Conscientious objection

OSI Assistance Foundation Armenia
1 Pushkin St, apt 11
Yerevan 375010
Armenia
office@osi.am

Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan
PO Box 31
Baku 370000
Azerbaijan
Eldar Zeynalov (Director) aihmm@lycos.de

Intiative Group of War Resisters' International - Georgia
144 Dolidze St
Tbilisi 380071
Georgia
Usha Nanuashvili ishrg@caucasus.net

Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law
Masanchy St 57a/404-405
480012 Almaty
Kazakhstan
Evgenii Zhovtis omaz@omaz.almaty.kz

by Silke Makowski

In the region of Caucasus and Central Asia, no country offers a free choice between military service and alternative service, most of them even having no legal basis for a substitute service at all. The few states that passed a law on some kind of alternative service haven't implemented it according to international standards: in Georgia, substitute service isn't available in practice and in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, large bribes are necessary to perform it.

2 October 2002

1 Conscription

conscription exists

Conscription is enshrined in art. 31 of the 1968 Constitution, which describes military service as a 'sacred duty and an honour for citizens'. [14]

The present legal basis of conscription is the 1969 Military Service Act, with several subsequent resolutions made by the Revolution Command Council (RCC). Although Iraq has a
formal separation of powers, in practice all power rests with the RCC, a group of men who are also members of the Regional Command of the Ba'ath Party.

On 21 September - the International Day of Peace, as declared by the United Nations General Assembly [1] - War Resisters' International and New Profile submit the case of conscientious objector Victor Sabranski, who was arrested five times for his refusal to enlist in the Israeli Defence Forces, to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

In doing so, War Resisters' International and New Profile want to highlight that Israel still doesn't recognise the right to conscientious objection (for men), although it is widely accepted as a human righ

Conscription and Conscientious Objection Documentation Centre
War Resisters' International, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX, Britain
Tel.: +44-20-7278 4040, Fax: +44-20-7278 0444, email: concodoc@wri-irg.org

To: Council of Europe, UN Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch
Update of report from 7 September 2002
Date: 13 September 2002
Our Ref.: YU10813-YU12368Introduction

In September 2002, War Resisters' International sent a delegation to Yugoslavia, to support two con

When one hears via foreign media of Israeli tanks rampaging in the streets of Palestinian cities (for some reason it's hardly ever on the news of the Israeli media), then we don't hear the whole truth.

Uri Ya'acobi
(Shortened version Ha'aretz, 18 August 2002)
(Full Text Ma'ariv, 22 August 2002)

CCPR/CO/75/VNM
26 July 2002

(...)

17. The Committee takes note of the fact that the law makes no provision for the status of conscientious objector to military service, which may legitimately be claimed under article 18 of the Covenant.

The State party should ensure that persons liable for military service may claim the status of conscientious objector and perform alternative service without discrimination.

(...)

(...)

C. Conscientious objectors

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Three activists arrested - but released after 1 hour

On 15 May 2002 - International Conscientious Objectors' Day - an international group of conscientious objectors and antimilitarists from Spain, Croatia, Macedonia, Turkey, Finland, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Britain, and France, blocked the main gate of the NATO headquarters in Brussels for about 30 minutes.

Rudi Friedrich

The debate about conscientious objection - is it basically a human right, or is it an antimilitarist action? - is an old debate within War Resisters' International, but still relevant. Here, Andreas Speck, WRI staff, and Bart Horeman, WRI Treasurer, discuss this question.