Lithuania

Following the denial of political asylum by the Lithuanian authorities for the Belarusian peacebuilder and human rights defender Olga Karach (Volha Karach), the international campaign #protection4olga has just been launched to demand protection and asylum for the director of the organisation ‘Our House‘.

To:  President Gitanas Nausėda, e-mail: kanceliarija@president.lt or online form at https://www.lrp.lt/en/institution/letter-to-the-president/21930

Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė LRV, e-mail: LRVkanceliarija@lrv.lt

CONSCIENCE AND PEACE TAX INTERNATIONAL

ORAL STATEMENT

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL,  53nd SESSION

ITEM 4:  INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE WITH THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON  BELARUS

5th July, 2023

Delivered by Derek BRETT                                     Contact:

                                                                                    Derek BRETT

                                                                                    Main Representative to the UN, Geneva

On 4th July, European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and War Resisters' International (WRI) have made an urgent appeal to the Lithuanian immigration authorities regarding the case of  Ivan Strashkevich, a conscientious objector from Belarus who is currently seeking asylum in Lithuania.

On 7 June 2022, the European Court of Human Rights issued an important judgement (Teliatnikov v. Lithuania) in relation to the protection of the right of conscientious objection to military service under Article 9 of the European Human Rights Convention. 

Download this report as a pdf.

Military service, conscientious objection and related issues

Updated June 2018

Basic Information

HISTORY: Lithuania seceded from the Soviet Union in 1991, and was granted UN membership the same year.

POPULATION (November 2017, estimated1): 2,824,000

For many years, it looked like obligatory military service was on the way out. But in the last five years, the picture has changed: Norway has extended conscription for women; Sweden has reintroduced conscription for all; Ukraine, Georgia, Lithuania and Kuwait have reintroduced conscription for men after short hiatuses; Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have introduced conscription for the first time. We look at why governments are turning to compulsion in filling their armies, and what this means for pacifist movements.

Having reintroduced conscription temporarily (for a span of five years) last year, the State Defence Council decided in March that mandatory military service would be enacted indefinitely. The council's decision now have to be approved at the Seimas, the country's parliament. Conscription had been abolished in 2008, but was reintroduced - and defence spending also increased - citing security threats in Eastern Europe.

Lithuania's plans to extend military conscription after 2020. Conscription was reintroduced earlier this year, planned to be only for five years. But due to the “threats from the east” they have already decided to prolong it at least by another year.

A new survey, shows that more than 50% of the population backs the re-introduction of conscription in the country. The survey also shows that the majority of those that oppose conscription belong to the 15-24 age group, the age group closest to conscription age, which is 19-26.

Two women in Lithuania have created a series of photos, exploring the issue of conscription in Lithuania. Tiskevic-Hasanova and Neringa Rekasiute created the photo series after conscription was reintroduced in March 2015. The first call-up took place May 11th, when 2/3 of the 3,000 spaces to be filled were met by volunteers.

After the reinstatement of military conscription last year, the Ukrainian military is undertaking the first of three waves of 'emergency' military conscription. Call ups in this wave started on 20 January, and men aged 25 to 60 are eligible for conscription. By mid-February 75000 people had been called up, of whom 60% will enter service, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko claims.

Conscription had ended in Ukraine in 2013, but was reimposed in 2014.

Young men from Chechnya are being drafted into Russia's armed forces for the first time in 20 years. Chechen youth stopped being drafted to the Russian Army in late 1994, when the Kremlin sent the military into Chechnya to try to crush its separatist leadership. Some are claiming the lack of recruitment in the North Caucasus since then was 'discriminatory' against Chechen youth who wanted to defend the Russian 'homeland' of which they are citizens, and that the move to start recruiting them again is therefore progressive, a sign of 'political success' and inclusivity, though it cannot be denied that Russia's shrinking population and other problems are leading to a shortfall in army recruitment.

Meanwhile the Russian government are threatening to imprison a Lithuanian who left the Sovietarmy in 1990, after Lithuania declared independence from Russia. As a response, the Lithuanian State Security Department has advised the 1500+ Lithuanians who refused military service after 1990 not to travel to Russia.

Sources:

The Times, Russian threatens to jail hundreds of Lithuanians, 10 September 2014

 Russian News Agency

Russian News Agency

Jamestown Foundation