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Marian Pallister, Justice and Peace vice chair, reflects on the significance of January 22, 2021.  Weekly Blog.

Yes, I am old enough to remember the fear engendered by the Cuban missile crisis, when Kennedy and Khrushchev went to the brink and had school kids like me working out what to do with our final four minutes.

That spurred me as an adult to visit the peace camp at Greenham Common, go on marches, and join Justice and Peace Scotland interfaith vigils at Faslane.

But I’ll be honest – until October of this year, I didn’t think that these decades of protest would create a nuclear-free world in my lifetime. And yet here we are in Advent 2020 with hope in our hearts for that very thing. 

This week I attended an online meeting hosted by ICAN Scotland (Nobel peace prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons) and it was buzzing with ideas from member organisations about how we will mark January 22, 2021: the day that the Nuclear Weapons Prohibition Treaty comes into force.

Following ratification of the treaty by 50 nations back in October, the treaty will not only make possession and use of nuclear weapons illegal, but will also look after the welfare of that long-ignored group of people – the victims of nuclear explosions and tests who have suffered horrific health problems caused by radiation.

The campaign isn’t over. There are nine ‘nuclear nations’ that are, if you’ll pardon the expression, sticking to their guns. But this is the beginning of the end. 

The Scottish Government has made it clear that nuclear weapons are sited here against Scotland’s wishes. The Scottish Catholic Bishops have, of course, since 1982, condemned the possession and use of nuclear weapons. And Pope Francis has also said that their possession and use is immoral. 

How are we going to convince the handful of ‘nuclear nations’ to take this the final step and agree to what the world is praying for? China (320 warheads), France (290 warheads), Russia (1,326 warheads declared, an estimated 4,315 believed to be nearer the mark), the UK (215 warheads), and the US (around 5,800) could each blow us to smithereens without us having even four minutes’ grace. India, Pakistan and Israel never signed the previous Non Proliferation Treaty and between them have around 400 nuclear warheads. And then there is North Korea.

And we’re planning a celebration on January 22? Yes and no. 

The more noise we make about celebration, the clearer it will be to those nations that the world just doesn’t want this lethal ‘deterrent’. But really, it is the start of a lot of hard work – please join us in asking if your pension fund or your council’s pension fund is invested in nuclear weapons, or if your bank invests in them; please write letters to your MPs. Let’s rattle these pro-nuclear dinosaurs. 

Because as Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu says, ‘With your support, we can take ICAN its full distance – all the way to zero nuclear weapons.’

SCIAF’s Ian Dunn reflects on reaching out to the poor.  Weekly blog.

Earlier this month it was International Day of the Poor and the Pope urged us to 'Stretch forth your hand to the poor'.

Put that like that it sounds simple but, in reality, how many of us do it? Through my work with SCIAF, I was recently fortunate enough to speak to two inspirational young people, Arun and Rabina.

They're a pair of Indian teenagers who live near the border with Nepal and were recently nominees for the International Children's Peace prize for their work to combat human trafficking.

SCIAF is working through local partners to help rescue children from two significant risks in India - child labour and child marriage.

Rabina, 14, became involved in an anti-human trafficking programme through her school. She has since stopped two child marriages, helped children in her community attend school and organised an awareness rally on the consequences of child marriage.

"A child, whether rich or poor, has the right to dream, to grow with their talents, to go to school and become successful in life," she told me. "We should always be ready to raise our voice against any injustice happening against children. Whether in India or Scotland, we should never accept children being mistreated."

That courage, to take action and call on others to do the same, was truly inspiring.

The message from Arun, 15, was equally powerful. He told me that in his village child labour is a major concern, so he started awareness campaigns amongst parents to stop sending children to work instead of school. That led to five children no longer being trapped in child labour and returning to formal education.

"I have done this small thing in my community - what small thing to improve the lives of children in your communities can you do?" he asked me.

To be honest, I was embarrassed. This child's efforts to help others dwarfed my own. Arun and Rabina come from communities we would call poor but they are rich in courage.

To return to Pope Francis, "Poverty always appears in a variety of guises, and calls for attention to each particular situation. In all of these, we have an opportunity to encounter the Lord Jesus, who has revealed himself as present in the least of his brothers and sisters - The word of God allows for no complacency; it constantly impels us to acts of love.”

So - how will we stretch out our hand to the poor? Quite a challenge.
You can watch a recent SCIAF event with Arun and Rabina here.

Justice and Peace Scotland’s vice chair, Marian Pallister, reflects on the way the Westminster Government is rocking the boat.

I watched the first of Steve McQueen’s powerful and moving plays on BBC1 last Sunday. Mangrove tells the real-life story of a Black community in London that was harassed by racially prejudiced police officers. When the community tried to stage a peaceful protest, they were kettled and physically attacked while mass arrests were made. The ‘Mangrove Nine’ fought for justice in court – and won.

Fifty years on, and another legal battle with racist overtones has just been fought, again in London. This time, it is the Home Office itself that has come under scrutiny, not what in time would be labelled an ‘institutionally racist’ police force. 

In 1970, the police put the Mangrove Nine in the dock and the Mangrove Nine showed the charges and evidence to not only be false but in some instances downright ludicrous.

In 2020, three potential victims of trafficking brought a case to the High Court to prevent their deportation from the UK. The Eritrean and two Sudanese defendants had sought asylum, were put in immigration detention, and would have been on planes back to the hell they had fled if they hadn’t hired lawyers who were able to show they were the potential victims of trafficking. 

Mr Justice Fordham, who heard the case, said: “It is strongly arguable that the home secretary is acting unlawfully in curtailing asylum screening interviews by asking a narrower set of questions than those that are identified in the published policy guidance.”

I’m shocked by what the potential outcome could have been. 

Since Theresa May was Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016, that nasty phrase ‘hostile environment’ has wormed its way into the national consciousness, until some – influenced also, perhaps, by headlines that talk of “hordes” and “swarms” of refugees and asylum seekers, suggesting the country is “swamped” by these unfortunate people – can’t see past a metaphorical Trump-like wall erected on the Kent beaches.

Priti Patel has followed in her predecessor’s footsteps with what could be argued is an even greater lack of sympathy. And it looks – though I am no legal expert – as if Mr Justice Fordham has found her out at her own game.

He says she is departing from her own published policy to identify victims of trafficking by asking questions about their journeys to the UK. The three who brought the case to the High Court confirmed that no such questions – which would have identified them as potential victims of trafficking – had been asked of them.

The Home Office says that’s because of COVID – that because of the pandemic (really?) asylum seekers have been asked what Mr Justice Fordham called “a narrower set of questions than those identified in the published policy guidance”. And that, he said, is arguably acting unlawfully.

Pope Francis urges us in Fratelli Tutti to engage with our brothers and sisters, to cultivate a culture of encounter. Surely we could at least ask the right questions of folk who’ve escaped nightmare situations, and not blame COVID for skimping on life and death situations.  Such skimping is tantamount to signing death warrants – where’s the justice in that?