Consolidation of the national and international support network for conscientious objectors in Colombia

• Presentation:
• Objective:
• Action plan 2nd semester of 2007:
• Information:

July 2007

National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors

Presentation:

The National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors - ANOOC is a network of organizations and groups of different regions of Colombia who are promoting conscientious objection against all - legal and illegal - armed groups, with a non-violent approach.

Actually the National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors is conformed by the following processes: Colectivo Objetarte Cali, Kasimba Cali, Movimiento de Objetores y Objetoras Quinto Mandamiento Barrancabermeja, Servicio Paz y Justicia Barranquilla, Funsarep Cartagena, Red Juvenil Paz Caribe, Movimiento Juvenil Indígena Álvaro Úlcue Cauca, Colectivo por la Objeción de Conciencia Norte del Cauca, Movimiento Juvenil Artesanos de Vida Mocoa - Putumayo, Concejo Municipal de Juventudes Puerto Caicedo - Putumayo, Asociación Juvenil y Estudiantil Regional Arauca, Red Juvenil Medellín, and Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia Bogotá.

However, the National Assembly is open to other groups who are interested in promoting conscientious objection in articulation with other organisations, if they agree with the political position of the ANOOC.

One of the main worries of the National Assembly has been the recruitment problem and the constant militarization of civil life by the different actors involved in Colombia's armed conflict. That's the reason why we determined the following action lines:

• Mutual strengthening between the different processes of conscientious objection by exchanging experiences and organizing formation meetings.
• National coordination of direct nonviolent actions and public acts.
• Accompaniment and permanent communication between the different processes of conscientious objection.
• Construction of a national and international support network for conscientious objectors.

As the state and the illegal armed groups don't recognize the young people who don't want to take part of the war, the conscientious objectors are permanently taking the risk of being forcefully recruited and persecuted or imprisoned in cases of desertion. This situation highlights the need of conscientious objectors, social movements and national and international human rights organizations, to enroll actions to sensitize the national and international public opinion and to design strategies to Project ourselves and to demand our right to conscientious objection and to guarantee our condition of free and autonomous individuals promoting a nonviolent life, instead of reproducing the authoritative and militaristic practices that characterize the Colombian society.

In July 2006 in the city of Bogotá, we organized an international solidarity meeting for conscientious objection in Colombia about political, juridical and social alternatives for conscientious objectors in Colombia, with the presence of various delegates from international movements of conscientious objection and war resistance. It was in that meeting that raised the initiative to construct a national and international support network for the process of conscientious objection in Colombia, with the following results till this moment:

• We wrote a document about the situation of the militarization and conscientious objection in Colombia, translated in various languages, which was published in the web page of the War Resisters' International - WRI[1] and the ANOOC[2] and sent to various international groups, just as the nr. 74 of The Broken Rifle (review of the WRI) that retook part of this document.
• We created an e-group, 'colombiaworkinggroup', to facilitate the communication about the national and international support network and the recruitment cases between the different groups.
• We created, in internet[3], a databasecontaining information on the Colombian conscientious objector (name, telephone, group, declaration, antecedents, lawyer, legal documents, etc.), with the objective to facilitate the actions of denunciation and pressure in cases of emergency (arrest, maltreatment or forced recruitment). The data base includes a public part, a semi-public part accessible to groups from the support network, and a private part accessible to the WRI and the groups of conscientious objection in Colombia.
• We created a conscientious objector card, issued by the WRI, as a political tool of protection that shows the political position of the objector and demonstrates that the object is part of an international support network and the any arrest, forced recruitment or maltreatment will create international repercussions.
  
  The criterions to obtain the objector's card are: to be enclosed in the data base; to belong or to be accompanied by a group that takes part of the ANOOC; to have participated in a formation process in conscientious objection; and to have written his/her declaration of conscientious objection.
• In the mark of the International Day of Conscientious Objection - the 15^th of May - we realized various public events (the Antimilitarist Festival and a nonviolent direct action in Medellín, the Objetarte Festival in Cali, and the Journey of Disarmament in Bogotá), with the participation of different national and international groups of conscientious objection and nonviolence, to denounce - in an artistic way - the problem of recruitment and militarization of the Colombian society and to visualize the position of nonviolent resistance of the groups of conscientious objection, as well as the alternatives we're enrolling.
• In the mark of the the 15^th of May we also realized the 5th National Assembly of Conscientious Objectors, with the presence of international delegates form Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Spain, Germany, and the United States, with the aim to evaluate the 1st phase of the construction of the support network, to determine the steps of the 2nd phase, and to make concrete the procedures of protection, denunciation and political pressure for cases of recruitment and violation of the rights of the conscientious objectors.
• And afterwards we organized, as well in Bogotá as in Medellín and Barrancabermeja, meetings with governmental and non governmental organisms who are playing a roll in the recruitment theme and the guarantee of the rights of the conscientious objectors, in which we presented the national and international support network and the ID card for conscientious objectors and we emphasized in the responsibility of these organisms related with the respect of the right to conscientious objection starting from the international pacts signed by Colombia.

Objective:

To consolidate the international support network for conscientious objectors in Colombia, that contributes to the strengthening of the processes of conscientious objection in Colombia, through the diffusion of information, the development of actions of political pressure in cases of forced recruitment and human rights violations, and the brotherhood between international and national groups of conscientious objection and nonviolence.

Action plan 2nd semester of 2007:

Information:

Lucas Pardo y Liesbet Niveau

Acción Colectiva de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia

Asamblea Nacional de Objetores y Objetoras de Conciencia

Avenida Calle 32 no. 14-42 Piso 2 Bogotá

Telephone: 0057-1-2853208

Email: objecionbogota@gmail.com

Notes

[1] www.wri-irg.org

[2] www.objecioncolombia.org

[3] https://lists.wri-irg.org/codb