2021-05-14 Fri

Henri La Fontaine was a Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau (1907–43) who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913.

La Fontaine studied law at the Free University of Brussels. He was admitted to the bar in 1877 and established a reputation as an authority on international law. In 1893 he became professor of international law at the New University in Brussels and two years later was elected to the Belgian Senate as a member of the Socialist Party. He served as vice-chairman of the Senate from 1919 to 1932.

He was a member of the Belgian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and to the League of Nations Assembly (1920–21). In other efforts to foster world peace, he founded the Centre Intellectual Mondial and proposed such organizations as a world school and university, and a world parliament. In 1907, with Paul Otlet, he founded the Union of International Associations.

To honor this great peace icon Belgian Postal Department has issued a stamp of value 17 Francs.

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