Manifesto
- ID-nummer
- 2024.007.001
- Titel
- Manifesto
- Publik beskrivning
-
In this manifesto from October 1915, women from different countries call for immediate peace negotiations in the ongoing First World War. Among the five signatories are two future Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Jane Addams and Emily Greene Balch.
The Manifesto originated in the International Women's Congress in The Hague in 1915. The Congress had more than 1,100 participants and led to the formation of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom with Jane Addams as its first president. The manifesto describes how, after the congress, delegations visited 14 capitals of belligerent and neutral countries to try to bring about peace negotiations.
"As women, it was possible for us, from belligerent and neutral nations alike, to meet in the midst of war and to carry forward an interchange of question and answer between capitals which were barred to each other."
The manifesto emphasized that the countries that were outside the war also had a responsibility:
"The excruciating burden of responsibility for the hopeless continuance of this war no longer rests on the wills of the belligerent nations alone. It rests also on the will of those neutral governments and people who have been spared its shock but cannot, if they would, absolve themselves from their full share of responsibility for the continuance of war."
The manifesto was acquired by the Nobel Prize Museum in 2024.
Part of Manifesto