Conscience: Taxes for Peace not War
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| Motto | Taxes for Peace not War |
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| Formation | 1979 |
| Type | Non-governmental organization |
| Purpose | Conscientious objection to military taxation |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
| Website | www |
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Formerly called
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The Peace Tax Campaign, Conscience The Peace Tax Campaign |
Conscience: Taxes for Peace Not War is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom. Conscience's primary aim is to change British tax law to allow conscientious objectors to military taxation to redirect the military portion of their taxes to a fund designed for international peacebuilding, conflict management, conflict prevention and other non-violent interventions.Quakers, Mennonites, Ba'hais, Buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and Haredim Jews all practice conscientious objection for reasons of faith. Many other individuals do so for reasons of conscience, some believing there is little moral difference between actually firing lethal weapons and paying someone else to do so. Conscience believes that to deny these individuals the right to redirect the military portion of their taxes is to deny them freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as enshrined in various national and international human rights laws.
Conscience has also campaigned around the management, transparency and utilisation of the Conflict, Stability, and Security Fund (formerly the Conflict Pool), a UK government fund which ‘seeks to reduce the impact of conflict and instability around the world’ mainly via non-military means.
This year, during the Centenary of the Military Service Act, which was the first in the world to enshrine the right to conscientious objection in law, the organisation is introducing a 'Taxes for Peace' bill to the British Parliament, which seeks to extend the 100 year old conscience clause into the tax system.
Conscience began as The Peace Tax Campaign in 1979. A Cornish Quaker, Stanley Keeble sought to establish the legal right of conscientious objection to military taxation, suggesting that the portion of tax that was used to fund the military should instead be used for peaceful purposes. He initially sent out a leaflet announcing the beginning of the Peace Tax Campaign, and began a campaign of letter writing, lectures and organising meetings to bring together those with similar ideas. People were actively encouraged to write to their MPs to change the law, something Conscience continues to do today. A letter to the Guardian newspaper signed by both MPs and religious leaders brought the campaign to national attention in 1981, leading to over 3,000 supporters and 50 local co-ordinators to join the campaign. In 1981 Alex Lyon MP put forward an amendment to the Finance Bill to allow those with a "conscientious objection to paying for expenditure on defence" to pay the military part of their taxes to the then Ministry of Overseas Development. This, though unsuccessful, was the first attempt to enable such legislation in the UK. Since then the campaign have submitted a number of Early Day Motions and 10 Minute Rule Bills.
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