Croatian P.E.N Centre is a non-governmental organization founded in 1927 as one of the first member-centers of the International PEN, the world association of poets, novelists, essayists, playwrights, screenplay writers, historians, critics, translators, editors and journalists sharing the same belief that writers can play a crucial role both in changing and developing civil society. PEN members are working toward a common goal: defending freedom of expression, protecting human and intellectual rights of writers and journalists endangered by repressive policies and regimes, helping languages of lesser currency to survive, preserving ethical standards of civil society and promoting world peace. PEN defends freedom of speech and protects rights. The principal task of PEN as an international organization is to promote world peace by intellectual solidarity, using the power of the literary word.

P.E.N. International, A World Association of Writers Originally founded in 1921 by Catharine Amy Dawson Scott to promote literature, today International PEN has 145 Centers in 104 countries across the globe. It recognizes that literature is essential to understanding and engaging with other worlds; if you can't hear the voice of another culture how can you understand it? PEN originally stood for "Poets, Essayists and Novelists", but now includes published writers of any form of literature, such as journalists and historians. Notable members: Joseph Conrad, D.H. Lawrence, George Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, H.G. Wells, Anatole France, Paul Valery, Thomas Mann, Benedetto Croce, Alberto Moravia, Heinrich Böll.

Our membership is open to all published writers who subscribe to the PEN Charter regardless of nationality, language, race, color or religion. International PEN is a non-political organization and has special consultative status at UNESCO and the United Nations.

Committees

The Committees of International PEN include the Writers for Peace Committee, Translation & Linguistic Rights Committee, Women Writers' Committee and the Writers in Prison Committee. Each Committee has an International Chair who reports to the Board of International PEN and is supported in their work by the Secretariat. All of the Committees, except for the Writers' in Prison Committee, are based in a PEN Centre.

The Committees lead dialogue and programmes on related issues and themes at an international, regional and Centre level. Individual Centres choose which of the Committees' areas of activity they would like to participate in and nominate a lead representative.