CO-Update

Welcome to CO Update e-newsletter No 13. This issue has several reports from Latin America, where the right to conscientious objection is rarely recognised.

In August 2005 the Chilean parliament passed a new recruitment law, after almost five years of discussion. However, the parliament failed to include any regulation for the right to conscientious objection in this new law.

The new law, which will come into force in 2007, introduces several changes. According to the law, registration for military service will be automatical. In January, the Civil Registry will pass on the data of all men who completed their 18th year to the military.

Two Colombian youth were briefly detained by the military on 8 August. Gustavo Monroy and Alfredo Cáceres were detained because they did not carry a document exempting them from military service. Both were released later, but the incident pointed to the lack of recognition of the right to conscientious objection in Colombia (see below). Following this incident, Gustavo Monray declared his conscientious objection in a letter to the Colombian Ministry of Defence on 11 August 2005.

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The Ministry of Defence of the Federal Republic of Serbia and Montenegro presented a new draft law to regulate military service and the substitute service for conscientious objectors.

The War Resisters' International was formed in reaction to the senseless slaughter of World War I with a mission not only to oppose all war but also to strive to eradicate its causes. This ambitious programme introduced a new and political dimension to the existing moral and religious basis of pacifism. It attracted some of the best pacifist thinkers and activists from around the world - George Lansbury, Bertrand Russell, Bayard Rustin, Martin Niemoeller, Danilo Dolci, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Globalising Nonviolence, 23-27 July 2006, Germany

Are you interested in both nonviolence and globalisation?

Are you campaigning against war?

Are you involved in nonviolent direct action or curious to learn more?

The War Resisters' International conference Globalising Nonviolence will be a great opportunity to meet activists from all over the world, to get to know what makes them tick, and to see how you can help