Petition Introduce a new non-religious oath for witnesses in court which will make clearer the consequences for those who commit perjury.

We would like the government to introduce a new non-religious oath for witnesses in court. There are numerous benefits to this:

It would keep religion in the private realm and out of the public realm;

It would remove the notion that religion is associated with "truth" or "goodness" or "justice";

It would be a step in the direction of equality as all people would be saying the same oath;

Perjury laws and other sanctions already exist for anyone giving false evidence;

A religious oath might give religious jurors a false sense of confidence in a person's testimony;

In addition, a new oath should make clearer the consequences for those who commie perjury. For example it could include the phrase "and that to tell lies on oath is perjury – a serious criminal offence, the punishment for which is imprisonment upon conviction."

This way, people will clearly know the law, and will also not be subjected to a religion while testifying.