Henri Marie La Fontaine (1854-1943) was a senator from 1894 to 1936.
Throughout his life, he was active as a confirmed pacifist in various organizations, including the Société belge pour l’arbitrage et la paix (Belgian Society of Arbitration and Peace), which he had founded himself at the end of the nineteenth century.
He also founded the Institut International de Bibliographie (International Institute of Bibliography) in 1895 with the aim of collecting and taking stock of all information on international problems and peacekeeping. This inventory is better known as the Mundaneum, an archive centre.
From 1907 until his death, he was the president of the Bureau International de la Paix (International Peace Bureau). In 1913, he chaired the World Peace Conference in The Hague, for which he received the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
In 1916, in his essay La Grande Solution, he called for the creation of a single parliament, constitution, court and bank for the entire world, and the creation of a single international language.
The Senate organized a tribute to mark the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize to Henri La Fontaine.
© Belgian Senate