Quaker peace group backs Alternative Security Review
‘We desperately need an inclusive conversation on our future.’
Northern Friends Peace Board (NFPB) has said that a key priority for 2022 is engaging in the recently-launched Alternative Security Review, aimed at hearing marginalised perspectives.
The civil society-led review was launched in November by the Rethinking Security network, of which Quaker Peace & Social Witness, Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network, and NFPB are members. The three-year project aims to encompass a broader and more ecological perspective. It will include voices of those who are usually excluded from discussions of national interests and security.
Natalie Samarasinghe, CEO of the United Nations Association UK, said at the launch: ‘We desperately need an inclusive conversation on our future.’
Other priorities, said NFPB convenor Philip Austin, are supporting the Global Campaign on Military Spending, and continuing to promote Rethinking Security in general. According to the Global Campaign on Military Spending, the UK is the second-largest arms dealer in the world.
Philip Austin told the Friend: ‘Early in 2022, international nuclear weapons meetings will take place and we will be joining efforts to encourage the UK government to take positive steps towards disarmament, including engaging with the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.’
With the moving goal-posts of Covid, looking ahead remains tricky, he said, but ‘Northern Friends Peace Board has a number of aims for the coming year. As the year ends, some of our members and trustees will end their service and other Friends will take on these roles.’
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