CO-Update

Welcome to this bumper edition of the CO Update!

This CO Update is a long time in coming, mainly because of all the work that has been happening over the past few months.

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"In the year 1949 and after the establishment of the state of Israel, minorities were emancipated from serving in the Israeli army. In the year 1954, the security office attempted to recruit all the Arab citizens in the country, yet, the attempts failed by facing a strict refusal. In the year 1956, the Palestinian Druze youth were compulsorily recruited to serve in the Israeli army, and in the year 1958 the Circassian youth were compulsorily recruited". (The law of serving the security in the state of Israel).

This is how the Arab Druze youth were recruited in the Israeli army by the order of Israeli minister of security and under the name of "law". This proves the inaccuracy of the Israeli narrative that claims: "Druze approached the state requesting to serve in the army.

In November, Hannah from the WRI office and Igor Seke from WRI's Right to Refuse to Kill Committee visited Colombia.

 This is a repost, with thanks to Global Voices

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As Tajikistan's military faces a struggle to get enough volunteer conscripts, recruitment officers often rely on illegal practices in drafting military-age men into the army. One of the most common among such practices is “oblava” which involves “military press gangs making sweeps of city streets, bazaars and bus stations, rounding up young men who meet the desired criteria [to serve their compulsory two-year-long service]“.

December saw 45 Kurdish men and women in Turkey declaring their conscientious objection 'in order to remember the 34 young men killed in the Roboski massacre two years ago', through the Roboski Conscientious Objection and Amed (Diyarbakir) Conscientious Objection Initiatives. The death of 34 young men occurred at the Turkish-Iraqi border, when two Turkish F16 jets fired at a group of villagers, claiming to act on information that PKK (Kurdish Workers' Party) militants were crossing the border. Faruk Encü, making a statement in the name of the Roboski Conscientious Objection Initiative, said “Here we are calling once again on those village-guards that have been made into a part of this militarist process, to those who are sending those close to them and their children to do military service, and to those people who are part of this war-making machine to make a few cents. Reject taking up arms for a sexist structure that has his turned this region into a graveyard of peoples, and if you have already taken up arms immediately correct this wrong.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has issued guidelines on claims to refugee status related to military service. These Guidelines focus on individuals who seek international protection as refugees to avoid recruitment and service in State armed forces, including conscientious objectors, as well as forced recruitment by non-State armed groups. They provide guidance for governments, decision makers, lawyers and the judiciary as well as UNHCR staff.

The Canadaian War Resisters' Support Campaign held a week of action from January 12 to 19th, asking Canadians across the country to send a message that U.S. war resisters are welcome in Canada, and that the Canadian government must stop the deportations and enact a provision to let them stay.

For 'Let Them Stay Week 2014', activists joined in on social media, by writing to local papers, lobbying the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and promoting public meetings and debates.

Since the 1950s, the right to conscientious objection to military service in international human rights law has excited the interest of both non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations in a variety of contexts. This book examines the subject, beginning with an exploration of the concept of conscience and its evolution with a view toward understanding the meaning and potential scope of the right to conscientious objection from a legal perspective. It also describes the different categories into which conscientious objectors can be divided, explain the differences between these categories, and investigate how these differences are interpreted at national and international levels. It then investigates the right to conscientious objection as a legitimate exercise of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion in international human rights law. In this regard, this book deeply analyzes human rights law at both the international and regional level, examining UN, European, and Inter-American mechanisms.

In November, Qatar’s government approved a draft law making it compulsory for men to do military service for up to four months. This is the first instance of conscription in the state of Qatar. The four-month term would apply to Qatari men who have not attended school, college or university, and those who did attend but did not complete high school after reaching 21. Graduates will be conscripted for three months. No time frame for the introduction of compulsory military service has been given.

Myanmar's army has freed 96 children and young people from its armed forces, the United Nations has said. This was the largest single release of child recruits in Myanmar since the country's government entered into an agreement with the UN in 2012 on the issue. The army has released a total of 272 children and youth over the past 18 months, but has not completely stopped its use of children. According to Al Jazeera, no record of verifiable figures exists to prove how many children currently serve in Myanmar's military.

Rafael Uzcátegui

In the National Assembly, a project to reform the Conscription and Military Enlistment Law is currently being discussed. The law has been included in the legislative package considered high priority by the heads of parliament, having been approved in the first debate of 18/06/2013. The project presented, however, is unconstitutional, because it violates what is stated in article 134 of the Magna Carta - that: “Every person, in accordance with the law, has the right to carry out civilian or military service necessary for the defence, preservation and development of the country, or in the face of public disaster. Nobody can be subjected to forced conscription (…)”.

Since the last CO Update, Gary, from the National Network Opposing the Militarisation of Youth, worked from the WRI office for three months. Gary's main work was on a website that brings together news about the militarisation of youth globally – and about what movements are doing to counter this.

If you see any news item that relate to these topics, please email them to me at hannah@wri-irg.org. We will be looking for the site to include information from all over the world, so please get in touch with your resources!

A full archive of co-alerts is available at wri-irg.org/news/alerts. Since the last CO Update, we have issued the following co-alerts:

13 Feb 2014: AZERBAIJAN: CO Kamran Shikhaliyev on trial now 07 Feb 2014: ISRAEL: Fourth imprisonment for Druze CO Omar Saad 22 Jan 2014: ISRAEL: Druze CO Omar Saad in prison for the third time