Learning to Ask the Right Questions

I. “The Cradle of the Peace Movement” and Other History Lessons

In The Hague, we had the opportunity to speak with the high school students pictured above from the United States about peace history, the U.S. and using the things that we learned there. I got to share what I know about peace history, largely learned while abroad, and got to hear some of the things that they thought about what they were learning as well. I don’t remember who asked the question, or how we got to talking about this, but the question came up: “why do you think the American gift to the Peace Palace is front and center?” 

The response, I thought, was so indicative of the way that we as Americans see the United States and its role in the international world: “because the U.S. is such a huge world superpower, right?” At first, I was astonished by the answer, because I’ve gotten to know about the history of the Peace Palace and how the United States played a role. What, at the time, I did not consider was that most students in the U.S. do not learn about this history, or much history pre-World War I. The fact that Bertha von Suttner referred to the United States as the “cradle of the peace movement” is unknown to most of us, because after World War I, things shifted in the U.S. from being geared towards peace and diplomacy, and the idea of becoming a world citizen, to nationalism and pride in being an American.

Hearing that from a student surprised me greatly, but really, in the scheme of things that we simply do not know about this type of history, that is just the tip of the iceberg. Learning about the deeper history behind many current issues, including the current situation in Korea really shocked me as well. There is just so much history we do not know because of the focus in the United States on the post-World War I world, in which the U.S. became a superpower. The rest tends to get lost for us, unless we go looking for it; furthermore, this kind of “hidden history” seems to have a meaningful amount of historical significance.

In The Hague, we were able to go to the Yi Jun Peace Museum, a museum owned by a Korean woman in The Netherlands dedicated to the Korean delegation to the 1907 Hague Peace Conference, pictured next to us on the wall of the museum. In 1907, the second Hague Peace Conference took place. Many nations were invited, and sent delegations to participate in the Conference, including Korea. At the time, Korea was unified; however, it was being occupied by Japan, who made them sign a “treaty” that would essentially waive all diplomatic rights, surrendering them to Japan. 

In fear that Japan was going to try to annex Korea, and hoping that attendance at this conference would help, Yi Jun and a delegation from Korea were sent, only to be denied entrance to the conference. Yi Jun died in The Hague shortly thereafter, and his death is considered mysterious by many; some say that he could have been murdered by the Japanese in an attempt to stop Korea from making their plight to the rest of the international community. Additionally, they were unable to have a gift placed in the Peace Palace because Korea’s delegation was never allowed into the conference. 

“If we don’t want to slide back to the oppressed era we should remember what exactly happened in the past.” - Lee Gihang, Director of Yi Jun Peace Museum, interview 

The statue that we are sitting next to in the photo above is not at the museum; it is actually the Korean gift to the Peace Palace, a “smiling haechi” known in South Korea as a symbol for justice and fairness. This gift was not given until December 2014, because up until that point, it was just not widely known that there was, in fact, no Korean gift to the Peace Palace. These types of things are things that are little-known, and that we, now knowing them, must help to make more known. Understanding conflicts takes understanding of the background of those conflicts, and until meeting the director of this museum, and his wife, the importance of this was kind of lost on me. Learning about North Korea in particular has really inspired me to want to take action, and raise more awareness in the United States as a whole. 

II. The Beginnings of International Accountability

“When there is ignorance, we must respond with education. And when there is denial, we must respond with affirmation” - Prosecutor Brammertz, “20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide: Prosecutor Serge Brammertz pays tribute to the victims”

In class, professors Jennifer Trahan and Belinda Cooper came in to talk to us about the array of international courts, and offered us insight into the beginnings of international courts and the way that precedents are set. Right around the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre that took place during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, we talked about the development of international courts, and the way these courts provide resources for victims and communities, and provide avenues through which to educate and reconcile, as Prosecutor Brammertz asserts is necessary in his address to Potočari this year on the anniversary or the Srebrenica massacre. 

“... the establishment of the Court raises hopes that the lines between international law on the one hand, and world order, on the other, are blurring and that the normative structure being created by international law might influence or even restrain the Hobbesian order established by the politics of States.” - “The New International Criminal Court: An Uneasy Revolution,” by Leila Sadat

I believe that Sadat is right, however, that the simple establishment of the ICC creates a hope that there will be a substantive shift in the way that conflicts are handled internationally in the next few decades. This shift has already been seen in places like former Yugoslavia, where the International Criminal Tribunals on the Former Yugoslavia has been attempting to grapple with the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed there. The ICTY is one of the first international criminal tribunals where aggressors from both sides have been tried, and even more interesting, where the court is helping to ready the national justice systems in these countries to handle more cases after it is shut down.

“There were earlier instances of prosecution for war crimes, such as the execution of Confederate army officer Henry Wirz (1823-65) for his maltreatment of Union prisoners of war during the American Civil War (1861-65); and the courts-martial held by Turkey in 1919-20 to punish those responsible for the Armenian genocide of 1915-16. However, these were trials conducted according to the laws of a single nation rather than, as in the case of the Nuremberg trials, a group of four powers (France, Britain, the Soviet Union and the U.S.) with different legal traditions and practices.” - “The Nuremberg Trials” 

Prior to the creation of the International Criminal Tribunals on former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, really the only international criminal tribunals were the Nuremberg trials; however, one could argue that these were not “true” international criminal tribunals in that only criminals of the “losing” side were punished. They were undeniably a huge step on the path toward peace through law on an international scale, taking, as mentioned above, four different legal systems and powers and combining their efforts into one trial. This was something that the world had never really seen before: it was a new kind of accountability, and perhaps the beginning of accountability for leadership to other nations worldwide. 

