Code Pink

Code Pink: Women for Peace (often stylized as CODEPINK) is a pacifist, anti-war organization registered in the United States as a 501(c)(3) organization. It focuses on issues such as drone strikes, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Palestinian statehood, the Iran nuclear deal, human rights in Saudi Arabia, and peace on the Korean Peninsula. The organization has regional offices in Los Angeles, California, and Washington, D.C., and several chapters in the U.S. and abroad.

With members wearing the group's signature pink color, Code Pink has conducted marches, protests, and other activist action in order to promote its goals. The organization describes itself as female-initiated, but it encourages men to participate in its activities. The organization's political positions, especially those regarding China and Venezuela, and funding have created controversy and drawn congressional scrutiny.

Code Pink was founded on November 17, 2002, by a group of American anti-war activists, including Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin, in the lead-up to the 2003 US invasion of Iraq (which the organization opposed). The group's name is a play on the United States Department of Homeland Security's color-coded alert system in which, for example, Code Orange and Code Red signify the highest levels of danger. Code Pink's founding statement calls for

Women around the world to rise up and oppose the war in Iraq. We call on mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and daughters, on workers, students, teachers, healers, artists, writers, singers, poets and every ordinary outraged woman willing to be outrageous for peace. Women have been the guardians of life – not because we are better or purer or more innately nurturing than men, but because the men have busied themselves making war.

In February 2003, shortly before the invasion of Iraq, Code Pink organized its first trip to the country; it subsequently led five delegations there. These delegations included parents of American soldiers killed in combat in Iraq, as well as parents of active soldiers. Additionally, they brought six Iraqi women on a tour of the United States, and published a report about how the U.S. occupation affected the status of Iraqi women.

On its website, Code Pink lists allegations of U.S. war crimes, and states that thousands of civilians were killed in Fallujah in 2004 due to the actions of the U.S. military. Along with other groups, they gave over $600,000-worth of humanitarian aid to refugees of Fallujah in 2004. In 2014, Code Pink was awarded the US Peace Prize by the US Peace Memorial Foundation "in recognition of inspirational anti-war leadership and creative grassroots activism".

The group opposed the United States invasion of Iraq. In early 2003, members of Code Pink protested what they called the "naked aggression" of U.S. President George W. Bush by spelling out the word "PEACE" using their naked bodies at demonstrations in California and New York. Code Pink participated in vigils at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to shed light on the plight of injured soldiers. Code Pink said that the purpose of the vigils was to highlight the lack of care for veterans and that the vigils have helped achieve improvements in that care.

In the summer of 2009, Code Pink began their "Ground the Drones" campaign. This campaign was a response to the Obama administration's continued and increased use of drones in the war on terror, specifically in regions surrounding Pakistan and Afghanistan. Code Pink said that many of the drone strikes intended to target terrorist leaders and strongholds often miss their targets, causing the unnecessary deaths of innocent civilians.