The Bureau international de la paix (International Peace Office), founded in 1891 in Bern, was the first non-governmental international peace organization.

Directors

Élie Ducommun

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The IPB was founded in 1891-2, as a result of consultations at the Universal Peace Congresses, large gatherings held annually to bring together the national peace societies that had gradually developed, mainly in Europe and North America, from the end of the Napoleonic Wars onwards. The representatives of the Peace Societies felt that the movement needed a permanent office to coordinate the activities of the national associations and to organise the Universal Peace Congresses. Thus was born the ´Permanent International Peace Bureau´, as it was known (´Permanent´ was later dropped from the title).

The seat of the new organisation was Berne, the capital of neutral Switzerland. The first President of the IPB was the Dane Fredrik Bajer and its first Secretary-General the Swiss Elie Ducommun. Ducommun was later succeeded by another Swiss, Albert Gobat. Both of them, and Fredrik Bajer, won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Another Nobel laureate was the colourful Austrian countess Bertha von Suttner, who was a friend of Alfred Nobel and encouraged him to establish the Peace Prize. She was the author of the celebrated book (and film) Lay Down your Arms! It should be noted that between 1901 and 1982 thirteen of IPB´s officers individually received the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as the Bureau itself in 1910.

During these early years the IPB was more or less the only peace international. It took positions, not only in favour of disarmament, but also on the various international conflicts of the day. Its basic ideological approach has been described as bourgeois pacifism, i.e. a heavy emphasis on the development of international law, disarmament and the peaceful settlement of conflicts. Von Suttner and others entered into dialogue with Tsar Nicholas II, urging him to establish an International Peace Conference, an idea that eventually came to fruition at the Hague in 1899 and 1907. IPB was active in promoting the idea of the establishment of a League of Nations and an International Court, although some individuals had doubts about the kind of peace that would result from what were basically inter-state institutions.
The period of decline and rebirth

The IPB was of course unable to prevent the outbreak of World War 1, and in due course, World War 2. During both of these conflicts the peace movement was largely inactive (with certain notable exceptions such as the women´s gathering in 1915 that led to the creation of the Women´s International League for Peace and Freedom). Many peace activists were either swept up in the war fever, joined the armed forces, or were limited to providing aid to refugees and wounded combatants. Many IPB members shared the enthusiasm surrounding the birth of the League of Nations, and it was logical that the Bureau should move its office to Geneva in 1924 to be close to the international institutions there.

In the inter-war period IPB struggled to get its voice heard but was gradually drowned out in the rising tide of nationalism. Secretary-General since 1911, Henri Golay was able to keep the Bureau functioning until the outbreak of war in 1939. His death in 1950 marked the end of the old IPB, but a new one was in the process of being born. After many organisational complications the International Liaison Committee of Organisations for Peace (ILCOP), which had inherited the assets of the old IPB, was renamed IPB in 1964 and ILCOP became a small private foundation. IPB opened a new office at the current address, and began to rebuild a new membership.
Growth and change: the modern era

Since the 1960s the IPB´s primary concerns have largely reflected those of the movement as a whole in Western countries. These include the struggle against the Vietnam war, the right to conscientious objection, the UN Special Sessions on Disarmament, the Freeze and Euromissile campaigns and the European Nuclear Disarmament movement, foreign military bases, the illegality (and abolition) of nuclear weapons (World Court Project, Abolition 2000 etc), the Gulf War, the arms trade, militarism and the environment, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, women and peace, and the prevention and resolution of conflicts.

IPB´s membership remained low in the 60s and 70s, but rose sharply after the merger with the International Confederation for Disarmament and Peace in 1984. In 1963 there were 17 member organisations. There are now 170.

The first President of the new IPB was Ernst Wolf (1963-1974) who was the mastermind behind the merger and the establishment of the ILCOP foundation. He was succeeded in 1974 by Sean MacBride, who continued until 1985, giving way to Bruce Kent of British CND. Maj-Britt Theorin, a former Swedish Ambassador for Disarmament, was president from 1992-2000. The current President, Cora Weiss, a lifelong peace, human rights and women´s activist, was elected in 2000.

Various individuals have held the post of Secretary-General, among them Ulrich Herz (1967-71) and Rainer Santi (1986-1990) both of Sweden, and the current postholder Colin Archer (1990-) from the UK. Others who have devoted many years of work to the Secretariat include the late Arthur Booth (chairman 1968-80), and a long list of volunteers.