After the Nuremberg Trials, progress in international criminal law seemed to stall during the Cold War, to be picked back up with the ICTR and ICTY in the mid-1990s. The Nuremberg Trials offered a good basis of precedence off of which to base definitions of crimes such as genocide, but the need quickly arose for different types of transitional justice, which would help restore communities to law and order, as well as peace, in more ways than just through criminal prosecution.

Although criminal prosecution is an important part of international accountability, there are more ways than one to provide reconciliation and peace to communities. Each international tribunal came with its own forms of reconciliations; this becomes especially important in atrocity crimes where the sheer number of perpetrators and victims is so high that there is virtually no way to prosecute everyone, or even close. To help combat this problem in former Yugoslavia, national and local courts are being prepared to take on some of these cases; judges, attorneys and other court officials are being trained to be able to handle these kinds of cases when the ICTY eventually shuts down. 

The BBC's Prudent Nsengiyumva in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, says one of the main aims of the gacaca was to achieve truth, justice and reconciliation among Rwandans. Gacaca means to sit down and discuss an issue.

The hearings gave communities a chance to face the accused and give evidence about what really happened and how it happened.

Our correspondent says many people in Rwanda say this process have helped to mend the wounds of the past.

- “Rwanda 'gacaca' genocide courts finish work” 

For places that legal systems have been decimated, as in Rwanda, however, other means of justice are necessary for communities to reconcile and heal. One form of justice that seemed to help in Rwanda after the genocide in the early 1990s are known as “gacaca courts,” and are a traditional type of court. As the BBC article quoted above mentions, gacaca means “to sit down and discuss an issue.” This type of reconciliation seems to allow communities that have been torn apart “mend the wounds of the past” outside of a formal court proceeding and conviction. 

This summer, my idea of justice had to expand to include these kinds of non-traditional reconciliation methods, because it becomes apparent, to me, at least, that after studying the ICTR and other international criminal tribunals, something else must happen to achieve justice and maintain accountability. These courts are an important step towards international accountability for atrocity crimes; however, it is important to keep in mind that other methods of reconciliation and truth can also contribute to justice. 

III. Understanding the Language of Human Rights

In the international law community, there are two primary languages in which court proceedings are conducted: French and English. Therefore, communication while we were abroad was largely not a problem, and we certainly had no problems understanding people in day-to-day interactions with them. I think we took this for granted, though, because when I think about Eleanor Roosevelt’s explanation of the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in her speech “Making Human Rights Come Alive,” I think that even though using those two languages made it much easier, there were also complications that came with that.

“So, our Russian colleague said he would accept the word "class," and that I didn't like very much. I said: "I think in many countries we're getting away from the use of that word, and it would be a mistake to write it in a universal document." So, finally, after long discussion we settled on the word "birth" as a translation that our Russian colleague would accept and I thought that was all settled. But then our China colleague, who, perhaps, is more interested in the English language even than we who call it our mother tongue, Dr. P. C. Chang of China, decided that since we were going to put the word "birth" it should come after the word "race" and should read: "without distinction of any kind such as race, birth, colour, sex," etc.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

Being precise with language is important when trying to create a certain message, and it becomes even more important when those who are creating that message come from different backgrounds where certain words and phrases are loaded with different historical and cultural nuances that vary from language to language. This is exemplified by Roosevelt in “Making Human Rights Come Alive when she talks about drafting the first few articles of the UDHR. She talks at length about the Russian delegation and their various concerns related to the language used in the document, and the way that their language and culture differs from English and our use of certain words to mean certain things.

“Class” is not a word that is often used in our society to describe people and their social standing, but it becomes clear that it is a word used in the Soviet Union’s rhetoric about society and the way that it works; this becomes an issue when trying to draft the second article, because of what it means to both them and to us. The dictionary defined “class” as “a social stratum sharing basic economic, political, or cultural characteristics, and having the same social position,” but even during the drafting of the UDHR during the Cold War, was a word no longer commonly used by American society. 

“It is an educational declaration and the only way we can guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing a good job educationally. People really have to strive to have their government and their people understand that these are the kind of rights that give dignity to man” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

The careful consideration over certain words used in this document highlights the importance of understanding what our own language means to us, but also what our words mean to others. Roosevelt speaks about understanding and learning about the UDHR, asserting that it is “an educational declaration, and the only way we can guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing a good job educationally.” That is, we have to ensure that our own societies and governments understand what is meant by the language in these types of documents if we want to ensure that they are upheld. “Giving dignity to man” is more than simply creating these instruments and hoping that they will do the work; rather, we must do the work to craft them in a careful manner and to understand them and help foster this kind of understanding across language barriers as well. 

IV. Seeking to Develop the Sentiments of Harmony

“The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.” - Maria Montessori

One of the people I got to appreciate a whole lot more during my time in The Netherlands is my mother. It is because of my parents that I got to go on this trip at all, with help financing and figuring all the details out, but this began much longer ago than I even realized. As a child, my mom reinforced the importance of learning and of reading for myself and my brother. I called her a “secret peace activist” in a previous blog post, because of her work in Montessori schools and as a teacher, and I continue to defend this because not only was Montessori a peace activist, but the form of education that I received through Montessori programs fosters inquiry into these kinds of subjects, but also reinforces the principles of inner peace that are outlined in Cora di Brazza’s “Seven Rules of Harmony.” 

