During the centenary celebrations of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in The Hague in April 2015, the INMP Secretariat hosted a round-table entitled ‘Vivid Memories of 1915’, on the use of historical films concerning women, peace and human rights. The initiative came from peace historian Marten van Harten, who had discovered unique film material about the 1915 International Congress of Women, while doing research for Peace Trail The Hague within the Discover Peace project.

During the meeting, film clips were shown that documented women’s early involvement in peace-making during World War I, anticipating today’s landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security (2000).

This project received external funding from the Samuel Rubin Foundation in New York and took place in cooperation with historians of the women’s peace movement, film historians and the U.S. Library of Congress. The Library agreed to bring forward and finance the restoration of an important World War I reportage, Wilbur H. Durborough’s With the Germans on the Firing Line (1915).

The INMP Secretariat also organised an exhibition entitled ‘WILPF’s Campaign Against Chemical Warfare in the 1920s & 1930s’ at the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.

In honour of women peace pioneers, a festive ‘Tribute to Aletta Jacobs and Other Courageous Women of 1915’ was organised by INMP’s Petra Keppler at the gates of the Peace Palace. The occasion was the unveiling in the Peace Palace of a bust of Aletta Jacobs, co-president (with Jane Addams) of the 1915 International Congress of Women in The Hague and leading figure in the international suffrage movement. The ‘happening’ was organised in cooperation with the International Alliance of Women (IAW), the Dutch section of WILPF and other women’s groups.

Sources and related links:

NOS – Eerste filmpje Aletta Jacobs

Vivid Memories of 1915 – 20150428 WILPF Centenary – INMP Roundtable report (PDF, 800kB)