Shortly after arriving in Geneva in 1978, I met Edith for the first time. I was completing a thesis for the Australian National University on the role of the United Nations in the mediation of international conflicts. Edith was speaking at a seminar of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. While studying at Graduate school in Geneva, I was designated by WCOTP[1] as it was then, the international organisation representing teachers, located further around the lake in the town of Morges, to attend a meeting of the conference of NGOs in status with the UN, the CoNGO. I was a novice in such circles and having heard Edith speak with conviction about the quest for peace in the world, I asked for her advice. It was puzzling for me to hear a legendary personality, Noble Peace Prize laureate Sean MacBride, say that we could not discuss matters of substance in a CoNGO plenary meeting, only matters of procedure. Edith patiently explained to me that the essential role of CoNGO was to facilitate and advocate for NGOs to have access to the United Nations and its organs in accordance with the UN charter. In the era of the Cold War, substantive questions of Human Rights, Disarmament, or Development, were debated, often vigorously, in CoNGO committees, where NGOs engaged in these important issues could work on statements for presentation to the relevant UN Commissions. It was fundamentally important that the peoples’ voices be heard when governments met. As CoNGO president from 1976 to 1982, Edith ensured that people representing a diversity of organisations and views could all be heard.
A decade later, when I was elected First Vice President of CoNGO, the Berlin Wall had fallen, The Cold War was over, Nelson Mandela had walked free in South Africa and apartheid came to an end, new disarmament agreements had been reached between the superpowers, and there was hope for a new world. Edith had been a key figure in ensuring that the opening words of the UN Charter: “We the Peoples”, would mean that Non-Governmental Organisations could and would have a voice, even in times of ideological contestation. Now there were fresh opportunities and new challenges. Her wisdom was invaluable as Organisations of Civil Society (we began to adopt that more positive terminology) endeavoured to rise to those challenges, notably at the 1992 Earth Summit of Rio de Janeiro. I was privileged to serve as CoNGO president as we adopted new statutes to update its capacity for collective work at the UN and we mobilised at the 1995 Social Summit in Copenhagen, leading to the Millenium Development Goals to be adopted by the nations of the world, with the leadership of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, five years later, at the General Assembly of the year 2000. Together with Edith, many of us shared a sense of hope at the dawn of the 21st century.
During the years that followed, while Edith had retired as International President of her organisation, WILPF[2], she was indefatigable in keeping in touch with events, demonstrating as always her deeply held belief in the value of action by people of good will. As she approached her centenary, she never hesitated to share her experience as she maintained with perception and lucidity her support for those causes which had always motivated her: peace and disarmament, and the struggle of women and men for human dignity. In those years I was fortunate to see her occasionally walking in the park or the village of Petit-Saconnex, and to have a chat.
Edith Ballantyne’s lifetime of commitment meant so much, and inspired, so many.
Bob Harris, President, Conference of NGOs, (CoNGO): 1994-1997
[1] WCOTP – World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession, later Education International.
[2] WILPF – Women’s International League for Peace and Freedrom. Edith was Secretary General from 1969 until 1992 and International President from 1992 until 1998.