“6. Teach your children and your dependents what you may learn with regard to justice and peace, and seek to develop in them sentiments of harmony.” - The Seven Rules of Harmony

Aside from making my formal education a priority, my parents also helped me to cultivate a love for my local library. I spent so much time there as a child, volunteered there as a teenager and worked there in high school, and I am so grateful for the opportunities that library gave to me. If a community’s dependents are individuals, the best way to provide education to a community in a way that is generalized to meet the needs of the community as a whole, but can also be as specific as an individual would like it to be. 

During our time in The Hague, we did some research about the importance of libraries as well as the Peace Palace Library; we came upon a book called “Public Libraries and their Mission” by André Maurois, which helped to connect the importance of education with libraries, and also the importance of education to peace work. In the book, Maurois makes the connection that UNESCO helps to create libraries in developing countries and areas, which allows women, children, and men alike to learn and gain education; Eleanor Roosevelt, too, talks about UNESCO and how they will “help us gain peace” in “Making Human Rights Come Alive.” Human rights and the importance of libraries are connected for me through education; libraries are an important tool for education, through which human rights are fostered. 

Even though I mentioned before that there is a lot of information and history related to peace and human rights that American students do not learn, education in general is so important to the “free and full development of the human personality.” UNESCO constructs libraries to further their mission of “peace through international culture,” which seems to me to foster the kind of development of a person that the UDHR claims is necessary and the right of each person. 

“that is probably what UNESCO is going to help us all to achieve; and, perhaps, one of the best ways will be in really making people understand why human rights and freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope to build peace.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

Roosevelt praises UNESCO for “really making people understand” the reasons that human rights and freedoms are necessary to peace, and one of the important ways they do that is through construction of libraries. UNESCO takes the sixth rule of harmony a little bit further than simply relying on individuals to educate their children and dependents; they provide the tools for many individuals in a whole community and seeks “to develop in them the sentiments of harmony” through education in libraries. 

V. Contributing to the World’s Work 

Almost a year ago, I found my home at Central Michigan University in my sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta. When I jumped off the stage and found a group of new sisters, I was jumping into so much more than just a group of girls who sometimes wear matching t-shirts or “throw what they know,” which is what I’m doing in front of the Peace Palace in this photo. So much more than all the things most people think about when they imagine a sorority girl, I found a purpose.

“To welcome the opportunity of contributing to the world’s work in the community where I am placed because of the joy of service thereby bestowed and the talent of leadership multiplied.” - Alpha Gamma Delta Purpose

The open motto of Alpha Gam is “Live with purpose,” which means that we try to engage in meaningful activities that have substance, purpose, and enrich our lives in real ways. I learned about our sorority, our founders, symbols and colors, and it was cool, but it really was not until I left my sisters, my community, and my country that I gained a much deeper understanding of what all of those things mean to me. One piece of our purpose I felt that really connected with my experience in The Hague is above; it references “contributing to the world’s work,” which most of the time we associate with our philanthropy work, or doing community service. This summer, that line got to take on a whole new meaning to me. 

“Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his human personality is possible.” - Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 29

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights includes a slew of different rights that its authors agreed each human is entitled to by virtue of being a human being; however, there is only one article that relates to having duties associated with those rights, and that is Article 29. In asserting that there are duties that each person has to the community that offers him “free and full development of his human personality,” Article 29 makes implicit that a community that respects human rights also places demands on a person enjoying those rights.

One could make the argument that if a community is not offering “free and full” human development, that one may not have a responsibility to that community. You might say, well, I’m not getting anything out of this community, so I don’t really owe it anything in return. I’d like to challenge that notion and say that if a person feels that a community is not fulfilling its responsibilities to the individual, there is more responsibility placed on that person: they have identified a problem, and thus may have a duty to help remedy the situation.

This is why my purpose as an Alpha Gam has really begun to resonate with me in a completely new way. I think that our purpose statement implies that idea; although we certainly enjoy the ability to develop as individuals in the community in which we are placed, we also recognize the duty to “contribute to the world’s work,” perhaps simply because of “the joy of service thereby bestowed,” but also, I think, because we recognize that it is part of our duty as citizens of the world to contribute. 

“We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time.” -  Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot

"Sexual violence in conflict needs to be treated as the war crime that it is; it can no longer be treated as an unfortunate collateral damage of war." - UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Ms. Zainab Hawa Bangur

The photo above says “I do not deserve to be raped.” This is the slogan of a social media campaign which began in Brazil, and has become very popular there as well as throughout Latin America. Although today we place an emphasis on protecting women against sexual violence including rape, it was not until 1993 that rape was defined as a crime against humanity. 

Historically, according to the UN Outreach Programme on the Rwanda Genocide, rape was often regarded a “spoil of war,” which was legitimate for a victorious party to commit against the women of the defeated. Even in the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials following World War II, although all sides were suspected of mass rape and other sexual violence, the trials made no mention of such crimes, and made no attempt to prosecute them.

In 1993, the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia included rape as a crime against humanity in a statute, with other crimes such as torture and extermination. Later, the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda did something somewhat similar; however, they set a different precedent through a particular case.

The case of Jean-Paul Akayesu, pictured above in court at the ICTR, proved to be a very influential case in international law, and one that expanded the definition of genocide to include rape as it was decided in his particular case to be “ acts of genocide insofar as they were committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Tutsi ethnic group.” 

