Germany's Peace Tax Network offered to host the 11th conference (having already hosted the 9th one in 2002), because otherwise there would have been no firm commitment in Brussels (10th conference in 2004). A dual team structure -- one international, one German -- was set up to reduce the workload.
The conference theme focussed on military tax and peace tax and their interaction with responsibility. Responsibility was also the subject of three key-note presentations, a large plenary discussion and a workshop.
International aspects were covered in the presentation of the “Military Recruitment and Conscientious Objection” study drawn up by Derek Brett for CPTI/Conscience and Peace Tax International, in reports on military tax resistance and/or peace tax initiative activities, but also in specific, sometimes very personal reports from Eritrea, Ghana, India, Nepal and finally in written country reports and their discussion in a country forum.
Half of the workshops (street theatre, new technologies, “Peace pays”) and a special report from the Netherlands were in line with the intention of reaching out more strongly to a younger target group in future. Other workshops focussed on “judicial remedies”, which British objectors want to pursue even up to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, as well as on future cooperation with (inter-)national organisations.
As usual, CPTI also held its annual meeting during the conference where the actions of the old board had to be approved, projects and budgets for 2007 and 2008 had to be adopted and a new board had to be elected.
Parallel to the Conference, two international initiatives came into focus:
- “Manifesto against Conscription and the Military System” by Gandhi Information Center, Berlin;
- “Action for International Law”, an initiative by a Heidelberg group of students seeking compliance with international law by governments throughout the world.
In addition there was a poster exhibition by Wolfgang Janisch on “Protest against War”.
Lobbying activities in the run-up to the Conference drew only one MP and some few Conference participants. After the Conference, there was a guided tour of the city of Berlin focussing on GDR architecture and highlighting East Berlin and Plötzensee memorial.