Give peace a budget: 40 years of international peace tax campaigning

Since 1986, campaigners from around the world have met to turn a shared moral conviction into practical action. As the movement prepares to gather in Brussels for its 18th conference, we look back at the part Conscience has played – and forward to the next question: what would it mean to give peace a budget?

An old photograph from Washington in 2000 captures the peace tax campaign in one sentence:

“We assert the right not to participate in war, whether that participation is physical or financial.”

Standing beneath those words are Jackie Hoskins and Jon Nott, representing Conscience at the 8th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns. Twenty-six years later, campaigners are preparing to gather again – this time in Brussels, under the theme Give Peace a Budget.

The principle remains the same: conscientious objection should not end when military service ends. People should also have the right not to finance war through their taxes. But over four decades, the conferences have helped the movement ask increasingly practical questions. How can that right be recognised in law? How do we make the case to governments and the public? And if money is redirected away from war, what should it build instead?

Forty years of a shared campaign

The first international conference was held in Tübingen, Germany, in 1986. Since then, the gatherings have moved between Europe, North America, Asia and South America, bringing together people who resist paying for war and organisations campaigning for peace tax legislation.

Conscience has attended every conference since that first meeting and has organised three: Hoddesdon in 1996, Manchester in 2008 and Edinburgh in 2019. That continuity matters. In this international network, Conscience carries the UK campaign: pressing for a progressive shift in public spending from war towards peacebuilding, and for the legal right of conscientious objectors to have the military part of their taxes spent on peace.

Conscience has done more than report on work in Britain. Its representatives have contributed experience in lobbying, public communication, government dialogue and international co-operation. The archives show a movement testing ideas honestly, anticipating objections and deciding where limited campaign energy could have the greatest effect.

Washington 2000: from moral objection to political action

Washington showed ethical conviction meeting practical politics. Participants visited the US Congress, State Department, Pentagon and United Nations while discussing legislation, legal challenges and how to build support across countries.

Conscience’s report covered parliamentary work on peace tax legislation and plans to examine whether the Human Rights Act could provide a route for those whose consciences prevented them from financing war. The conference connected UK campaigning to a wider struggle for freedom of conscience.

Brussels 2004: making the argument clear

Four years later, Conscience’s Brussels report covered the Peace Tax Return – around 1,000 had been sent to the Inland Revenue in 2003 – support for the Peace Tax Seven’s legal challenge, and continued dialogue with government and other peace organisations.

The workshop papers still feel strikingly current. Peace tax is not an attempt to avoid tax or pay less, nor simply disagreement with government policy. It is an objection to being made financially complicit in killing and preparation for war.

Campaigners also recognised that a sound argument is not enough: campaigns need human stories, clear language and meaningful ways to take part. That lesson still shapes how Conscience explains an issue that is morally urgent but can initially seem technical.

Manchester 2008: rethinking security

When Conscience organised the 12th conference in Manchester, 55 people from 15 countries attended. The programme deliberately created more room for discussion and strategy, rather than using the gathering only to exchange national reports.

One of its most important themes was sustainable security. Participants examined the links between conflict, inequality and environmental pressure, and questioned the habit of treating military force as the default response to insecurity. They also discussed legal strategies, international co-operation, communication and the need to involve younger people.

This widened the question. Peace tax campaigning is not only about refusing to fund harm; it is also about what genuinely makes people safer. If military spending absorbs resources while the causes of conflict remain unaddressed, a larger military budget cannot by itself create lasting security.

Edinburgh, Geneva and Lübeck: keeping the movement connected

The international network has not always had an easy path. After the 2013 conference in Bogotá, six years passed before campaigners met again. Conscience hosted the 2019 conference in Edinburgh with the explicit aim of reinvigorating the movement and rebuilding connections between national campaigns.

The 2022 conference (pictured above) in Geneva then brought the movement close to the United Nations at the same time as the UN Human Rights Council was considering conscientious objection to military service. This reflected the distinctive role of Conscience and Peace Tax International (CPTI), which takes the case for conscientious objection and the right to peace into UN processes.

At the 17th conference in Lübeck in 2024, attention turned to the movement from military security towards civil security. Conscience contributed the UK country report and joined discussions about CPTI’s UN work, the experience of campaigns in other countries and the future of the international network.

Across these conferences, a clear line can be traced: from sustainable security, to civil security, to the demand now being made in Brussels – give peace a budget.

Brussels 2026: what should our taxes build?

The 18th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns will take place from 4 to 6 September 2026 at Chants d’Oiseau in Brussels, exactly 40 years after the first international gathering.

Its theme asks a concrete and necessary question. If societies are serious about preventing war, where is the sustained investment in peace? A peace budget could support conflict prevention, mediation, peace education, equality, development and environmental sustainability – addressing insecurity before it turns into violence.

The programme includes country reports, CPTI’s work at the United Nations and co-operation with other international peace organisations. Organisers also hope to arrange a meeting with Members of the European Parliament on Monday 7 September, to explain conscientious objection to paying for war and the need to invest those taxes in building peace.

For Conscience, taking part means bringing a UK perspective into that international conversation and returning with ideas, relationships and experience that can strengthen our campaigning here.

Help Conscience take part

We hope to raise £800 towards registration and travel for two Conscience representatives.

Your support will help ensure that experience from the UK campaign is part of this international discussion, and that what we learn is brought back to our supporters and future campaigning.

The conferences have sustained this movement for 40 years by bringing together people who refuse to accept that paying for war is inevitable. Every donation, whatever its size, will help Conscience continue that work.

Support our crowdfunder

The conference is open to both in-person and online participants, with online attendance free of charge. Find out more about the conference and how to take part.