The history of YAP is the history of a people’s movement, created at different places by different periods in the last years to protest against all forms of injustice. The story of YAP is a documentation of social activists, resistance, and peace, but also a documentation of changes, disagreements, and disappointments.

The next sections will provide information about the roots of YAP, the link to external persons, the ideas of the people, and how the definition of peace developed during the years and after the experience of the world wars. Comparing the preambles from 1930 and 1995 could create confusion about the profile of the organization. But it reflects the great evolution that YAP experienced in the last 84 years.

" The Knights of the Cross have joined together to declare that towards the world's actual chaos, only the power of the living Christ may help to bring about a just and sustainable peace. They declare the importance of the unity of Christians at the service of the lord of peace, non regarding nationality, race, social origins, political beliefs or Christian confession." Extract of the declaration of the Knights of the Cross, around 1930

"...against the different forms of violence, exploitation, injustice; against the oppression of ideological, religious, sexist, cultural or economical networks. YAP supports all those who want to take in charge their fate, to promote together a reasonable and liberating society..." Preamble of the statute of YAP, 1995, Portugal

Find out about our history from 1923 - 1945 and from 1945 - 1994.