Conscientious objection

Read the stories of Shahar Peretz,18, and Eran Aviv, 19, who are currently serving time in prison for their conscientious objection to military service. Shahar and Eran describe how young people in Israel, from an early age, are habituated through school and the wider society to their joining the IDF, and their refusal to take part in the occupation and the cycle of violence.

Issues Finland maintains conscription. The length of the alternative non-military (civilian) service is punitive. Those refusing the military and the (punitive) alternative service, including total objectors, are punished with prison sentences usually transformed to home detention under monitoring. The right to conscientious objection is not recognised for professional soldiers. There is lack of information about the non-military (civilian) service in the call-ups.

Ukrainian conscientious objector and journalist Ruslan Kotsaba will be on trial again on September 20th. Support Kotsaba with your actions ahead of his trial! War Resisters’ International (WRI), European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and Connection e.V. are calling for international actions ahead of Kotsaba’s next hearing, scheduled to take place on September 20th.

Ahead of the hearing before the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court, of the case of Charis Vasileiou, a conscientious objector whose application has been rejected by the Deputy Minister of National Defence, Amnesty International, Connection e.V., the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO-BEOC), the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and War Resisters’ International (WRI) call on the Greek authorities to annul the decision of rejection

Ukrainian conscientious objector and journalist Ruslan Kotsaba has had another trial today (5th August). His trial will continue on 20th September.

The Conscientious Objection Association (Turkey) has released a new report on the rights violations of conscientious objectors (COs) in Turkey. The report, released this Monday, includes in-depth interviews with COs, explains ongoing cases of COs, and includes recommendations to the Turkish government and to the international mechanisms regarding the issue.

In a new judgement of 20 July 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) found a violation of Article 9 (the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention of Human Rights, in the case of an Armenian conscientious objector from Nagorno-Karabakh who had been sentenced and imprisoned for refusing to perform military service.

In February, War Resisters’ International, Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and International Fellowship for Reconciliation (IFOR) started a new webinar series on campaigning for conscientious to military service. The webinars included presentations from activists and experts from different countries. They also included some case studies and testimonies from CO's around the world. The presentations (in English, Spanish and some in Turkish) are now available on the Refuse to Kill Youtube Channel.   

War Resisters' International, together with Connection e.V. and Union Pacifiste de France, released a new publication, Conscientious Objection in Turkey. The booklet, published in English, Turkish, French and German, includes articles on the situation of conscientious objectors in Turkey, the history of the conscientious objection movement in the country, as well as the experiences of COs from Turkey who sought asylum in other countries. 

Conscientious objectors to military service continue to be imprisoned in many countries today. WRI regularly updates its list of imprisoned conscientious objectors and organise solidarity for them. In this story, you will see conscientious objectors who are known to be behind bars or serving in labour camps by June 2021.

On Monday (12th July), Ukrainian Pacifist Movement organised a protest near Turkish embassy in Kyiv in support of conscientious objectors in Turkey. In their statement, they said “Turkey does not recognize human right to conscientious objection, enforce conscription with outrageous cruelty and severely punish objectors, imposing fines and imprisonment for so-called desertion, excluding pacifists from social life to a degree of "civil death," closing their bank accounts, depriving them of access to public services.”