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• Ban on ethical choice undemocratic

  16 February 2016

  Government plans to ban local councils from making ethical choices in their pension investments and procurements are undemocratic, say Quakers in Britain.

  Minister for the Cabinet Office, Matthew Hancock, is currently visiting Israel. During his visit, he is expected to announce full details of changes to the procurement guidance for all publicly funded institutions, including local councils and universities.

• Quakers urge government to back peer mediation

  10 February 2016

  The Peer Mediation Network today called on Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, to take steps to promote the comprehensive provision of conflict resolution education in schools.

  The Network, which includes Quakers in Britain, wrote an open letter. It said, “Funding and government support for mediation and restorative approaches in schools has been variable, making provision haphazard. ‎It is time for this to change."

• Quakers press for housing justice

  5 February 2016

  Soaring house prices, welfare cuts and loss of social housing have sparked a housing crisis. For Quakers at Yearly Meeting it was a hot topic and now they are questioning peers who are beginning a line by line examination of The Housing and Planning Bill in the House of Lords.

  Quakers in Britain say this Bill is a missed opportunity for the government to reduce inequality in the housing system. Instead it will increase inequality between those who are home-owners and those who are not.

• Conscientious objection: 100 years on

  23 January 2016

  In the midst of World War I, as conscription came into force, Quakers worked with parliament to ensure men had the right to refuse to kill.

  In 1916, with the Military Service Act, Britain became the first country to give legal recognition to individual conscience, now enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

• Global gathering strengthens Quaker voice in the world

  12 January 2016

  British Quakers are heading this week to Peru for a global gathering of Quakers.

• A look back at 2015

  30 December 2015

  Quaker work is often hidden from the public gaze. Our activity quietly makes a difference to areas of conflict, or sows seeds of change in local communities. As the year draws to a close we lift the curtain for a peep at a few initiatives started during 2015.
  

• Settlers attack international human rights monitors

  10 December 2015

  International human rights monitors whose presence protects vulnerable schoolchildren – in Hebron, occupied Palestine – face verbal and physical attack by Israeli settlers.

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