This decision to convict Akayesu on charges of rape and sexual violence are referred to by  Rebecca L. Haffajee in her article “Prosecuting Crimes of Rape and Sexual Violence at the ICTR: The Application of Joint Criminal Enterprise Theory” as a “watershed moment” for sexual crimes during conflict situations, specifically as a tool of genocide. Haffajee explains how, using the joint criminal enterprise theory, high-level officers and politicians such as Akayesu who instigate or encourage crimes like rape can be held responsible for those crimes.

"Destruction doesn’t mean a stack of bodies. There are other ways to destroy somebody. One of the things that these women were told as they were being raped was ‘we’re leaving you alive so that you can die of sadness.’ That to me encapsulates this strategy.” - Filmmaker Michelle Mitchell, interview

She goes on to discuss, however, the difficulty of documenting sexual crimes in Rwanda and Africa in general due to stigmas against victims of these types of crimes, and fears of having these kinds of offenses become public. Michelle Mitchell, a filmmaker, created a documentary on Akayesu’s case, interviewing three of the witnesses who participated in proceedings against Akayesu. What she says about rape used to destroy women and families without killing them is, to me, why prosecuting and identifying these types of crimes is so important. It is absolutely essential that, despite the taboo of speaking about these kinds of crimes in some places, they be brought to light and examined. Ignoring them perpetuates the antiquated idea that rape is a legitimate action by a victor or aggressor. 

However, simply prosecuting the people in charge for committing these crimes is not enough. Really, even if all those who actually committed the rapes were also prosecuted and sentenced to jail time, it would not be enough. Prosecution and what international criminal tribunals do is so important in the quest for peace and justice, but they are certainly not the only way to provide peace and justice to a community, nor to ensure healing and redress for victims. 

Communities that are struck by horrific events such as Rwandan communities need resources and support in order to heal from violence, especially sexually based offenses that injure victims in ways that go so much further beyond the physical.  Victims, especially in African societies, are looked down upon after having been abused sexually; many are shunned in their societies and not allowed to remarry, earn money, or be reintegrated into their families. Some also suffer horrendous physical injuries as well, for which they are unable to seek treatment because they are afraid their communities will find out and ostracize them, or they have no money to pay for treatment. 

In Rwanda, there are several other avenues through which justice is being sought. This includes transfer of cases from the ICTR to the national court system, which has tried almost 10,000 people in cases related to the genocide, and the use of the gacaca system. This system is a traditional, tribe-based method of justice, which brings perpetrators directly to the places where they committed crimes, and face their accusers. Proponents of this method assert that it is a legitimate way to achieve reconciliation in situations where there are already tens of thousands of cases being tried in front of national courts, jails are overcrowded, and a community still needs to see something being done.

In addition to national and gacaca courts, a particularly important part of reconciliation includes creating a national memory of an event, so that it is not forgotten and therefore may not be repeated. In Argentina, this was done with the CONADEP report, a report consisting of hundreds of pages of testimony from victims or the relatives of victims following  a period of state-sponsored tortures, killings, kidnappings and diasppearances. Anyone who wished to share their story was welcomed into the office of the commission for the CONADEP report, and they were allowed the cathartic experience of telling their story, and having it added to the national memory of the time period. The ICTR provides this in the form of testimonies as to what happened there during the genocide. 

“the TFV has a two-fold mandate: (i) to implement Court-Ordered reparations and (ii) to provide physical, psychological, and material support to victims and their families. By assisting victims to return to a dignified and contributory life within their communities, the TFV contributes to the realization of sustainable and long-lasting peace through the promotion of restorative justice and reconciliation.” - Trust Fund for Victims website 

Furthermore, as these types of courts grow older, different features to help those who are affected by conflicts. Many courts, including the ICTR, have processes in place to protect victims and witnesses so that they are able to testify without fear of retribution, and promised confidentiality if they so choose. The International Criminal Court has a mechanism in place known as the Trust Fund for Victims, which helps provide reparations and other necessary services to victims. Although this is a lesser-known piece of the ICC, it is an extremely important one. 

Without these types of systems in place to help preserve the justice that is served through prosecutions in international courts and tribunals, I think that the international system for justice would be rather weak. After all, these types of crimes, in particular rape and other sexual crimes, have severe lasting physical and psychological impacts on communities, families, and individuals. 

“There is no better exercise for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” - John Holmes

“Regulus had forfeited his life both to uphold a promise and to magnify the honor of Rome. Such praise would doubtless have resonated with the Roman public, who had fed on a steady diet of the mos maiorum, that body of customs and exempla borrowed from their ancestors.” - Promises Past: Atilius Regulus and the Dialogue of Natural Law, William R. Nifong

This is a depiction of the Roman goddess Fides, who represented good faith in public affairs and in agreements between two parties. In his article concerning the dialogue of natural law, William R. Nifong first discusses in detail the Roman dedication to Fides, and the way that Roman citizens learned about the values of honor and promise-keeping which were the foundations of that society. In the above passage, he mentions the concept of mos maiorum, the tool that served “ a didactic as well as patriotic end, these stories taught Roamns how to be Roman.”

When I was in high school, I kept two notebooks for my history class notes: one full of notes I took while reading or in class, and one with important people, places and dates. The majority of those were world leaders who had done important things, great or terrible, and therefore needed to know about. I don’t mention this because it’s unusual that I learned lots of names and stories about individuals; quite the contrary, actually. I mention it because this is something that has been done all throughout history and perhaps serves a much deeper purpose than I had really considered until recently.

