How do you feel about paying for war through your taxes?
Do you deeply object to being made to participate in killing other people?
Would you rather see your money spent on peace building initiatives?
Who We Are
CPTI is an international peace movement focussed on "Taxes for peace not war," seeking to direct taxes away from preparation for war and towards peace building.
Our mission arises from the deep affront to our consciences that people are made to participate in war as combatants, civilian victims and through taxation. We are also moved by the common sense proposition that our taxes should be used to abolish war, not promote it.
The ethical principle of freedom of conscience, a moral imperative governing the behaviour of an individual, is central to the objectives and work of CPTI.
CPTI aims to win recognition of the right to conscientious objection to paying for armaments, war preparation and war conduct through taxes.
CPTI also upholds the right of conscientious objection to military service and supports all war resisters.
CPTI supports and links the work of the many national and regional war tax resistance and peace tax campaigns. Visit our Global War Tax Resistance page for more information about the many other organisations around the world.
CPTI is constituted as a company (new window) under English law and is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) (new window) of the United Nations.
What We Are Doing
We focus much of our activity on the UN, submitting documents to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights (UNCHR) often relating to specific countries and reporting on their treatment of conscientious objectors. Visit our CPTI Statements to the United Nations page to find out more and read our submissions.
We are a central point of reference for WTR and PTC around the world and one of the means by which national campaigns communicate with one another and coordinate international action. Visit our National War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns page to find an organisation near you.
CPTI was founded in 1994 at the biennial International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns and has become the overseeing body for the conference. The International Conference is hosted and organised by a different national organisation each time. The last International Conference was held in Manchester, England, in 2008.
How You Can Help
CPTI needs supporters, because the more of us there are, the more we can impress officials in the UN and national governments with our constituency.
- Join CPTI.
If you are prepared to put some time into the organisation you can become a member. You would be expected to attend the meetings of the General Assembly, usually every two years, or send your proxy. You would share actively in our work and become involved in the General Assembly's decision-making process. Learn more. - Join Your National Organisation.
Find your national organisation on our National War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns page. If you know about a national organisation that is not listed on that page, please tell us about it.
- Give Practical Support to CPTI.
If you cannot make a full commitment to membership, you may have particular skills which CPTI needs and would value. For instance: interpretation, translation, publicity, assisting UN representatives. More suggestions. - Fund CPTI's Work.
CPTI also needs funds to enable its Board to meet face to face twice a year, also for its representatives in Geneva and New York to participate and make submissions to the UNCHR and for the Legal Committee to meet and carry out its research. Please help us by donating on-line or by other means offered.
CPTI Documents Submitted to the UN Since 2001
Complete listing: Links to the actual documents are on the CPTI Statements to the United Nations page.
Recent submissions: Oral Statement by CPTI to the 12th Session of the Human Rights Council, 18 September 2009
UPR Submissions for Armenia, Belarus, & Turkey, May 2010.
CPTI Submission to the 96th Session of the Human Rights Committee: July 2009: Conscientious Objection to Military Service: Azerbaijan, Chad, Netherlands, United Republic of Tanzania
CPTI Submissions to the 6th Session of the UPR Working Group, December 2009: Cyprus and Eritrea
CPTI Submission to the 5th Session of the UPR Working Group, April 2009: Chile
Oral Statements by CPTI: Adoption of UPR Reports on Colombia, Israel, Turkmenistan—Human Rights Council, 19 & 20 March 2009
Joint Statement by Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers) and Conscience and Peace Tax International, Human Rights Council, 16 March 2009
CPTI Submission to the 95th Session of the Human Rights Committee: March 2009—Conscientious Objection to Military Service: Australia, Chad, Rwanda, Sweden
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