The History

The Permanent International Peace Bureau was founded in 1891 in Berne, Switzerland as an international central office to co-ordinate the work of organisations in many countries which were dedicated to the cause of world peace. It attained the distinction of being awarded a Nobel Prize for Peace in 1910, and had in fact been nominated for this prize on no less than seven occasions during the first ten years since this prize was first instigated. Once it had been so honoured by the Nobel Prize Committee, however, the Bureau went into decline and it's influence upon the world stage waned dramatically. Perhaps peace was not greatly in fashion in those days.

The Bureau was first set up by delegates at the 1891 3rd World Peace Congress which was held in Rome; this was an association which was designed to act as a link between the world's pacifist organisations, a provider of information about the various peace movements, and a vehicle for preparing and putting into effect the resolutions of the World Peace Congresses. Initially it was quite successful in these tasks and was widely considered to be the main mouthpiece of the world's peace movements with regular appeals for restraint to countries or military organisations which were threatening, or involved in, warfare or insurrection; these appeals, however, were regularly ignored.

After WW1 and establishment of the League of Nations the Peace Bureau's influence declined and its various activities were suspended during WWW2 and it was officially wrapped up in 1959,with the Swiss court awarding the remaining assets to ILCOP, the International Liaison Committee of Organizations for Peace. ILCOP tried to resurrect the organisation by re-naming it's Swiss branch as the International Peace Bureau and this was in fact it was recognized by the Nobel Prize Committee, but this new bureau never attained the level of recognition that the original had enjoyed as the voice of the pacifists of the world.

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