Quaker Trust confirms end of controversial funding
JRCT has announced that it will not fund the campaign group Cage again
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) has announced that it will not fund the campaign group Cage again.
The decision was announced on 6 March and follows a request from the Charity Commission to JRCT and the Roddick Foundation for ‘unequivocal assurances’ that they ‘have ceased funding Cage and have no intention of doing so in the future’.
Cage is an independent advocacy organisation. It was set up in 2003 to raise awareness of the plight of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay and other detainees held as part of the ‘War on Terror’. British former Guantánamo Bay prisoner Moazzam Begg has served as a director of Cage.
In late February it was revealed that the British militant Mohammed Emwazi – ‘Jihadi John’ – had been connected with Cage. It was also reported that the advocacy group had received grants from JRCT and the Roddick Foundation (see ‘Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and Cage’, 6 March).
The Charity Commission said: ‘Cage is not a charity but has been in part funded by British charities. As it is not a charity and given the nature of its work, and the controversy it has attracted, the Charity Commission has been concerned that such funding risked damaging public trust and confidence in charity.’
JRCT has been the subject of a Charity Commission compliance case since December 2013, in connection with its dealings with Cage. The Commission’s concerns prompted the Quaker trust to make its last payment to Cage in January 2014. It had paid £271,250 (between 2007 and 2014) of the £305,000 that had been awarded to the organisation.
‘In the light of regulatory pressure, and to protect the interests of all our grantees and the other work of the trust, we have decided to publicly confirm that we will not fund Cage either now or in the future,’ the trust said in a statement on 6 March.
The trust had clearly stated its position in relation to key funding criteria in an earlier statement released on 27 February. This statement was made after a press conference in which Asim Qureshi, the research director of Cage, said Mohammed Emwazi was ‘such a beautiful young man’ whilst expressing surprise that he had later become a militant.
The JRCT statement expressed a clear and unequivocal Quaker position: ‘As a Quaker trust, we reject and condemn all violence, including all violence for political ends. We believe that building sustainable security requires patient, long-term work to address the underlying causes of conflict and injustice.’
JRCT and its work have been subject to significant, largely negative, coverage in the media in the last two weeks. Most of this coverage has focused on JRCT’s work with Cage, but a number of publications have turned their attention to other organisations that have received grants from the trust.
The Daily Mail published a lengthy piece outlining JRCT’s financial involvement with organisations such as free press campaigners Hacked Off, and Teach na Fáilte, which helps current and former Irish Republican prisoners and their families.
Negative press coverage and the Charity Commission’s ultimatum prompted JRCT to write to supporters inviting them to sign a ‘letter to the editor’ that would demonstrate their ongoing commitment to the trust and its work. In this appeal, JRCT trust secretary Nick Perks refers to the ‘unprecedented regulatory pressure from the Charity Commission’.
He wrote: ‘It [JRCT] has never before been asked to rule out, in public and without the time for due consideration, future funding of an organisation, regardless of what the funding is for and irrespective of changing circumstances. It does not believe this style of regulatory intervention is proportionate or warranted, particularly in the light of the assurances that we had already given’.
The trust’s proposed ‘letter to the editor’ refers to its ‘vital contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process, the transition to democracy in South Africa, and to furthering rights and justice, corporate accountability and democratic reform’.
The letter JRCT has asked its supporters to sign also asserts: ‘No body should be above reproach or regulation, but, as other funders, charities, NGOs and concerned individuals, we affirm the right of charities and foundations to freely pursue their objectives within the law.’
JRCT said ‘a number of leading figures from philanthropic networks’ have already agreed to sign.
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