Quaker award honours jury rights campaign Defend Our Juries
Defend Our Juries has been awarded the 2026 Quaker Truth & Integrity Award, for its "courageous and persistent defence of the constitutional importance of trial by jury."
The Quaker Truth & Integrity Group (QTIG) praised the organisation for bringing public attention to the right and responsibility of juries to exercise their own judgement and conscience.
“At a time when the role of juries, the right to a fair trial and the freedom to scrutinise the exercise of public power have come under increasing pressure, Defend Our Juries has insisted that these principles must not be taken for granted," the award citation reads.
Defend Our Juries began in 2023, with a single protest by retired social worker Trudi Warner outside Inner London Crown Court.
It has since grown into one of the largest civil disobedience campaigns in the country, with thousands taking part in silent sign-holding protests nationwide, and well over 3,500 people arrested.
Penn and Mead Trial
Warner's placard stated that jurors have the right to acquit according to their conscience, echoing a Quaker case from 1670, when William Penn and William Mead were tried for preaching.
Jurors refused to convict them, and a plaque marking their courage still hangs in the Old Bailey today.
Despite this precedent, judges in several protest trials have stopped defendants telling the jury why they acted as they did and three people were sent to prison for doing so.
Some judges have also warned juries that acquitting on grounds of conscience could itself be a criminal offence.
And barrister Rajiv Menon KC now faces contempt of court proceedings after reminding a jury of their right to acquit on conscience.
QTIG said Defend Our Juries had turned "an individual act of conscience into a wider public campaign," through peaceful protest and the spread of legal and constitutional information.
Tim Crosland, former barrister and co-founder of Defend Our Juries, said: "We are honoured to receive the Quaker Truth and Integrity award and the recognition that the work of Defend Our Juries is as aligned to Quaker values today, in 2026, as it was in 1670, when the independence of juries was struggled for, and won by Quakers for us all.
“When facing the increasingly hostile and repressive political climate we are in, it is the power of conscience, nonviolence and community that maintains our collective ability to confront injustices and speak up for truth."