World Veterans Federation

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The World Veterans Federation ( WVF ; German  World Veterans Association ) is the world's largest international veterans organization. It currently consists of 170 organizations from 93 countries and represents between 25 and 30 million people.

The association is a humanitarian, charitable and peace -active non-governmental organization . The WVF has had advisory status with the United Nations since 1951 .

aims

The main goals of the WVF are to defend the intellectual and material interests of veterans and war victims and their families by legal means and to work for international peace in the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations and for the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the international declaration of the Human rights and other international agreements are laid down.

organization

The organization of the WVF consists of the following bodies: a general assembly, a board of directors, three regional committees, a standing committee for women and a finance committee. The board consists of the president, the vice-president, four other vice-presidents, the general secretary and the treasurer. The headquarters of the WVF is in Paris. The current president is the Malay Datuk Hamid Ibrahim .

The WVF currently comprises three regional committees:

  • Standing Committee on African Affairs (SCAA)
  • Standing Committee on Asia and the Pacific (SCAP)
  • Standing Committee on European Affairs (SCEA)

The regional committees are composed of representatives of the member organizations in the appropriate geographic regions. Each regional committee elects a chairman who, by virtue of his office, is vice-chairman of the WVF.

The Standing Committee for Women consists of representatives for women affairs from the WVF member organizations and the chairs of the working groups for women in the regional committees. The committee elects a chairperson from among its members who is, by virtue of office, Vice-President of the WVF.

history

The inaugural meeting took place from November 23 to 27, 1950 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris with 43 delegates and observers. The delegates came from Belgium (6), France (14), Italy (4), Turkey (2), USA (9) and Yugoslavia (4). The observers were from Denmark (1) and Finland (3). The French Albert Morel was elected President.

At the 2nd General Assembly, which took place from November 27th to 30th, 1951 in Belgrade , the association named itself "The World Veterans Federation".

The association has grown from a few associations in eight countries to more than 170 organizations in 90 countries. At the beginning there were only members from Europe and the USA, now all continents are represented. The growing number of associations from developing countries is remarkable .

The composition and character of the WVF member associations have also changed. The association no longer consists only of associations of veterans and victims of the two world wars, but now consists of various organizations of veterans, ex-soldiers, victims of war, resistance fighters, former prisoners of war and peace initiatives, whose individual interests, needs and priorities differ partly differ considerably.

German members

The Social Association Germany (SoVD), which was founded in 1917 as the Association of War Participants and War Disabled, was a member of the WVF for several decades together with the Association of War Blind Germany eV (BKD) . Both associations have terminated their membership due to the change in their association objectives. The German Federal Armed Forces Association and the Advisory Board for Voluntary Reservist Work at the Association of Reservists of the German Federal Armed Forces have been participating as observers in meetings of the WVF since 2009. Both associations are expected to become full members from November 2012.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About WVF (World Veterans Federation) ( Memento of October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ SoVD commemorates the victims of war and tyranny. sovd.de, November 11, 2005, accessed October 3, 2011 .