Since as early as Roman times, perhaps earlier, people have learned about individuals who have had an impact on history, for better or worse. In Rome, these individuals were used to demonstrate, as Regulus does, the importance of upholding promises and executing them in good faith, which was an integral part of being Roman. We learn about people like Martin Luther King, Jr., Adolf Hitler, and a slew of other historical figures in order to teach us about right and wrong. History is not taught simply to test how well a student can memorize information and dates and regurgitate it; we learn about history to understand what it means to be human, and to connect those stories with our own stories.

During the three-day Bertha von Suttner Master Class in the Peace Palace, we did something very similar to this. We learned the stories of individuals who did great work for international peace and women’s rights and suffrage. After that, we spoke as a class of the necessity of creating our own mos maiorum related to peace and justice. We talked largely about the “bad guys”: people who committed atrocity crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide. It took me a little while to make this connection, but during the Master Class, I got to learn about what seems to me to be the mos maiorum of the international peace movement.

“If any married couple in our days offer an attractive type of what the union of a man and a woman may be in the future, when the ecnomic independence of wome will be the rule, and mutual inclination the only reason for marriage, certainly Mr. C. V. Gerritsen and Dr. Aletta Jacobs appraoch that ideal.” - “Dr. Aletta Jacobs and Mr. C.V. Gerritsen” in The Australian Woman’s Sphere, Martina G. Kramers

Some standout individuals - or a pair of individuals, really, include Aletta Jacobs and Carel Gerritsen, Not only are the two of them both influential on their own, but their relationship came to serve as the ideal relationship for feminists worldwide, and to me, as to Martina G. Kramers, approaches the ideal relationship between a man and a woman. The excerpt above is from an article outlining the relationship of Jacobs and Gerritsen in the Australian Woman’s Sphere, an Australian feminist publication, found in The Gerritsen Collection. The couple amassed a collection of various types of literature and periodicals during their lifetime, which is now archived in that collection, which according to its website is the “ greatest single source for the study of women's history in the world.” 

Carel Gerritsen and Aletta Jacobs were both committed to furthering the role of of women in society. Jacobs, the first woman doctor in Holland, also fought for her and all women’s right to vote. Gerritsen supported these aims and also, according to Kramers, “[took] every occasion to give women employment [...] he has always supported the cause of women; he is also a strong supporter of peace and arbitration.” During the Master Class, Andrew Blom, a professor at Central Michigan University, talked about their relationship and the way that they interacted, focusing on their relationship and their ultimate decision to marry. 

“We both agreed that a legal marriage was out of the question. On the other hand, the only disadvantage to a marriage of ‘free individuals,’ in which both of us maintained our full freedom and economic independence - even continuing to live apart - would be the offense to conventional attitudes. As two completely independent people, we would be able to live, for better or worse, according to our own beliefs. Our union was based on mutual respect and a shared philosophy of life.” - Aletta Jacobs, Memories 

“Dionysius of Halicarnassus defined history as philosophy from examples,” says Nifong in his article. The same way that Regulus embodied the Roman virtues of honor and promise-keeping, to me Jacobs and Gerritsen’s relationship embodies the relationship between “free individuals” that would allow freedom for both of them to continue their lives, without one becoming servant to the other. This is the part of the talk that really interested me: it is so important that both Jacobs and Gerritsen were workers for women’s rights and for peace, but even more significant that they live these ideals out in their own lives.  

“I pointed out [to Bertha von Suttner] that [her] ideals could be realized only when women had achieved full civil rights. The philosophy of peace would gain government recognition when women’s opinions were also being pressed in parliaments everywhere.” - Aletta Jacobs, Memories 

Jacobs says in her memoirs that she speaks to Bertha von Suttner about the idea that men and women must be equal in order to achieve peace, and this is an idea that grew with her throughout her life. Blom talked about her memories of reading John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women when it was first translated into Dutch, and this seems to be where she draws her inspiration from. She states in Memories that she was “alternately inspired, depressed, and terrified by the Dutch version: The Slavery of Woman, “ and that it became her “personal touchstone.” 

This is interesting because John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor Mill as a couple were another forward-thinking union between two individuals working for a similar goal. The Mills both publish similar works related to women’s rights and women’s roles in a marriage. After her father read this book aloud to her family, Jacobs became interested in and began to work for later in her life women’s right and suffrage, becoming someone who inspires others, like those at the master class, to work for the same things. To me, it’s cool that Jacobs was influenced by the Mills, because ultimately she and Gerritsen became an influential couple as well.

“I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.” - Clara Barton

This photo is the graduating class of the Blockley Hospital nursing program around 1902. The only woman in this photo not in white is Clara Barton, an American woman who first heard of the International Red Cross after traveling to Geneva in order to recover from health problems; upon returning to the United States, she worked tirelessly to found the American Chapter of the Red Cross, which still today ministers to wounded soldiers as well as people affected by disasters, both at home and abroad.

Before that, though, Barton was already working diligently to provide care for wounded soldiers on battlefields during the American Civil War. During the war, she opened a center to care for those soldiers, later moving her work onto the battlefield; with the approval of President Lincoln, she then helped to locate over 22,000 soldiers. Wearing a red cross to identify herself on the battlefield, Clara Barton is one incredible example of a person who threw herself completely into her work, with “faith in the possibility of something better,” namely a humane approach to injured soldiers on battlefields, at first without any notion of other people attempting to do the same thing. In the U.S., soldiers were often left without care on the battlefield, something which she found unconscionable and felt the need to do something about it.

