WRI Statement

The undersigned organisations express their serious concern regarding the immediate risk of deportation of Maksim Kuzmin back to Russia, as he is approaching a yet another - and probably the ultimate - hearing on April 2nd 2026 at the Regional Administrative Court in Kaunas, Lithuania.

The undersigned organisations express their indignation for the actions of military authorities in Greece in the case of conscientious objector Zacharias Piazas, in defiance of international law and the orders of the Council of State, Greece’s Supreme Administrative Court. 

Wars and escalations across the world continue to scar communities and destabilize entire regions. Just yesterday, the outbreak of war between Pakistan and Afghanistan added yet another front to a global landscape already marked by devastation in Sudan, destruction in Ukraine, genocide in Gaza, relentless bombardments in Yemen, and air strikes in Lebanon. Now, the United States and Israel have launched attacks against Iran, dragging the Middle East into yet another cycle of destruction.

A recognised conscientious objector in Greece is being called up for military service in a case with multiple violations of human rights and illegalities. 

Zacharias Piazas has been officially recognised as conscientious objector to military service, by decision of the Greek Minister of National Defence, in September 2025.

The undersigned organizations express serious concern regarding the continued persecution of Ukrainian human rights defender Yurii Sheliazhenko*, a conscientious objector to military service. He is currently under an alarming threat of being arrested and forcibly conscripted under Ukraine’s system of universal military registration, which is enforced through coercive measures including arbitrary detentions and forced transfers to conscription offices.

War Resisters‘ International is gravely concerned about the developments in Syria, especially about the attacks on the autonomous territories in the north-east. The developments in north-eastern Syria are not merely a regional conflict, but also a grave humanitarian crisis that concerns the collective conscience of humanity. The Kurdish people are being subjected to forced displacement, torture, executions and discriminatory violence, which are explicitly prohibited under international law. We demand global soldiarity and action with regards to protecting the Kurdish people in the region.

The Executive Committee of the War Resisters’ International endorses and shares the following statement by RAMALC regarding the situation in Venezuela: "The Latin American and Caribbean Anti-Militarist Network (RAMALC), in light of the current situation in Venezuela, condemns the bombing of Venezuelan territory by the United States, which has also affected the civilian population"

In this ‘war against life,’ hunger has become yet another instrument of genocide, a structural violence that silently kills by removing the possibility of satisfying basic needs. Famine is wiping out a generation of babies, girls, and boys, destroying an entire people with physical and psychological injuries that will be difficult to reconcile with a dignified life.

For some, militarism is a spectacle until, of course, it isn’t. As the last fibre optic cable into Gaza was cut, and the Freedom Flotilla’s (symbolic) cargo was (symbolically) blocked, and Trump’s military parade through Washington, and countless other small and large militarised acts and words, Netanyahu’s regime has again escalated to real bombs falling on real people – this time on Iran - and the waves of bombs and missiles seem to come faster than any statement we can write.
The demand made of our movements at times like this isn’t to pick sides with militarised actors, but to dare to keep building a different world – where peace and justice thrive. 

Several organisations worldwide stand in solidarity with those who refuse to kill and engage in wars and are for this reason persecuted, criminalised and jailed. The undersigned organizations -active also at the European level- address a specific appeal to the European institutions and Member States to protect and fully implement the right to conscientious objection to military service.

On 16 February 2023, in the resolution ‘One year of Russia’s invasion and war of aggression against Ukraine’, the EU Parliament demanded that Member States provide protection for conscientious objectors and deserters fleeing Belarus, Russia, and occupied Ukraine. However, this is not guaranteed in most Member States.

As a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel comes into force, we can only begin to imagine the relief of all those who were being bombed yesterday, but are not being bombed today.