The Peace and Progress Party is a British

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...

 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...

 founded by Vanessa

Vanessa Redgrave

Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...

 and Corin Redgrave

Corin Redgrave

Corin William Redgrave was an English actor and political activist.-Early life:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...

 to campaign for human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

. Combining the Redgraves

Redgrave family

The Redgrave family is an English acting dynasty, spanning four generations. Members of the family worked in theatre beginning in the nineteenth century, and later in film and television. Some family members have also written plays and books. Vanessa Redgrave is the most prominent, having won...

, formerly leading figures in the Workers' Revolutionary Party

Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK)

The Workers Revolutionary Party is a minute Trotskyist group in Britain. In the mid-1980s, it split several ways.-The Club:The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy and John Lawrence led in the Revolutionary Communist Party which urged that the RCP enter the Labour Party. This policy was also...

 and the Marxist Party

Marxist Party

The Marxist Party was a tiny Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. It was formed as a split from Sheila Torrance's Workers' Revolutionary Party in 1987 by Gerry Healy and supporters including Vanessa and Corin Redgrave. At first, it was also known as the Workers Revolutionary Party,...

, with others from the media and legal fields, the party campaigns for the rights of refugees and political dissidents.

The party was launched in November 2004 and called for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

, the return of British detainees from Guantanamo Bay and the cancellation of Third World

Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...

 debt. The party urged support from those in other parties, including the Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

, who upheld human rights. The party received the support of journalist Anna Politkovskaya

Anna Politkovskaya

Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...

, who was later murdered, and of Azmat Begg, father of Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg

Moazzam Begg

Moazzam Begg , is a British Pakistani Muslim who was held in extrajudicial detention in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp, in Cuba, by the U.S...

, who stood for the party at the 2005 general 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....

 in Birmingham Hodge Hill. The party had suggested that Moazzem Begg and another detainee, Richard Belmar

Richard Belmar

Richard Dean Belmar is a British man who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States's Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba. He was first detained in Pakistan in 2002 and sent to Bagram Theater Internment Facility, then Guantanamo...

, would stand as absentee candidates. Babar Ahmad, wanted by the US authorities on terrorism charges, stood in Brent North. Peace and Progress made a negligible impact at the 2005 general election, losing their deposit

Deposit (politics)

A deposit is a sum of money that a candidate must pay in return for the right to stand for election to certain political offices, particularly seats in legislatures.-United Kingdom:...

 in each of the three seats they stood in. Ahmad received 685 votes (1.9%), Amzat Begg received 329 votes (1.2%), and Sylvia Dunn received 22 votes (0.1%) in Folkestone and Hythe.

According to its Electoral Commission registration its leader is Chris Cooper, Sue Conlan is the nominating officer, and Edmund Quinn the treasurer.