Photo Caption:

Delegates at the Sixth International Peace Congress, held in Antwerp, Belgium from August 29-September 1, 1894, pose for a group photograph. Among the representatives are future Nobel Peace Prize laureates Fredrik Bajer, Elie Ducommun, and Bertha von Suttner.

Universal Peace Congresses

The Universal Peace Congresses were the primary fora for the pre-World War I peace movement. Delegates met for the first Universal Peace Congress in Paris in June 1889 and meetings followed almost every year until 1913. The Permanent International Peace Bureau, the recepient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1910, was established at the Third Universal Peace Congress at Rome in 1891. It became the clearinghouse for information about the peace movement and now is affiliated with the United Nations. The outbreak of World War I postponed further Universal Peace Congresses until 1921, when delegates met in Belgium to prevent the reoccurance of another global conflict. Peace delegates continued to meet at annual congresses during the inter-war years, but failed to prevent the Second World War. The last inter-war congress met at Zurich in August 1939, concluding their meeting four days before the Germans invaded Poland.