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The webinar series “Conscientious Objection to military service in times of war” continues with a new session focusing on Eritrea and the war in Tigray. The third webinar will take place on March 23rd at 4pm Geneva time and will host campaigners of the Eritrean Movement for Democracy and Human Rights and Surbana – Voice of Eritrean Refugees.

EBCO and WRI call on the Ukrainian Government to release conscientious objector Vitaly Alekseenko immediately and unconditionally.

Since last year, five men from Russia have been living at Incheon Airport in South Korea after fleeing Russia's military mobilization order. Since their arrival, they have been waiting for the Korean government to allow them to enter the country and apply for refugee status. Sign the petition to support these Russian asylum seekers who refused to join the war, to be allowed to enter the country and grant them refugee status

WRI's affiliate the German Peace Society - United Opponents of War (DFG-VK) protests against the reactivation of conscription advocated by some parts of the government. The peace organization announced that, in case of doubt, it will take legal action against conscription - and also reactivate its advisory service for conscientious objectors.

The webinar series “Conscientious objection to military service in times of war” continues with a new session focusing on the war in Ukraine. The webinar on 3rd March (2pm Geneva, 3pm Kyiv, 4pm Moscow) will host campaigners of conscientious objection from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. 

In Ukraine, on 16 January 2023, Ivano-Frankivsk Appeal Court rejected the appeal of 46-year-old Christian Vitaly Alekseenko against his conviction for refusing call up to the military on conscientious grounds. The organisations signing this statement express their full solidarity with Vitaly Alekseenko and urge the Ukrainian authorities to drop all charges against him immediately. The organisations underline that his conviction occurs in the context that Ukraine has suspended the right of conscientious objection in the current emergency and call for the relevant decree to be immediately reversed.

Mark Romankov, aged 22, had attended university in Germany for some prior to 2022. It was during the days just before the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops that he returned to Germany – and sought asylum just there soon after.

No legal or practical provision exists for alternative civilian service (ACS) during mobilisation, despite the Constitution guaranteeing this right for every citizen. This has led to military recruitment offices refusing applications for ACS and sending conscientious objectors to military units.

This Thursday, 1st December, is Prisoners for Peace Day, a day to show solidarity with those activists who have been imprisoned for their work for peace and conscientious objectors imprisoned for their refusal to take up arms. See a list of those imprisoned for their peace activism and conscientious objection here.

Mexico is a country at war. Sometimes the authorities have openly taken the banner of war, and others, like the current administration, a speech of pacification. "El País Bajo Armas” (The country under weapons) is a journalistic investigation focusing on the use of lethal force by the Army, the police, and the power that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador granted to the military. Mexico's first leftist president has made the Army more powerful than ever. It is not only a militarization of public security issues but also of militarism by granting power to the military institutions that previously belonged to the civilian field.