Her story has stuck with me since I first heard it: Barton was a peace worker, but not in a traditional sense. She was not a lawyer, a diplomat, or someone who could donate millions of dollars towards building palaces. Instead, she was a woman striving for “anything new that might improve the past.” And there must be those kinds of people, because peace is not achievable without people doing the less glamorous, on-the-ground sort of work that Barton was doing. Probably one of the most important lessons that I have learned so far during this trip is that not everyone is going to become an international lawyer, but there are so many necessary occupations and spaces for peace work. 

Perhaps not extremely similarly, but in the same vein in my mind, are those who do work such as translation work for the International Criminal Court. Without those translators, the technical workers who help to get recordings done, and tons of other professions which are neither judge nor attorney, there would be no ICC. Sure, it may exist but its functionality would be limited at best. The courts, as well as other functions of international relations and peace through law projects, are held up by those who do the organizing, the translating, the technical support, and also the on-site work with wounded soldiers, victims of atrocities, and investigations.

Another important lesson that I have learned during my time in The Hague, and that can be learned from the story of Clara Barton and the Red Cross is the importance of having symbols for identification and memory. While the Red Cross’s symbol, the red cross, was primarily used for identification on a battlefield and as an indication that soldiers were not to harm them, that symbol has an important history. Symbolism is a very powerful literary tool, helping to create very deep meanings in texts to add to a deeper theme. Sure, after awhile we might just want to say that maybe all that author is trying to convey is that the curtains are blue, but the power of color and physical symbols is also very useful when trying to create memory or meaning.

The Red Cross chose their symbol because “would be universal and easily recognized, to protect medical personnel from attack during conflicts,” according to the International Chapter’s website. It recognized the importance of a neutral symbol and of a color that would be easy to recognize. Cora Di Brazza recognized the need for a neutral symbol to stand for peace work as well, and it was with in mind that she designed the Pro Concordia Labor flag, which came to be the symbol of the international peace movement. Its purple, yellow and white were not in combination the national flag of any country, which helped to reiterate that the peace movement was international, and did not belong to any country. 

The flag’s shield shows a pair of hands, a man’s and a woman’s, clasped, to signify the necessity of both genders working together in order to achieve a peaceful society. The dove, a widely recognized symbol of peace at the center, flies above the phrase “Pro Concordia Labor,” or “for peace I work.” These kinds of symbols are of paramount importance if a memory of these ideas and the individuals who helped to propagate them are to be remembered. 

“The things he sees are not just remembered; they form a part of his soul.” - Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori, a peace activist and educator (not a lawyer or diplomat either, but still a peace worker!), used tactile experiences as a way to help children learn. She, like Clara Barton, defied “the tyranny of precedent” to create a new style of learning which is still used today, and to incorporate peace education into it. I was so fortunate as a child to have a mother who is also a peace worker - she was a Montessori school teacher, and sent me and my brother to Montessori schools, where we learned using physical objects. I learned long division by using beads as a physical representation of the concept, which in turn solidified my understanding of it.

Montessori asserts that what a child sees will “form a part of his soul,” which to me means that what is learned will be ingrained into a child so deeply as to become an integral part of him. This lesson can be extrapolated to include the use of symbols such as flags and badges in remembering movements, ideas, and things toward which to strive. Cora Di Brazza also knew this, turning the shield into badges, which offer the individual a wearable reminder that one must strive to live according to the Seven Rules of Harmony, which are to help one live a life aimed towards peace. It provides a really beautiful way for an individual to “form a part of his soul” with those rules. 

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

These badges can be used as an educational tool in two ways. First, in educating oneself on how to obey these rules, and live a life dedicated to peace, by reflecting on violations of the Rules of Harmony and using the pin in order to be mindful of what we are doing. Second, as a conversational piece to help educate others on the work that has and is being done towards global peace. It’s a small object, but it has a huge amount of significance for helping people, including oneself, about the importance of peace and human rights both globally and in places “so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world.” 

Talking about the story behind the pin, and the Pro Concordia Labor flag is also an important way of talking about peace. The last valuable lesson that has stuck with me in the past few weeks is that learning stories and connecting them is essential for education and memory. The individual stories that I have discussed here, the stories of women like Clara Barton, Cora Di Brazza and Maria Montessori are all pieces of a really big and seemingly complicated puzzle. They all connect, though, to form a larger web of peace work and peace history whose memory is necessary for the continuation of that kind of work. 

Throughout the course of this class, we have been talking about the “red thread” which ties together the positive history that the peace movement is a part of, and how all of these stories do come together to form something much larger. The Pro Concordia Labor badges pictured above have a red ribbon behind them, rather than a traditional purple, yellow, or white ribbon to symbolize this thread. We have been working to uncover this thread for ourselves and for others, and it has become increasingly clear how important realizing connections and tying these stories together is. Learning information is useful, but it is far more relevant when put into a context of a whole thread of history which leads into the present. 

“I am only one, But still I am one. I cannot do everything, But still I can do something; And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something I can do.”

- Edward Everett Hale 

All in all, throughout my time here in The Hague, I have been piecing together all of these stories, learning about the tradition of elegant symbolism of the international peace movement, and realizing the importance of all different people and professions in achieving peace. I think that this short poem, by Edward Everett Hale, sums up exactly what I mean to communicate here; all of the women that I have talked about were each one individual. However, they are all connected through that red thread of history, and they all contributed significantly to peace work internationally, though perhaps in ways different from what may generally be associated with terms like “international peace” and “human rights.” 

“Libraries are the most important and the richest source of information on problems which concern mankind as a whole.” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission” 

Since I was a child, the public library in my hometown (pictured above, the MacDonald Public Library) was my favorite place to go. I would spend hours there, reading, checking out books, and attending children’s programs there. I would read anything on the shelves in the children’s area: chapter books, biographies of famous people, books on science, history, cooking, cars, anything. 

