| |
 |
| |
| |
Location
| The international congress Archives without Borders takes place in a very appealing location: the Peace Palace in The Hague. The Peace Palace is home to a number of international judicial institutions, including the International Court of Justice or World Court, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the renowned Peace Palace Library, as well as the Hague Academy of International Law, which attracts law students from all over the world every summer. |
| The foundation of the Peace Palace marks a pivotal point between two centuries. At the end of the 19th century, the idea of world peace was blooming as never before. Europe and America had hundreds of active peace organisations, some of them with millions of members. A Swiss organisation, the Société de la Paix, introduced the word pacifism to the world. In 1899, the city of The Hague was chosen as the venue for the first international peace conference, which resulted in a convention with 61 articles for curbing the arms race, the humanisation of the conduct of war and the foundation of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. | | |
| | Shortly after this First Hague Peace Conference, the Scottish-born American Steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) decided to finance the permanent 'temple for peace' that was to become the Peace Palace. Carnegie's Peace Palace opened its gates in 1913, after six years of construction. It is a large, square-shaped building with a plinth of grey Belgian natural stone and facades of Dutch red bricks in a combined neo-renaissance style. It has sloping slate roofs, two different towers and a west wing facade similar in quality to the front facade.
Due to its location, size and architectural quality, the Peace Palace is by Dutch standards a building of uncommon grandeur which was precisely the intention behind its construction. This project was not just about housing a judicial organisation; it was about the embodiment of an idea. What the World Court lacked in authority as an international judicial institution in the early years, was more than compensated for by the formidable character, the artistic furnishings and exuberant symbolism of its housing. |
| The Peace Palace fitted perfectly with the dream of world peace as cherished by the First Hague Peace Conference. After its completion, it was hailed as a true dream palace for world peace, 'just as powerful and grand as the idea of world peace itself', to quote a Dutch writer of the time. But in the meanwhile, the spirit of the age had changed: one year after the festive opening of the Peace Palace, the First World War broke out in 1914.
Recently, the former Academy Building at the left side of the Peace Palace has been replaced by a newer and larger wing, designed by the British architect Michael Wilford. By a surprisingly modern and transparent reading room, this newly built Academy and Library Building is directly connected to the Peace Place and its historic reading room. |
| This new extension, where most of the proceedings of the Archives without Borders congress will take place, provides a strong impetus for the further development of the Peace Palace as a living institution for peace and international justice. It serves not only as a dignified place for justice and arbitration, study and development, but for encounter and dialogue between people who strive after peace and justice as well. Entirely along the lines envisaged by Andrew Carnegie.
| | |
|
|
|
|
