmes Belges, p. 461, 2006; photo nl.Wikipedia)

Eugenie Potonie-Pierre

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Overview

Eugénie Potonié-Pierre born L'Orient, Brittany, France November 5, 1844 (d. 1898). French feminist; radical pacifist; socialist. Journalist and editor. Founded International Union of Women for Peace, 1895; Coined the term “feminism”, 1896. Connected war to social misery and oppression of women.

Quotations

“[T]he war system necessarily leads to an inferior position for women.” (statement of International Union, 1895, in Sandi Cooper, Peace & Change, 2011; portrait C. Moses, French Feminism, p. 225)

Diana, Princess of Wales

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Overview

Diana, Princess of Wales born Sandringham, England July 1, 1961 (d. August 31, 1997). Member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon, and earned her enduring popularity. Her patronages were initially centred on children and the elderly, but she later became known for her involvement in two particular campaigns: one involved the social attitudes towards and the acceptance of AIDS patients, and the other for the removal of landmines, promoted through the International Red Cross.

Quotations

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

Marie-Louise Puech

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Overview

Marie-Louise Puech Milhau born Castres, France July 5, 1876 (d. 1966). French feminist; pacifist. Specialist in German studies. Editor of La Paix par le Droit, journal of Association pour la Paix par le Droit (“The Association of Peace Through Law”), during WWI. General secretary (and later president) of Union Féminine Française pour la Société des Nations, 1920. Attended Carrie Chapman Catt’s Fifth Conference on Cause & Cure of War, 1930. Vice-president of Association of Peace Through Law, 1947. Helped rescue Jewish refugees in France during WWII. (photo tampow3945.com)