Since then, I have had a pretty decent understanding of how amazing libraries are, and all the information available in them. Working there when I was in high school further cemented that point: I got to help other people find the information that they were looking for, whether it was for a school project, for work, or just because they were interested. The public library in my hometown is indeed “the richest source of information” for a multitude of pursuits.

Even in cultures that traditionally do not open up education to everyone, libraries are extremely important instruments of transmitting education through reading to those individuals. 

“Because of the customs of the country, few women come to the library, but in many cases the men explain that the books they borrow are for their family, and that they are often read aloud” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

In this UNESCO publication, Maurois is talking specifically about India, where they set up libraries in order to help educate the population and provide those who could read the opportunity to further their education. Furthermore, the idea that men would read aloud to their family is extremely important in the lives of people such as Aletta Jacobs, whose father would read aloud to the whole family, and later inspired her to become the first Dutch woman to become a doctor, and a leader in the suffrage and peace movements.

I think André Maurois sums it up pretty well: these places are some of the most essential resources in finding information about pretty much anything, and reading is an essential piece of a person’s life and education. However, more than that, they are places where people can find information about, as he says “problems which concern mankind as a whole.” 

“The citizen of a democracy who wishes to fulfil his duties conscientiously must go on learning all his life. The world does not stand still the day we leave our class-room. How are we to make up our minds, how are we to uphold what is reasonable and oppose what is criminal folly, if we do not know what it is all about?” - André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

He goes on to talk about education and libraries in conjunction, stating that citizens of democracies who “wishes to fulfil his duties conscientiously” must educate himself on these problems. Andrew Carnegie seems to have held this same belief. In his “The Gospel of Wealth,” he asserts that "[i]n bestowing charity the main consideration should be to help those who help themselves." And that’s exactly what he did: Carnegie gave up his fortune to build over 1,500 libraries across the United States so that people would be able to utilize them to educate themselves. 

What Carnegie and many other influential individuals throughout history have in common are that they are autodidacts; that is, they educated themselves rather than relying on a system of public education to do it for them. They are self-taught. These kinds of people, including Aletta Jacobs and other influential peace activists, were able to “know what it is all about” and subsequently take action towards what they believed to be “upholding what is reasonable,” reasonable being international peace, and peace through law. 

It is for these purposes that libraries such at the Peace Palace Library, whose reading room is pictured here, are essential, specifically for propagating peace, and peace through law, which is something that Carnegie was well aware of. When he gave money to build the Peace Palace, he was convinced that there must also be a library next to it, so that education on international law might also take place there. In face, he specified that a certain amount of the money, a substantial portion of it, be spent on building the best possible collection of international law materials. The Peace Palace Library’s website declares it the “the oldest and most prestigious libraries specialized in international law,” and it is open to the public. This library being open to the public is testament to the importance of educating oneself on the “problems which concern mankind as a whole,” which I would argue include issues of international law.

“that is probably what UNESCO is going to help us all to achieve; and, perhaps, one of the best ways will be in really making people understand why human rights and freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope to build peace.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

Eleanor Roosevelt speaks of education as necessary to to help “understand why human rights and freedoms are one of the foundations on which we hope to build peace,” and international law libraries that are open to the public are especially important; these places serve as hubs for education and understanding on topics related to peace through law specifically. While it is obvious that public libraries in general can serve this purpose also, libraries dedicated to international law make this type of information much easier to find, and lend credibility and order to it, as well as creating an intellectual community to discuss and share ideas. 

“Unesco’s main task is to work for peace through international culture. In this, the public library is the natural assistant.” André Maurois, “Public Libraries and their Mission”

These communities and resources are essential, because, as Roosevelt says in her speech, “the only way we can guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing a good job educationally.” As is UNESCO’s main task, libraries like the Peace Palace Library also work for peace through international culture, and education. UNESCO, too, constructs libraries all over the world to help further its mission of “peace through international culture,” which is testament to the importance of libraries in relation to peace education, as well as education in general. Since libraries are such an important piece of general education, public libraries dedicated to international law are clearly also an important part of education on peace and human rights. 

“Education must continue from the cradle to the grave.” - Bertha von Suttner

“In Japan, for instance, freedom only  means license. There was no character in the Japanese language which meant freedom as we understand it, so that when we tried to explain what freedom meant, they had to evolve a new character, because when they speak of a child who acted with complete irresponsibility and complete license, they said he was acting with freedom.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive” 

What comes to mind when you hear the word “freedom?” For me, freedom is a loaded word that conjures up images like the American flag, the U.S. Constitution, or these three men (congressmen Thomas Massie, Justin Amash, and Rand Paul). Freedom in my mind largely matches the first definition in the Oxford dictionary, which defines freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” And that’s what freedom is, as least at first glance, at least to me. 

But freedom means a lot of things, even in the English language. There are a multitude of definitions, and the emotions, images, and ideas that are conveyed by this one, simple word can be very esoteric. This is the beauty, and also the trouble, with words. Words mean different things to different people. The difficulty becomes apparent in attempting to bridge the gap between languages and cultures. Eleanor Roosevelt outlines this idea in her speech “Making Human Rights Come Alive,” using the example of the Japanese conception of freedom. She explains that in discussing freedom, the Japanese delegation really struggled with the “freedom” that she and the American delegation were describing. 

