Lucy Thoumaian or Rossier de Visme (1890–1940) was an

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ''Ox ...

n woman's rights and peace activist. Driven out of Armenia she helped create a school in

Chigwell Chigwell is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, England. It is part of the urban and metropolitan area of London, and is adjacent to the northern boundary of Greater London. It is on the Central line of the London U ...

for orphaned Armenians. She published a manifesto for peace before she attended the

Women at the Hague Women at the Hague was an International Congress of Women conference held at The Hague, Netherlands in April 1915. It had over 1,100 delegates and it established an International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace (ICWPP) with Jane Addams as pr ...

conference in 1915. Afterwards, she began working for the

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

Life

Thoumaian was born in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

with the name Rossier de Visme. International Congress of Women1915 (22785230005)

She and her husband Reverend Professor Garabed Thoumanian were driven out of Armenia and they became exiles in Britain. There, they organised an orphanage and school at Oakhurst in

for Armenians in 1906. In 1911, she attended the

First Universal Races Congress The First Universal Races Congress met in 1911 for four days at the University of London as an early effort at anti-racism. Speakers from a number of countries discussed race relations and how to improve them. The congress, with 2,100 attendees, ...

in London which was an early attempt at anti-racism. Despite being an exile from the Ottoman Empire she had embraced the Turkish delegates as a symbol of the need to work together. In 1914, she published a manifesto for peace whose theme was "War is man-made, it must be woman undone". She proposed that women should have weekly meetings until the dispute that caused the war was resolved. In 1915, Thoumaian traveled to

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

where she represented Armenia at the

conference. She arrived at the conference on the 25 April 1915. The day before the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was ...

started when hundreds of intellectuals were arrested in Armenia. Thomanian was on the main panel at the conference. After the conference, she stayed in the Netherlands until November. She was busy circulating material, and she was desperate to get information on 30 relatives she last saw in Marsovan in Armenia. After the war ended, she was pushed forward by the WILPF to work for a League of Nations commission. She continued to work for justices for the victims of the genocide in Armenia. Thoumaian died in the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

in 1940.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thoumaian, Lucy 1890 births 1940 deaths Armenian women's rights activists Armenian pacifists Swiss pacifists Swiss activists Pacifist feminists Swiss women activists Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people Swiss women's rights activists Swiss people of Armenian descent