Edith Ballantyne was born on 10 December 1922 and is a Czech-born Canadian citizen, who has been a prominent member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom since 1969.
11 Facts About Edith Ballantyne
2.
Edith Ballantyne was raised in Czechoslovakia until the Sudeten Crisis of 1938.
3.
Edith Ballantyne recognized that if peaceful means of solving a conflict had been exhausted, there had to be a means to recognize that the oppressed were likely to resort to violence and members could support non-violence without condemning exploited persons who felt that other options did not exist.
4.
Edith Ballantyne believed that the role of WILPF was to encourage both sides to find peaceful means to coexist without focusing on who was to blame for the situation or favoritism.
5.
In 1976, Edith Ballantyne was elected to direct the Conference of Non-governmental Organisations of the UN and served as its president for the next six years.
6.
Edith Ballantyne hosted two organising committees, one in Geneva and the other in New York City, to ensure that broad input from diverse groups formed the foundation of the conference.
7.
In 1983, Edith Ballantyne was among 10,000 women who met with generals at NATO headquarters to protest new missile deployments in Europe.
8.
Edith Ballantyne's focus on following both mainstream strategies to achieve peace and supporting organisations which refused to adopt traditional strategies became the basis of WILPF policy to adopt a two-pronged approach in support of peace activism.
9.
Edith Ballantyne again served as chair for the planning committee of the NGO forum for the World Conference on Women, 1985 to be held in Nairobi.
10.
The Peace Tent, an idea pressed by Edith Ballantyne, was set up on the lawn of the University of Nairobi and became a focal point of the conference.
11.
In 1992, Edith Ballantyne became the International President of the WILPF and served in that capacity for the next six years.