In this issue
In this issue
- Foreign Secretary fails to request kidnapped Briton’s release
- Christians found guilty over climate protest
- WCC reiterates complaints to Israeli authorities
- HMRC refuse right of conscientious objection
- Brexit, bulldogs and self-congratulatory illusion
- Few voters feel ‘well informed’ about EU referendum
- Leading artists join fight to save Human Rights Act
- Added days of imprisonment lock in ‘vicious cycle of punishment’
- White House U-turn on Pakistan drone deaths
- Bahrain opposition leader jailed over peaceful speeches
- UN agency warns 4.6 million face food insecurity in Burundi
- UN calls for greater support to least developed countries
- Yearly Meeting focuses on living out Quaker faith in the world
- Howard League responds to Transforming Rehabilitation report
- Children’s mental health and neoliberalism
- Christian Aid hails World Humanitarian Summit localisation shift
Friday 3 June 2016
2 Jun 2016
Foreign Secretary fails to request kidnapped Briton’s release
The Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond says he used a visit to Ethiopia yesterday (1 June 2016) to secure ‘legal access’ for a British man who was kidnapped and rendered to the country in 2014, and who is now held under sentence of death.
1 Jun 2016
Christians found guilty over climate protest
Five Christians were found guilty yesterday (31 May 2016) of causing criminal damage when they whitewashed the walls of the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).
1 Jun 2016
WCC reiterates complaints to Israeli authorities
The World Council of Churches continues to reiterate complaints about the interrogation and treatment of its staff and professional colleagues at Ben Gurion International Airport on 29 April-2 May 2016
2 Jun 2016
HMRC refuse right of conscientious objection
A group of staff from Britain Yearly Meeting, the charity which manages the central policy, property, staff and work of Quakers in Britain, have had a request rejected by the Treasury. They wanted to exercise their right of conscientious objection to war by ensuring that none of their taxes are used for military purposes.
30 May 2016
Brexit, bulldogs and self-congratulatory illusion
When our hereditary head of state opened parliament 12 days ago, she arrived in a gilded horse-drawn coach built in 1852 and was escorted by soldiers dre
30 May 2016
Few voters feel ‘well informed’ about EU referendum
Polling for the Electoral Reform Society released on 25 May 2016 shows that the number of people who feel well informed about the EU referendum has gone down – even after the Government sent out a leaflet to 27 million homes making the case for staying in the EU.
31 May 2016
Leading artists join fight to save Human Rights Act
Ten of the biggest names in British art are the latest voices to join the growing chorus condemning government plans to repeal the Human Rights Act.
1 Jun 2016
Added days of imprisonment lock in ‘vicious cycle of punishment’
Over a million days – or 2,890 years – of additional imprisonment have been imposed on prisoners found to have broken prison rules in the past six years, Ministry of Justice figures have confirmed.
27 May 2016
White House U-turn on Pakistan drone deaths
The Obama Administration has reversed its position on which countries will be included in its upcoming estimate of the civilian deaths caused by the US drone programme, according to a report in the Washington Post.
31 May 2016
Bahrain opposition leader jailed over peaceful speeches
In a shocking attack on the right to freedom of expression Bahrain’s authorities yesterday upheld the conviction of opposition leader Sheikh Ali Salman and increased his prison sentence from four to nine years for giving speeches in which he criticised the government, says Amnesty International.
2 Jun 2016
UN agency warns 4.6 million face food insecurity in Burundi
Some 4.6 million people in Burundi are food insecure, with more than 500,000 of them requiring urgent emergency food assistance, the UN food relief agency has said, warning that food stocks are stretched as a result of the fragile socio-economic context in the country.
30 May 2016
UN calls for greater support to least developed countries
A major United Nations meeting focusing on the world’s least developed countries closed yesterday in Antalya, Turkey, with a call for greater support to the world’s most vulnerable nations, and the adoption of an outcome document paving the way for further concrete action and progress in the years to come.
2 Jun 2016
Yearly Meeting focuses on living out Quaker faith in the world
A programme for more than 100 young people, from babies to teenagers, was part of Yearly Meeting 2016, bringing together 1,000 Quakers from around Britain, visiting Quakers from around the world and interfaith guests, including Billy Kennedy, a president of Churches Together in England, and Jagbir Jhuti-Johal, senior lecturer in Sikh Studies at the University of Birmingham.
27 May 2016
Howard League responds to Transforming Rehabilitation report
The Howard League for Penal Reform has responded to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation’s fifth and final report on the early implementation of the Transforming Rehabilitation programme, published yesterday
28 May 2016
Children’s mental health and neoliberalism
27 May 2016
Christian Aid hails World Humanitarian Summit localisation shift
Christian Aid has welcomed the commitment by major aid donors and NGOs to ensure 25 per cent of humanitarian funding goes directly to local organisations on the front line of disaster relief.