On 4 January, 2004 Five conscripted Conscientious Objectors were sentenced to an additional year in prison on top of the year they have been held for refusing to serve in the IDF. The sentence is, in effect, an unlimited one as the prosecution intends to jail them till they agree to serve. That's the price they will pay for refusing to be part of the brutal occupation.
The 5 COs are being punished because of their convictions - the severity of the punishment reflects the Israeli government's fear of those convictions.
On 4 January 2004, the "trial of the five" came to an end.
Started 11.30am
Testimony of Colonel Shlomi Simchi, Chairman of Conscience Committee
Glossary:
SS : Shlomi Simchi
MS: Defense Attorney Michael Sfard
Judge: Colonel Avi Levy, Chief Judge, Military Tribunal
YBA: Defendant Yoni Ben-Artzi
ICCPR
MS: Did your committee ever release a conscript from service for reasons of conscience?
SS: To my recollection, no.
MS: Your committee twice rejected YBA's requests.
SS: Yes.
MS: Do you know what happened to YBA after your committee rejected his requests?
SS: I know the det
The right to conscientious objection is derived from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and seen as a manifestation of the freedom of religion and belief. The then CSCE stressed the right to conscientious objection in paragraph 18 of the Document of the Copenhagen meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension in June 1990.The UN Commission on Human Rights stressed the right to conscientious objection in several resolution, most recently Resolution 1998/77, 2000/34, 2002/45. The Council of Europe also stresses the right to conscientious objection, especially in resolution 337 (1967) and recommendations 1518 (2001), R (87) 8, and 816 (1977).
The Broken Rifle is the newsletter of War Resisters' International, and is usually published in English, Spanish, French and German.
This is issue 58, May 2003.
This issue of The Broken Rifle was produced by Andreas Speck, Sergeiy Sandler, Shani Werner, Huwaida Araf, and Peretz Kidron, with help from Alberto Estefania, Tikiri, and many others, who provided the information used in this issue.
This issue was made possible through the financial support of American Friends Service Committee, Objecion Fiscal, and The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
Take peace into your hands. Listen to your conscience and refuse war.
We are international antimilitarists and conscientious objectors coming from Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Britain and France ... We are at the headquarters of NATO on 15th of May- International Conscientious Objectors´ Day-because NATO is a symbol of international militarism which keeps the global domination system alive.
Reference Materials
Glossary
- 1503 Procedure
- A confidential Procedure of the Sub-Commission and Commission on Human Rights, aimed at identifying patterns of gross violations of human rights.
Entry on WRI in Encyclopaedia of Nonviolence (Garland Publishing 1997)
War Resisters' International
International antiwar organization with members and affiliates in over thirty countries. Headquartered in London, War Resisters' International (WRI) co-publishes the monthly Peace News in English and an internal bulletin The Broken Rifle (in English, French, German, and Spanish).