Although the confusion of the Japanese exemplifies the struggle with language during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it isn’t just the Japanese delegation that has trouble with the American conception of freedom, either; the USSR, too, has difficulty accepting this idea, and ultimately not voting for the Declaration because of some of these differences. In drafting the Declaration, Roosevelt explains that difficulties of these sort were faced almost constantly, particularly in relation to the meaning of freedom. 

The United States’ delegation’s focus is largely on the civil and political rights included in the UDHR, which are aligned with the American ideal of freedom. These kinds of rights tend to be viewed as essential, and “more important perhaps than the actual assurance by the state of certain economic and social rights,” according to Roosevelt. In addition, it spells out social, cultural and economic rights. The important thing about the UDHR is that it recognizes the symbiotic relationship between civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights. It takes these two ideas and merges them into a document that encompasses the importance of both for, as stated in Article 26, the “full development of the human personality.” 

The freedoms that the Soviet Union’s delegation championed during the drafting of the UDHR were of the social, cultural, and economic strain. As a Communist country during this time, the USSR fought to include these types of rights in the final document. 

“They fought for those economic and social rights because to them those are the really important things. They never offer anybody freedom.” - Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive 

In the context of history, it makes sense that Roosevelt would assert that they “never offer anyone freedom,” especially freedom in the American sense. Even though *** The Soviet Union “was in the grip of high Stalinism, whose trademarks were harsh political repression and terror,” says Bertrand M. Patenaude in “Regional Perspectives on Human Rights: The USSR and Russia, Part One.” In a government “by workers and for workers,” political and civil rights were very limited. Instead, the USSR focused on the social and economic freedoms, and workers’ rights. 

“The Kremlin proclaimed the achievement of such rights, and the benefits that Soviet citizens received from them, as evidence of the superiority of the Soviet Communist system to that of the capitalist West, where the importance of civil and political rights was emphasized, while the notion of economic and social “rights” was viewed much less favorably.” - Bertrand M. Patenaude, “Regional Perspectives on Human Rights: the USSR and Russia, Part One”

Patenaude succinctly sums up the difficulty with language and the use of certain words by describing the different emphasis placed on certain rights in the West versus in the Soviet Communist system. Instead of viewing freedom in the same way as American and other Western delegations did, the USSR viewed the important pieces in the UDHR to be related to economic and social rights. Ultimately, Roosevelt explores the idea that the USSR was unable to vote to adopt the Declaration because of the freedoms outlined therein which it simply could not guarantee. 

I also find it interesting that similarly to the USSR’s hesitations about civil and political rights, the United States ultimately went on to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it does not ratify the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. This is particularly interesting, because at the time in the United States, the federal government was expanding its social and economic duties to its citizens in the two New Deals, implementing programs such as the Works Progress Administration to provide jobs to the unemployed, and the Social Security Act, providing social security for citizens as outlined in Article 22 of the Declaration. 

Both of these conceptions of freedom are included in the final document, which Russia still did not vote for at the final vote. In the end, it seems that although the Declaration did contain the economic and social rights that they fought hard to include, the idea of being obligated to guarantee certain political and civil rights was not doable for the USSR. 

“It is an educational declaration and the only way we can guarantee that these rights will be observed is by doing a good job educationally. People really have to strive to have their government and their people understand that these are the kind of rights that give dignity to man”

- Eleanor Roosevelt, “Making Human Rights Come Alive”

Although various problems with accepting the language and thus the responsibilities outlined for states in the Declaration arose on both the side of the USSR and the United States, Roosevelt designated it as an “educational document.” She acknowledges that the Russian delegation is, indeed, right: there is no way for any of the things written in it to be guaranteed. She stays optimistic, however, saying that although it will take time she does “feel that we can reach the point where we can live in the same world.”

Living in the same world may seem difficult; it may seem like an impossible task due to the ideological differences between states, or simply the language barrier. Language can be a hindrance, as seen throughout the drafting of the UDHR, because of all the different nuances of different words in different languages. Roosevelt uses the drafting process to "show you the cleavage in thought which somehow, some day, we have to bridge.”  Roosevelt argues that in order to start to live in the same world, people have to understand this document and these rights. To me, this means that building a basic understanding of the Declaration itself in our own countries, but also understanding what it might mean to those in other countries.

 Building understanding in different languages and cultures is not an easy task. As a Spanish student, I have had experience in trying to reconcile two different languages and world views. Charlemagne said that to have a second language is to possess a second soul, and this is something that really makes sense to me having experienced learning Spanish, and talking to native speakers.

Over spring break, I went to Miami and worked with primarily Cuban students learning English and trying to gain citizenship in the United States. These students experienced the Cuban government during and after the time during which the International Bill of Rights was being hashed out, and the divide between what freedom means to Western countries versus Russia and its Communist allies was clear. Many of these students lived the lack of political and civil freedoms and experienced the focus on economic and social rights. This for me was an application of what Roosevelt terms a “cleavage in thought” that we have to bridge to gain understanding of the document and of one another on a smaller scale. Although this is owed in large part to the political and cultural differences between Cuba and the United States, language contributed significantly to the differences in my understanding of freedom in comparison to theirs. 

“It is going to take time, but the understanding of it is necessary before we can begin to decide how we can work.” 

Drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a tremendous collaborative effort between a multitude of viewpoints. Countries differed in not only language, but also in their conceptions of freedom and which rights were most necessary and ought to be guaranteed by the state. Although it took two and a half years to spell out the ideals that the UDHR came to outline, work in understanding one another and these differences made it possible. Moving from there to decide how to work, and how to achieve a peaceful world will also take work.