Letters - 12 June 2026
From Ongoing torture to Being certain
Ongoing torture
Torture is still always wrong.
This summer it is fifty years since, at the world gathering of Quakers in Canada, the Hamilton Declaration stated that, ‘The Religious Society of Friends declares itself to be utterly opposed to the use of torture and determined to spare no effort to bring it to an end.’
From then on, there have been Quakers working with this aim, whether as individuals or through the Quaker Concern for the Abolition of Torture (Q-CAT) which was laid down in 2023 after twenty years of awareness-raising and lobbying.
The particularly-Quaker approach has always been the recognition of the common humanity and sacredness of all individuals, and that torture damages not only the victims but the torturers, and those who give the orders or collude in its use.
Torture is still going on, and indeed, in these days of increasing worldwide ill-treatment of people and calls for loosening of human rights obligations, may be worsening. It is rife across the globe, ranging from examples (cited by the UN) of abuse by security forces in Russia and Israel, to the continuing use of torture under the State of Emergency declared in El Salvador in March 2022, to the rampant torturing of civilians in the ongoing civil war in Sudan – the list is seemingly endless. Closer to home, the High Court recently ruled that the UK government is acting unlawfully in its treatment of asylum-seekers who are survivors of torture.
Although there is no longer a dedicated Quaker group working on this concern, let us continue to do what we can through the many organisations dedicated to the eradication of torture and support of survivors.
Juliet Morton, Michael Hutchinson, Barbara Forbes, Jane Laxton and John Cockcroft, former trustees of Q-CAT
Bhopal
I took particular note of the flyer sent with the 29 May issue of the Friend. It was from the Bhopal Medical Appeal. Time has passed since 3 December 1984, when the toxic gas was released. It is easy to forget this tragedy. We now know that there were problems on the Union Carbide site beforehand, and they were effectively ignored.
Since the tragedy, the ground water contamination has steadily got worse, with a wider area being contaminated over time. The methyl isocyanate remains toxic, and is still causing children to be born with serious abnormalities. The Bhopal gas tragedy is a witness to what can go wrong with overseas investments. The US companies involved, Union Carbide and its successor Dow Chemical, are effectively saying that it is an Indian problem to sort out. The government of India is leaving the problem for the companies to deal with. When the UK invites foreign investment, does it seek guarantees that liabilities for problems will be properly addressed?
An issue for Quakers in the UK to be aware of is that there is a longstanding Quaker community in Bhopal. Friends there were affected by the disaster, with deaths and ongoing harm. Bhopal Quakers have done what they can to mitigate problems both within the Quaker community and in the wider community.
The Quaker South Asia interest Group (QSAIG) does enable UK-based Quakers to maintain contacts with Quaker-related activities and projects in South Asia. The next QSAIG meeting will be on Saturday 10 October, with some Friends present in Leeds and others joining on Zoom. Anyone interested in the links between UK-based Quakers and those in South Asia will be welcome.
More information is available at: https://qsaig.co.uk.
Martin Schweiger
on behalf of QSAIG
