College News

 Joe Jenkins, Tutor in our Theology Department here in College, visited the European Parliament in Brussels recently to launch his multi-lingual short film Contempt of Conscience. 

 
The film, which won the Best Documentary Film award at the 2005 Strasbourg Film Festival, has been translated into six languages - French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Basque and Welsh; and is due to be translated into Russian, Catalan and Italian.

 

Contempt of Conscience - featuring the late Anita Roddick - follows seven British taxpayers, who as a matter of conscience, wish to see the 10% of their taxes currently spent on the armed forces, redirected to peace building initiatives instead.

 

They are known as the Peace Tax Seven and are currently seeking a change in British law that makes them complicit in deliberate killing if they pay their taxes in full and criminals if they follow the dictates of conscience and refuse to pay for war.

 

The Peace Tax Seven - evoking their right to freedom of conscience as enshrined in the Human Rights Act - have taken their case to the High Court for a change in the law. Although their appeal for a change in the law was turned down, five senior Judges have indicated that it might now be appropriate for their case to be heard by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

 

Joe is currently completing a full-length 40 minute version of the film which is due for release in conjunction with Clarity Productions at the end of October.