CO-Update

Dear readers of CO-Update.

The series of jurisprudence by international bodies in relation to conscientious objection in Turkey continued in the last months. Following the recent judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in cases of conscientious objectors from Turkey - Demirtaş v. Turkey from 17 January 2012 and Erçep v. Turkey from 22 November 2011, the Human Rights Committee published its views on the case of Turkish conscientious objectors Cenk Atasoy and Arda Sarkut in June.

In June, just before the events at Curuguaty that triggered the impeachment of President Lugo - a parliamentary coup - the Paraguayan house of representatives approved a draft law on professional soldiers with some amendments. It now still has to be approved by the Senate, but there is little doubt that the law will pass there without problems.

The international study conference on Countering the Militarisation of Youth, which took place from 8-10 June 2012 in Darmstadt, Germany, was a great success. With the conference we made an important step towards more cooperation and exchange among groups working on militarisation of youth in a range of topical areas and countries. For the conference, we brought together 65 participants from 14 countries and four continents, which in itself has been a great achievement. Our discussions enriched our understanding of militarisation, and helped to inspire us how to resist this militarisation.

26-29 July 2012

War Resisters' International and Ceasefire Campaign in South Africa in collaboration with the African Women's Active Nonvio­lence Initiative for Social Change (AWANICh), Women Peacemaker Program of the International Fel­lowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and the Organization for Nonvio­lence and Development of South Sudan (ONAD), are proposing to organise a nonviolence trainers exchange to take place between 26–29 of July, 2012 in Johan­nesburg, South Africa.

Background

In the previous month(s), the WRI office issued the following co-alerts:
(a full archive of co-alerts is available at wri-irg.org/news/alerts)

18 May 2012: ISRAEL: Druze conscientious objector Armo Said Naffa arrested 17 May 2012: TURKMENISTAN: Arrest of conscientious objector Juma Nazarov