Universal Periodic Review, December 2009: Submission Cyprus

Executive summary

CPTI (Conscience and Peace Tax International) is disturbed that the
provisions concerning conscientious objection to military service in
Cyprus fall short of the established international standards,
particularly as expounded in General Comment 22 of the Human Rights
Committee and in Resolution 1998/77 and subsequent resolutions of
the Commission on Human Rights.

Particular aspects of concern are:

• that the relevant arrangements are not under civilian control


• that the stipulated duration of alternative service for conscientious
  objectors is punitive by comparison with that of military service,
  and there are doubts as to whether a non-military alternative (as
  opposed to unarmed military service) has ever been instituted in
  practice.


• that conscientious objectors are not released from the requirement to
  perform military reserve service.

CPTI notes with even graver concern that the unrecognised administration
in the self-styled “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” enforces conscription into
military service with no provision for conscientious objection.

Finally, CPTI is concerned that military recruitment procedures in both parts
of the island may not be adequate to prevent the deployment of
persons under 18 in armed conflict.

1. This submission was prepared in April 2009, and the information herein was
believed to be accurate at the time of writing.

Obligatory Military service in the Republic of Cyprus

2. Obligatory military service for all males from the age of 18, and
with reserve duties up to the age of 50, was instituted in the
National Guard Law (No 20/1964) which has subseqwuently been amended
on a number of occasions.

3. The amended National Guard Law of 9^th
January 1992 contained the first provisions concerning conscientious
objectors to military service. It set obligatory military service at
26 months, but allowed for unarmed military service within the armed
forces of 36 months and “unarmed military service outside the armed
forces” (sic) of 42 months.¹

4. In June 2007, the National Guard Law was amended to reduce the duration of
military service to 25 months, and the duration of the “unarmed
military service outside the armed forces” to 34 months. At the
same time, the exemptions from military service which had been
granted to all members of the Armenian Orthodox, Latin (ie. Roman
Catholic) and Maronite churches were abolished.²
The very few Turkish Cypriots still living in the area under
Government control are not called upon to perform military service,
but are liable to conscription if they cross into the area under the
control of the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. (See Para.
11 below).

5. A proposal to further reduce the length of military service from 25
months to 19 months was rejected by Cyprus’s Council of Ministers
in March 2009.³
It is not known what the effect on the length of alternative service
would have been.

6. The discrepancy in duration between armed military service and the
alternative offered has been repeatedly criticised by the European
Committee of Social Rights as a probable violation of the Article 1.2
of the European Social Charter (“to protect effectively the right
of the worker to earn his living in an occupation freely entered
upon”),⁴
Although this discrepancy has now been somewhat reduced, it would
still appear to be punitively discriminatory.

7. There is moreover considerable scope for concern that anything described as
“unarmed military service outside the armed forces” may not in
practice be a truly civilian option, compatible in all cases with the
reasons for conscientious objection.⁵

Doubts on
this score were expressed in a Council of Europe report in 2001⁶
In fact, in 2003, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who had been
successfully obtaining recognition as conscientious objectors,
reported that the provisions establishing alternative service outside
the armed forces had not yet been implemented. It seems that since
1999 Jehovah’s Witnesses refusing to perform unarmed military
service have been exempted subject to an obligation to perform the
service outside the armed forces when this is instituted.⁷
CPTI’s contacts within Cyprus have subsequently continued to report
no evidence that any conscientious objector has in practice been
called up to perform alternative service outside the armed forces.

8. The former exemptions from military service for members of the recognised
minority religious denominations do not seem to have been related to
conscientious objection. As noted in the previous paragraph,
Jehovah’s Witnesses, who did not benefit from a group exemption,
have been successful in applying individually for recognition as
conscientious objectors.

9. An application for recognition as a conscientious objector must be
submitted to the Ministry of Defence. This cannot constitute an
“independent and impartial decision- making body, as envisaged by
the Commission on Human Rights in Resolution 1998/77 (OP3).

10. The National Guard Law does not provide for persons liable to military
reserve service to declare themselves as conscientious objectors. In
2002 five Jehovah’s Witnesses, some of whom had failed to establish
conscientious objector status at an earlier date when this was
harder, but some of whom had been converted subsequent to performing
their military service, went on trial for refusing call up to
reservist training. The trial was suspended in November 2002
pending a rationalisation of the provisions in the National Service
Act, but there are no reports that this has yet happened.

The “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”

11. Provision for conscription was made in Article 74 of the Constitution
of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The arrangements
are currently regulated by the Military Service Law (No. 59/2000),
which stipulates that all men aged between 19 and 30 are liable to
fifteen months⁸
service in the “Security Forces” (GKK)⁹
- reduced to 12 months for University graduates. In theory, this
obligation extends to all those who are considered to be entitled by
descent to citizenship of the TRNC, whether or not resident.

12. There is no provision for conscientious objectors to be excused this service
or to substitute a service of a civilian nature.¹⁰
In the absence of any procedures for dealing with conscientious
objectors, only one conscript is known to have openly declared his refusal to
serve on the grounds of conscientious objection, Salih Askeroglu, who
was sentenced to 39 months’ imprisonment in 1993, but was
subsequently released, apparently on condition that he did nothing to
further publicise his case.¹¹
It is however reported that many conscientious objectors take care
to remain outside the country, returning only when able to take
advantage of periodic amnesties for those who have avoided military
service.

13. In December 2007, a movement was founded within TRNC to press for an
amendment to Article 74 of the Constitution to incorporate an
explicit acknowledgment of the right of conscientious objection to
military service.

Recruitment of persons aged under 18

14. It would appear that in both the Republic of Cyprus and the unrecognised “Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus” it is possible, subject to parental
consent, for persons aged 17 to volunteer for military service.¹²
The Committee on the Rights of the Child, in its concluding
observations on Cyprus stated that it was “concerned that under-18s
may be deployed since no distinction is made between the age for
recruitment and deployment”, and called upon the State party to
take measures to ensure that this was not possible.¹³
This concern would appear to be valid for both parts of the island.

Notes