Armenia: Conscientious objector "could be taken to jail at any time"

On 16 July, one week before his 21st birthday, Baptist conscientious objector Davit Nazaretyan received the Cassation Court's rejection of his final appeal against his two-year jail term. His application for alternative service had been rejected. "Davit could be taken to jail at any time," his pastor, Mikhail Shubin, told Forum 18 from Yerevan. "I am very disappointed by this decision," human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation told Forum 18. "It is important to follow this particular case as well as the system more generally."

On 16 July, just a week before his 21st birthday, Baptist conscientious objector Davit Nazaretyan received by post the Cassation Court's rejection of his final appeal against his two-year jail term. The decision is now final, so the authorities can enforce the prison sentence. "Davit could be taken to jail at any time," his pastor, Mikhail Shubin, told Forum 18 from the capital Yerevan.

"It is bad of course that he has to go to jail," Vardan Astsatryan of the government's Department for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs told Forum 18. "But laws must be observed." Astsatryan is a member of the government's Alternative Service Commission which rejected Nazaretyan's alternative service application in January 2023.

The last known jailed conscientious objector, Maksim Telegin (a Molokan who had been refused alternative civilian service), was freed from a one-year jail term in 2021. In 2013, Armenia introduced a genuinely civilian service for conscientious objectors to military service. Yet conscientious objectors to military service, including Molokan young men, are still in 2024 being denied their right to alternative civilian service (see forthcoming F18News article).

As of 18 July 2024, Nazaretyan had not yet received the enforcement act which the Cassation Court is due to issue and which would lead to arrest and jailing, Pastor Shubin added.

Human rights defender Tatevik Gharibyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation notes that "as soon as the court sends the enforcement act related to the decision, police will attend the convict's place of residence and transport them to the penitentiary institution". She says courts generally issue such enforcement acts soon after issuing their decisions.

Arsen Topchyan, the Investigator who initiated criminal proceedings against Nazaretyan in August 2022, refused to comment to Forum 18 on Nazaretyan's jail sentence becoming final.

"I am very disappointed by this decision on Davit Nazaretyan," human rights defender Isabella Sargsyan of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation told Forum 18. "It is important to follow this particular case as well as the system more generally. We need a holistic advocacy campaign on the issue of alternative civilian service".

The office of the Human Rights Defender Anahit Manasyan refused to put Forum 18 through to her on 18 July. Other officials in her office insisted that the alternative service system is working well. Forum 18 asked in writing about Nazaretyan's case and what it is doing (if anything) to support him and others who cannot perform military service on grounds of conscience. Officials promised to respond.

International standards

The United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee has stated in its General Comment 22 that conscientious objection to military service comes under International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Article 18 ("Freedom of thought, conscience and religion"). General Comment 22 notes that if a religion or belief is official or followed by a majority of the population this "shall not result in any impairment of the enjoyment of any of the rights under the Covenant .. nor in any discrimination against adherents to other religions or non-believers."

In relation to conscientious objection to military service, General Comment 22 also states among other things: "there shall be no differentiation among conscientious objectors on the basis of the nature of their particular beliefs; likewise, there shall be no discrimination against conscientious objectors because they have failed to perform military service."

This has been reinforced by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recognising "the right of everyone to have conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion". The OHCHR has also noted in its Conscientious Objection to Military Service guide that ICCPR Article 18 is "a non-derogable right .. even during times of a public emergency threatening the life of the nation".

In 2022 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated (WGAD-HRC50) that "the right to conscientious objection to military service is part of the absolutely protected right to hold a belief under article 18 (1) of the Covenant, which cannot be restricted by States". The Working Group also stated: "States should refrain from imprisoning individuals solely on the basis of their conscientious objection to military service, and should release those that have been so imprisoned."

Various judgments (including against Armenia) of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg have also defined states' obligations to respect and implement the right to conscientious objection to military service, as part of the right to freedom of religion or belief.

Military service, alternative civilian service

All men in Armenia are subject to conscription between the ages of 18 and 27. Deferments are available in strictly limited circumstances. Military service lasts for 24 months. Those subject to conscription can apply for service without weapons within the armed forces, which lasts 30 months, or for alternative civilian service, which lasts 36 months.

For many years, Armenia jailed those unable to perform military service on grounds of conscience, despite a commitment to the Council of Europe to introduce a civilian alternative to military service by January 2004. In May 2013, amendments to the 2003 Alternative Service Law and to the 2003 Law on Implementing the Criminal Code were passed, and a fully civilian alternative service was created. By November 2013, the authorities had freed all the then-jailed conscientious objectors. All were Jehovah's Witnesses.

Yet some conscientious objectors to military service, including Molokan young men, have been jailed since 2013 and are still in 2024 being denied their right to alternative civilian service (see forthcoming F18News article).

Conscientious objectors who are refused alternative civilian service can be prosecuted under Criminal Code Article 461, Part 1 ("Avoidance of mandatory military or alternative service or conscription"). This carries a jail term of two to five years.