On 7 October, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) issued a decision that Azerbaijan had violated the human rights of two Jehovah's Witness young men, Emil Mehdiyev and Vahid Abilov, who had been convicted in 2018 for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience.
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.
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 July, the Constitutional Court in Colombia received a lawsuit to extend the exception to perform compulsory military service to all ethnic communities in Colombia, an exception that currently applies to indigenous communities only. This claim also asks for these communities to be exonerated of the military compensation fee.
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.
An open letter signed by a coalition of human rights groups, including Child Rights International Network, Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch, urged the defence Ministry to stop recruiting children aged under 18.
At the beginning of 2021, the Salvadorian government, while discussing possible reforms to the Constitution, raised the possibility of establishing compulsory military service. The Ombudsman urged the government not to include the compulsory military service issue in this discussion. More recently, the Ministry of Justice and Security announced that it’s planning to increase, within five years, from 20,000 to 40,000 the number of members of the Armed Forces which raised again the question around the compulsory military that at the moment is voluntary.
When in some countries conscientious objection has been recognised and in others, conscientious objectors continue to be imprisoned, some governments are considering introducing compulsory military service for women covering it up with gender equality and anti-discrimination discourses. This has been the case for countries like México, Colombia, the United States and more recently in South Korea and Switzerland.