100th anniversary of the First Hague Peace Conference - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 1999 - 300 Pfennig

From May 18 to July 27, 1899, the First Hague Peace Conference was held in The Hague, to which the Dutch Government had invited after an appropriate Russian initiative. More than 100 delegates from 26 countries, including the German Reich, attended this important conference, whose meetings were held in the mid-17th century Huis ten Bosch ("House in the bush"). The expectations for this conference were great. Finally, for the first time in history, representatives of sovereign states came together to develop rules about preventing war and maintaining peace. The anchoring of international norms that were to be used in armed conflicts was also the aim of this peace conference. It became clear during the course of the conference that the time for the introduction of arms restrictions was not yet ripe. Only one resolution was passed, along with a number of statements in the field of international humanitarian law. In The Hague, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, which is still active today, has been set up, which substantially promotes arbitration between the states. The historical significance of the First Hague Peace Conference for the development of international law can be seen above all in the fact that for the first time it was possible to codify universal international law to a great extent. The ideas of disarmament and arms control as well as the preservation and development of law are as relevant today as they were then. A Second Hague Peace Conference took place in 1907. It also passed a number of agreements, in particular in the field of international humanitarian law. A Third Hague Peace Conference, which had been envisaged for the year 1914/15, was canceled because of the outbreak of the First World War. (Excerpts from a text of the Foreign Office)