The World Food Programme (established in 1961) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace, stability and prosperity, for people recovering from conflict, disasters and the impact of climate change. Read the history of World Food Programme at

The international campaign  to Abolish Nuclear Weapons  (ICAN) is a coalition of non-governmental organizations in one hundred countries promoting adherence to and implementation of the nuclear weapon ban treaty. This landmark global agreement was adopted in New York on 7 July 2017. ICAN began in Australia and was formally launched in Austria in April 2007.…

Text taken from Wikipedia, 29 February 2016 In 2011, Tunisia was experiencing a revolution. In its wake, the stability and security of the country were considerably compromised. After the creation of the Assemblée nationale constituante (Constituent Assembly of Tunisia) of 2011, the writing of a new constitution proved difficult and the one-year deadline for its…

Founding. Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, a Belgian jurist and editor of the Revue de droit international et de législation comparée, provided the initiative for the founding of the Institute of International Law (L’Institut de droit international). In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), he entered into correspondence with some other leading jurists who were also beginning…

The Nansen International Office for Refugees, authorized by the League of Nations in the fall of 1930, began active operations on April 1, 1931. This office was the successor of the first international agency dealing with refugees, the High Commission for Refugees, established by the League of Nations under the direction of (q.v.) on June…

UNHCR was established by the United Nations General Assembly on 1 January 1951, for a three-year period and has been renewed since for successive five-year periods. An integral part of the United Nations, the High Commissioner follows policy directives from the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. The current High Commissioner is Ms…

Amnesty International was founded in 1961 by Peter Benenson, a British lawyer. It was originally his intention to launch an appeal in Britain with the aim of obtaining an amnesty for prisoners of conscience all over the world. The committee working for this cause soon found that a detailed documentation of this category of prisoners…

The International Labour Organization was created in 1919 by Part XIII of the Versailles Peace Treaty ending World War I. It grew out of nineteenth-century labor and social movements which culminated in widespread demands for social justice and higher living standards for the world’s working people. In 1946, after the demise of the League of…

Since the Red Cross has figured four times in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize (, , and 1963), as well as in the award to (1901), and has therefore been made the subject of various presentation speeches and Nobel lectures which give details of its inception, history, and activities, the following brief summary…

The international cooperative body for the national societies The League of Red Cross Societies was founded in 1919, the year after the end of World War I. The initiative came from Henry P. Davison, President of the American Red Cross. Experience from the war showed that the national Red Cross Societies ought to cooperate more…