Meeting for Sufferings: Ecocide
'Although the Faith in Action team has found some pathways forward and hopes to support Friends in the campaign, it has not discerned that it should take the place of a central campaign.'
Some Area Meetings (AMs) have been calling for Quakers in Britain to support the campaign to make Ecocide an international crime. On Saturday evening, Mike Coote, co-clerk of Quaker Peace & Social Witness Central Committee (QPSWCC), gave a verbal report from the engagement group who had been responding to the requests.
Mentioning the ‘limited resources available to central work’, he said, ‘Our central resource is not large for climate work and we discern and guide the work with care.’ Although the Faith in Action team has found some pathways forward and hopes to support Friends in the campaign, it has not discerned that it should take the place of a central campaign, he said. The view is that the campaign already has momentum and Friends clearly have been spreading the word.
One Friend from an AM supporting the campaign asked for ‘some timeframe’ in terms of support offered by QPSW, to which Mike Coote said this depends on what happens in the next few months, ‘the breadth and depth and engagement of Friends around the country’, so they can see what the distinctly-Quaker approach might be. ‘I do think it could be done in a timely way and if we do want to do it there’s no reason it couldn’t be done quite quickly.’
Oliver Robertson, head of witness and worship, noted two reasons for caution, saying that the risk is that, if Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) signs up for everything, the strength of the Quaker voice might be diluted. He also noted that Quakers’ commitment is powerful, ‘not because of who we are, but, because when we do it, we keep doing it.’
One Quaker said that ‘a great deal of academic and legal commentary’ questions whether it actually makes sense to make ecocide a crime. She said, ‘There’s so much difference of opinion, we must be very wary that we’re not going off prematurely.’ Another Friend agreed that it needed more discernment, and their AM also had concerns about the ‘finer details’. ‘I trust the discernment and I am very grateful for [QPSW] setting up this engagement group which is, as far as I know, without precedent.’
The minute said: ‘We support the work of local Friends on the issue of Ecocide law and encourage them to develop it with support from the QPSW Faith in Action team. We ask QPSWCC to maintain a watching brief open to new ideas and links ready to take the matter forward as opportunities may arise.’
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