United Kingdom

Trident Ploughshares Press Release 17 November, 2009 - For immediate release

Carmel Agrexco blockaders in court

On the 26th - 29th October 2009 two women were taken to trial for taking part in a blockade of Carmel Agrexco’ produce warehouse during the Bloody Valentine Week of Action. They are accused of obstructing police officers and assaulting a police officer during the women only action. This is only the second time that people have been brought to court for actions against Carmel Agrexco in over 5 years of sustained direct action at the London depot.

I would like to invite you all to the UK in February next year. Trident Ploughshares is organising a big blockade of Aldermaston for Monday 15th February 2010 from 7am – all day - and we need European help.

On 3 August, Lance Corporal Joe Glenton of the Royal Logistic Corps appeared at a military court centre in Bulford camp, near Salisbury in Wiltshire, for a preliminary hearing. Glenton, from York, joined the army in 2004 but went absent without leave in 2007 after serving with the Royal Logistic Corps in Afghanistan.

He handed himself in after two years and six days' absence, during which he went to south-east Asia and Australia.

http://tridentreplacement.net is an accessible collection of documents about the replacement of the UK's current Trident nuclear weapons system.
Launched with more than 1,000 entries, the http://tridentreplacement.net database provides a rich source of publicly available documents relating to almost all aspects of the government's decision to replace the UK's current nuclear weapons system.

We're launching the database today, on the anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, with the aims of:

Trident Ploughshares activists working with Bikes Block Bombs, Scrap Cars-Scrap Trident, Aldermaston Women, and Eastern-region CND have blockaded 4 gates at AWE Aldermaston today. They are protesting at the building of new nuclear weapons facilities and the lack of democratic accountability.

The surprise blockades have caused massive road blockages and construction vehicles have been prevented from getting into Aldermaston.

What do babies and arms sales have in common? Surprisingly, Clarion Events who organise the Baby Show also own and organise Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), the world's largest arms fair, scheduled for September 2009 in London.

Over the weekend anti-arms trade protesters demonstrated outside London's ExCel Centre, venue for both exhibitions. The protest was both against Clarion and the ExCel Centre for agreeing to host the event.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has refused to consider an application by peace campaigners seeking to pay taxes without paying for war.

The Court has told lawyers acting for the group, the Peace Tax Seven, that their application "did not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms set out in the [European] Convention."

The group's case was first heard in the British High Court in 2005, and was
referred to Strasbourg on appeal.

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.

HOUSE OF LORDS

SESSION 2007-08

[2008] UKHL 61

on appeal from: [2007] EWCA Civ 498

OPINIONS

OF THE LORDS OF APPEAL

FOR JUDGMENT IN THE CAUSE

R (on the application of Bancoult) (Respondent) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Appellant)

Appellate Committee

Lord Hoffmann

Lord Bingham of Cornhill

Lord Rodger of Earlsferry

Lord Carswell

Lord Mance

Counsel

Appellant:

Jonathan Crow QC

Kieron Beal

(Instructed by Treasury Solicitors)

Respondent:

Sir Sydney Kentridge QC

Anthony Bradley

Maya Lester

CRC/C/OPAC/GBR/CO/1

Concluding observations:
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Voluntary recruitment

12. The Committee notes that, according to the State party’s declaration under article 3 made upon ratification, the minimum age for voluntary recruitment is 16 years and regrets the fact that the State party indicates that there are no plans to change this.

Issues

The regulations governing the right to conscientious objection are not in the public domain, and information is difficult to obtain by members of the public, and also by members of the Armed Forces.
Decision making on an application for conscientious objection in the first instance is by the respective branch of the Armed Forces itself, and not by an independent body.