United States of America

War Resisters' International is trying to put together a list of known US war resisters. From several sources, War Resisters' International was so far able to gather a bit of information, but this is surely just a snapshot. The list is in alphabetical order.

On 6 December 2004, 3rd class Petty Officer Pablo Paredes stood on the pier of the 32nd street naval base in San Diego as his ship, the USS Bonhomme Richard, left for Iraq without him.

According to a CBSNews report on 8 December 2004, the Pentagon says that "more than 5,500 servicemen have deserted since the war started in Iraq". Many of them fled to Canada, as did about 55,000 Vietnam war deserters. However, back then Canada welcomed the US deserters, but the law has changed since, and todays deserters have to convince the Immigration Board that they are refugees.

Some of the deserters will be represented before the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board by Toronto lawyer Jeffry House.

According to an article published in The New York Times on 16 November 2004, more than 1800 of 4000 former GIs who are now members of the Individual Ready Reserves requested exemption or delay after receiving a call-up for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.

On 17 September, Amnesty International released an urgent action on conscientious objector Abdullah William Webster, a sergeant of the US army who was sentenced by a court-martial to 14 months imprisonment for refusing to participate in the war in Iraq on the basis of his religious beliefs. Abdullah Webster is a US citizen who has served in the US army since 1985. He had been based in Bamberg, Germany since 2001 from where he was requested to deploy to Iraq between March and April 2003.

Although War Resisters' International's focus for International Conscientious Objectors' Day is Chile and Latin America, activities in different countries obviously respond also to the local situation, while drawing attention to the focus region at the same time.

Britain

There will be a memorial event for conscientious objectors past and present at the commemorative stone for conscientious objectors in Tavistock Square, central London, on 15 May. The event will start at noon.

All this information is available on the GI Rights website - www.girights.org.

Helping Out: A Guide to Military Discharges and GI Rights

The most comprehensive guide to military discharges in print. Written as a guide for helping people to get out of the military. (only partly available on the website)

Advice for Conscientious Objectors in the Armed Forces

The right to conscientious objection is derived from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and seen as a manifestation of the freedom of religion and belief. The then CSCE stressed the right to conscientious objection in paragraph 18 of the Document of the Copenhagen meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension in June 1990.The UN Commission on Human Rights stressed the right to conscientious objection in several resolution, most recently Resolution 1998/77, 2000/34, 2002/45. The Council of Europe also stresses the right to conscientious objection, especially in resolution 337 (1967) and recommendations 1518 (2001), R (87) 8, and 816 (1977).

With protests at Seattle, Prague and Genoa, a diverse movement campaigning for global justice had received more and more media coverage. A lot of this has been negative, concentrating on violent riots at these summits rather than the issues. The words "globalisation" and "anti-globalisation" tend to be bandied about, with lots of confusion about their actual meaning. We cannot win an argument if we do not even understand the terms we are using.

Americans Must now Feel What the Rest of Us Have Known

3 October 2001
One way for Americans to overcome their trauma is to admit that their suffering is not unique

Response to Attacks on the U.S.
Civilian Life Must Be Respected

(New York, September 12, 2001) -- We profoundly condemn yesterday's cruel attacks in the United States and express our condolences to the victims and their loved ones. This was an assault not merely on one nation or one people, but on principles of respect for civilian life cherished by all people. We urge all governments to unite to investigate this crime, to prevent its recurrence, and to bring to justice those who are responsible.

Statements after bombing attacks began on 7 October

War Resisters' International statement

Say No! A Call For Conscientious Objection to War and War Preparations English | French | German | Spanish | Galego-Portuguese | Macedonian | Dutch | Turkish