One of the IPB´s greatest recent highlights was the centenary year 1991-2, when various commemorative events were held, including a reception and evening of speeches in Berne, a centenary exhibition organised at the Palais des Nations by the League of Nations Archives Service, the presentation to the UN of the Lawyers´ Appeal against Nuclear Weapons published in 1987 by Sean MacBride, the international launch in Geneva of the World Court Project, and a multi-site centenary conference held in Helsinki, Stockholm and Tallinn.

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The Nobel Peace Prize 1910

Presentation Speech by Jørgen Gunnarsson Løvland, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, on December 10, 1910*

Chairman of the Committee Løvland then announced that the Peace Prize for this year had been awarded to the permanent Peace Bureau in Bern.

He then briefly reviewed the peace movement in Europe which, as we all know, has made steady headway since the great Napoleonic Wars. The idea had earlier been championed by men like Kant1 and Rousseau2. First attempts were made to form organizations in America and in England. The cause was supported by Garibaldi3 and his comrades-in-arms and by the writer Victor Hugo4.

The Permanent International Peace Bureau (Bureau international permanent de la paix) was founded in 1891, with its headquarters in Bern. It was clear from the annual peace congresses that a central office was needed to act as a link between the peace societies of the various countries, and in particular to help the local congress committees to organize the world rallies. To make the Bureau a legally constituted body empowered to receive donations and legacies, it was made the agency of a society (Société du Bureau international permanent de la paix) in accordance with Swiss law. Admission to membership is open to any institution, association, or individual upon a simple declaration of agreement with the objectives of the society.

The Bureau is now under the control of a Commission of thirty-five members from the various countries under a president, at the present time Belgian Senator Henri La Fontaine. Three members must live in Bern where the offices of the Bureau are situated and supervised by an honorary secretary-general. Nobel Prizewinner Élie Ducommun held this office from the time of the Bureau's founding until his death in 1906, a period during which he rendered most valuable services to the organization.

The present secretary-general is Nobel Prizewinner Dr. Gobat, member of the [Swiss] Federal Council. Both men have worked without compensation.

The economic position of the Peace Bureau has been difficult. In addition to the interest on a capital of about 40,000 francs, it has for some years received smaller fixed annual grants from Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. With some private contributions, it has about 8,000 francs per annum. Most of this is spent on the publication of the journal Correspondance bimensuelle, which gives news of the peace movement and lists new literature on the subject of peace. The Bureau issues a yearbook, Annuaire du mouvement pacifiste, with valuable information and papers on international affairs, institutions, and personalities. Since 1894 the Bureau has had an affiliated American office in Washington.

It is the function of the Bern Bureau to facilitate communications between the societies and individuals, and to collect information on the peace movement; it has a record office and a library; it also prepares the questions to be put before the annual world peace congresses and implements the decisions of the congresses.

It has long been the common wish of all those in the peace movement throughout the world that the Bureau be awarded the Peace Prize. The World Peace Congress in Munich in 1908 directed a general request to all those entitled to make nominations, to name the Bureau.

The Nobel Committee has also received recommendations from, among others, the Swedish and Danish Peace Unions.

We are convinced that this award is entirely in the spirit of Alfred Nobel's plan; he wanted his money to be used to support, accelerate, and promote the peace movement.

We firmly hope and expect that this year's prize will further this aim and that the fruits of the award will be harvested in the years to come.

The Nobel lecture usually delivered by the prizewinner was not given in this case.

Mr. Løvland announced the award of the Peace Prize for 1910 on the afternoon of December 10, 1910, in the auditorium of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. There is no original text of his speech extant, but the Oslo Aftenposten for December 10, 1910, carries a reporter's version of the speech which is here printed in full in English translation. It would appear that the reporter in the first two paragraphs is summarizing Mr. Løvland's remarks, and that thereafter he is striving to record the speech as delivered.

1. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher; wrote On Perpetual Peace (1795).

2. Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), French philosopher; wrote The Social Contract (1762), outlining the political principles of a governmental utopia.

3. Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882), Italian patriot and soldier; supported, mostly by personal correspondence and letters to the press, an International Court of Justice, a United States of Europe, free education, and other plans to promote international understanding.

4. Victor Hugo (1802-1885), French author; was associated with peace movements in the mid-19th century - for example, he chaired the Peace Congress held in Paris in 1849 and in his welcoming speech made his famous allusion to the «United States of Europe».

From Nobel Lectures, Peace 1901-1925, Editor Frederick W. Haberman, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972