Spain (State of)

On 1 April the Spanish Guardia Civil arrested total objector Óscar Cervera García, an old total objector of the Spanish Movement for Conscientious Objection (MOC). Óscar Cervera García was one of the last five imprisoned total objectors during the campaign "insumision in the barracks" in the late 1990. He was sentenced to 30 months' imprisonment, and was included in WRI's Prisoners for Peace Honour Roll 2001.

Denunciation in the board of shareholders of BBVA

Today on Friday March 12th, whilst a protest took place on the other side of Palacio Euskalduna where the board meeting of shareholders the BBVA bank had begun, eight activists disguised as BBVA shareholders were able to fool the police cordon and throw red paint over themselves. As stated by one of them, the red paint represented the blood, which resulted from the investments made in the production and exportation of arms, the basic rights instilled/ inculcated of many people by destructive projects financed by the bank, which also finances the environmental destruction of climate change, and the economies of many countries which affects the well being of its citizens.

15 pacifists made their way into the NATO Response Force HQ of Bétera (Valencia, Spain), after jumping the base safety fences in an act of civil disobedience

This past Saturday, November 28th, around a hundred antimilitarist activists from Bilbao, Salamanca, Elche, Alicante, Zaragoza, Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia gathered in the Valencian town of Bétera - at 3 km from

Since the professionalisation of the Spanish army, the army started a campaign to have military presence in the areas of formal and non formal education. The techniques of propaganda used by the Spanish Armed Forces to spread a positive image of itself has changed over the years. Since military service its no longer required, these techniques have used other channels - such as education - and have been directed to other audiences such as children and youth.

On 13 March 2009 in Bilbao in the Basque Country a series of actions took place to denounce the connections between the BBVA bank and the arms industry., during the company's Annual Shareholders Meeting.

In the last years an important number of private military companies have been formed in Spain as part of the general process of privatisation and outsourcing of the military. 'Outsourcing' in Spain is quite recent as the Spanish Ministry of Defence were reluctant to have civilian personnel working alongside the military, especially inside military installations. Here we look at two cases where war profiteers have built juice businesses.

Hallmark Security Solutions S.L.

In this presentation I will give an overview of the right to conscientious objection, its
legal practices and frameworks in the 27 European Union member states. Before I do so, I want to step back a bit and have a brief look at the existing international standards about the right to
conscientious objection, as these standards allow us to put the practices in the EU member states into a perspective.

On 14-15 November, antimilitarist nonviolent actions took place in a number of countries around Europe, as part of the a European Day of Action against military infrastructure. The day of action was another step in the coordinated work of radical nonviolent antimilitarist groups in Europe.

Issues

Conscription is suspended. The right to conscientious objection is not recognised for professional soldiers.

Military recruitment
Conscription

Conscription is allowed by Article 30 of the Spanish constitution from 1978, which reads:

“1. Citizens have the right and the duty to defend Spain.

2. The law shall determine the military obligations of Spaniards ...

Obligatory military service in Spain has been suspended since 2001. It appears however that this could be reinstated at any time, if considered necessary, even without the formal declaration of a state of emergency. In such an event, there is some uncertainty as to how the constitutional guarantee of the right of conscientious objection would be implemented.

There is also no indication of any provisions allowing the release of serving members of the armed forces who develop a conscientious objection.

The Ibero-American Convention on Young People's Rights, which entered into force on 1 March 2008, explicitly recognises the right to conscientious objection. Article 12 of the Convention reads: "Young people have the right to form a conscientious objection against compulsory military service." It also includes a commitment of states to create legal instruments to safeguard this right, and to progressively end compulsory military service.

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The Basque antimilitarist groups KEM-MOC and Kakitzat protested on 23 January in front of the head office of the bank, BBVA, declaring that "BBVA finances war, Gastu Militarrik ez".  Several anti-militarists dived into BBVA's fountain.

BBVA collaborates and profits from war through its participation in the military industry, as shareholders of companies that are providers

to the defence sector.