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No women no peace: women's power to stop war



Women’s Power to Stop War (1915-2015) is an exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery from 21 February to 31 May 2015 sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

This year – 2015 – marks 100 years of the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the oldest international women’s peace movement in the world.

On April 28, 1915, 1200 women gathered at The Hague for the International Congress of Women. They were from both peaceful and conflicted countries. The peace activists had a vision to eliminate the causes of war and conflict. The resolutions they passed at that Congress were the basis for the formation of the League of Nations and later the United Nations.

A century on, the League still aims to banish militarism and build institutions dedicated to peace and freedom. The League is active in 30 countries, with a New York United Nations office, and its international secretariat based in Geneva.

The Australian branch continues to campaign against the arms trade, for an independent foreign policy for Australia, to redefine security in terms of human need, decrease military budgets, and increase development aid. The League campaigns to support education for peace and human rights, non-violent conflict resolution, peace studies, and peace research. Their peace activism includes support for First Nations peoples' claims for land rights and self-determination.

Women’s Power to Stop War focuses on all activities that supported peace and freedom over 100 years with items from private collections and Canberra community groups. It includes World War I diaries and scrapbooks, photographs, period costumes, banners, placards, flags, and campaign badges.

In April 2015 women from all over the world will gather again in The Hague, in a WILPF-led international movement, to promote women’s unique powers to stop and prevent wars and conflicts, and to establish the necessary foundation for permanent and durable peace. Australian women will be part of this movement.


www.wilpf.org.au or www.wilpfinternational.org or www.womenstopwar.org








MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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