Right to Refuse to Kill

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War Resisters' International's programme The Right to Refuse to Kill combines a wide range of activities to support conscientious objectors individually, as well as organised groups and movements for conscientious objection.

Our main publications are CO-Alerts (advocacy alerts sent out whenever a conscientious objector is prosecuted) and CO-Updates (a bimonthly look at developments in conscientious objection around the world).

We maintain the CO Guide - A Conscientious Objector's Guide to the International Human Rights System, which can help COs to challenge their own governments, and protect themselves from human rights abuses.

Information about how nation states treat conscientious objectors can be found in our World Survey of Conscientious Objection and recruitment.

More info on the programme is available here.

A recent report from Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed that the Revolutionary Youth Movement of Syria is still recruiting children as young as 12. This is happening despite promises from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration to stop the recruitment of children. HRW is urging the SDF and the US, which provides military support to the SDF, to take immediate action to stop the recruitment of children.

In October 2024, both Croatia and Serbia announced the reintroduction of military conscription. Both countries had previously abolished compulsory military service: Serbia in 2011 and Croatia in 2008. Starting in January 2025, Croatia will require young men to serve for a period of two months, while Serbia plans for conscription to last 75 days.

On 28th August 2024, the Colombian government issued a decree establishing an alternative to military service, referred to as Social Service for Peace. This alternative service is part of the current government's broader policy aimed at achieving what is known as “total peace,” following the 2016 peace agreements. Check here some of the general provisions and the issues pointed out as problematic by the Observatory of Militarism in Colombia.

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.

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.

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