Right to Refuse to Kill

The 56th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council took place in Geneva between 18th June and 12th July 2024. During the 56th Session, War Resisters’ International, in collaboration with Connection e.V., has made oral statements on the right to conscientious objection to military service on several occasions.

Lithuania should protect Belarusian conscientious objectors and deserters, grant adequate legal protection and prevent their deportation!

On 10th July, the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO), Connection e.V and War Resisters' International held a webinar to present the OHCHR report on the right to Conscientious Objection (A/HRC/56/30). Daniel Møgster of the OHCHR introduced the report. The report's presentation was recorded and it's available to watch on WRI's YouTube Channel.

Eighteen years after the ECtHR issued its first judgment in favour of conscientious objector Osman Murat Ülke, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe issued a new interim resolution on violations of the right to conscientious objection to military service in Turkey.

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."

This morning (10th July 2024), Mr. Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded the interactive dialogue at the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in Ukraine. Connection e.V. collaborated with War Resisters International to the drafting and delivering of an oral statement in the plenary, calling for the end of the war in Ukraine and for the protection of the human rights of those who object to the war.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, War Resisters’ International, the International Fellowship of Reconciliation IFOR, and Connection e.V.  condemn the 12-year prison sentence and a fine of 170,000 Euros imposed on EBCO board member Olga Karach in her recent trial in Belarus.

Join us in this webinar with Daniel Møgster of the OHCHR who will introduce the recent report of the OHCHR on conscientious objection to military service.

This morning at the UN in Geneva it took place at the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. On this occasion, Connection e.V. together with War Resisters’ International prepared and delivered a statement in the plenary addressing the right to conscientious objection to military service and calling on the Council and Belarus to protect human rights.

This morning, June 26th, on the occasion of the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, it took place in Geneva the conclusion of the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. Connection e.V. took the floor, in collaboration with WRI, to raise the issue of denial of asylum to conscientious objectors and to call on the members of the Human Rights Council to protect conscientious objectors whose human rights are violated in their country of origin.

On the occasion of the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council currently running in Geneva, Connection e.V. collaborated with War Resisters International drafting a statement on the current situation of human rights in Eritrea.

The undersigned organizations express their deep disappointment and grave concerns about the continuing harassment of peace activists and conscientious objectors, including the obviously arbitrary prosecution of Yurii Sheliazhenko, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement and EBCO Board member, whose trial is set on 11 June 2024 in Kyiv.