Europe

On the occasion of the International Day of Peace, 21st September, Connection e.V., the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the European Office for Conscientious Objection and War Resisters’ International have launched a signature campaign for deserters and conscientious objectors from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Read more and sign here.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection has published its Annual Report on Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2021, covering the region of the Council of Europe (CoE). 

Read and download the report here.

EBCO’s President Alexia Tsouni said:

European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) has released its Annual Report: Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2020. The report covers updates on conscientious objection to military service across the region of Council of Europe (CoE) during 2020.

On the 7th of September 2020 the Grand Chamber panel of the European Court of Human Rights rejected the request to refer the case of Dyagilev v. Russia (no. 49972/16) to the Grand Chamber, thus rendering the judgement of 10 March 2020 final.

On 29th October, War Resisters' International (WRI), European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and Connection e.V. released a statement on a problematic judgment by the European Court of Human Rights on the case of a Russian conscientious objector, Maksim Andreyevich Dyagilev.

European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) has released its Annual Report on Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2019. The report highlights multiple discriminations conscientious objectors faced across Europe throughout 2019.

This month, activists from different European countries met in London as part of a WRI training on countering youth militarisation and its gendered dimensions. During the training, activists took part in various activities exploring how military values are promoted to young people, in which ways this militarisation is gendered, and how we can plan effective strategies countering these forces. Following the training, WRI also hosted a public forum on countering youth militarisation, joined by activists from the Czech Republic, Finland, Turkey and the UK.

In advance of International Human Rights Day on 10th December, the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection has published “Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2017”. “In 2017, efforts to recognize the rights of conscientious objectors to military service have taken once more a negative track in Europe”, EBCO President Friedhelm Schneider said.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) held its 2017 General Assembly on 4th November in the UN buffer zone in Cyprus. The Assembly followed a press conference and a public forum held with the participation of conscientious objectors and peace activists from across Europe, as well as from the Republic of Cyprus and the northern part of the island.

A new report from the Transnational Institute and StopWapenhandel exposes the companies profiting from the militarisation of Europe's borders.

Nick Buxton

For anyone concerned with militarism, news of the terrorist attacks in Brussels brought a familiar sense of dread. We ache as we hear the stories of more innocent lives lost, and we feel foreboding from the knowledge that the bombings will predictably fuel new cycles of violence and horror in targeted communities at home or abroad. It creates the binary world that neocons and terrorists seek: an era of permanent war in which all our attention and resources are absorbed – and the real crises of poverty, inequality, unemployment, social alienation and climate crisis ignored.

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection's annual report gives an overview of conscientious objection in Europe this year. Read it here.

Foreword by Friedhelm Schneider, EBCO President

In September 2014 Heiner Bielefeldt, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, speaking at a side event to the Human Rights Council, observed: “Conscientious objection to military service is a specific issue, but not a side issue!”. One year on, in October 2015, the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, for the first time launches its Annual Report “Conscientious objection to military service in Europe 2015” in Geneva, immediately before the Session of the UN Human Rights Committee which will deal with the reports of Greece and the Republic of Korea - two states in which the right of conscientious objection to military service continues flagrantly to be violated.