The Peace Party is a small political party

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

 in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and represents some who totally oppose war. The party was founded in 1996 as the Pacifist Party by a group of activists in Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

.

The Party stood one candidate, John Morris, in the 1997

United Kingdom general election, 1997

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 and 2001 general elections

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

 in the Guildford

Guildford (UK Parliament constituency)

Guildford is a county constituency in Surrey which returns one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....

 constituency, and two in the 2005 election

United Kingdom general election, 2005

The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

 with Caroline O'Reilly also standing in Brighton Kemptown. It fielded nine candidates in the South East England constituency

South East England (European Parliament constituency)

South East England is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 10 Members of the European Parliament using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...

 during the 2004 European election, gaining 12,572 votes. This was equivalent to 0.6% of the votes cast in the South East and more than three other parties. The Party has also stood in a number of local elections in Dartford, Kent, Horsham, West Sussex and Guildford.

The party fielded three candidates in the 2010 general election, who won a total of 737 votes.

The party's full name is "Peace Party - Non-violence, Justice, Environment (The)".

Core values

The fundamental value held by the Peace Party is a love and reverence for life. This is an extension of the right of everyone to life enshrined in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Article 2.1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The values the Peace Party holds are:

• Love and reverence for life, the desire to be compassionate towards others and to be kind and caring for them
• Upholding the supreme worth of every person
• The ability to trust
• Respectfulness
• Tolerance
• Mindfulness
• Humility
• Selflessness
• Faithfulness - to the cause of peace
• Patience and self-control
• Righteousness

Principles and policies

At the end of 2007 the party published its charter which can be seen on the party's website. Some of the most important principles are:

Security

All conflicts would be resolved by non-violent means and would involve:

• Closing down the military
  British Armed Forces
  The British Armed Forces are the armed forces of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.Also known as Her Majesty's Armed Forces and sometimes legally the Armed Forces of the Crown, the British Armed Forces encompasses three professional uniformed services, the Royal Navy, the...
  
  
• Taking out of use and destroying all weapons of war
• Withdrawing from all military alliances
• Forbidding the manufacture of weapons and armaments
• Stopping all trade in weapons and armaments