Interchurch Peace Council (IKV)

The Interchurch Peace Council (IKV) became the leading group in the Dutch peace movement in the 1970/1980s through its protests against nuclear weapons and the arms race. In 1990, they were among the founders of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly and then became very involved in the wars in the former Yugoslavia. During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, IKV organised numerous activities to protest against the war and the policy of ethnic cleansing, to raise awareness in the Netherlands of the situation, to collect material aid for Bosnian refugees and to support anti-war and anti-nationalist groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in other former Yugoslav republics. The leading figure of the ICV was its Secretary General Jan Mient Faber. After he visited besieged Sarajevo, he advocated military intervention to end the violence against Sarajevo and other besieged cities.

After 1995, IKV became particularly involved in Srebrenica, supporting the survivors of the genocide, fighting for justice in the Netherlands and establishing contacts between former Dutch soldiers and the mothers of Srebrenica. In 2004, IKV merged with the organisation Pax Christi, with which it had worked closely for many years. The new organisation continued its work under the name PAX and is still active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially in Srebrenica.