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Yurii Sheliazhenko, conscientious objector, pacifist, human rights defender and the Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, has been placed under partial house arrest in Kyiv on 15th August, being accused of ‘justifying the Russian aggression’. Send an email of support for Yurii to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy using the template letter here.

We are pleased to announce the conference “Conscientious Objection in Asia”, which will be held on 18th to 20th November in Seoul, South Korea. The event will gather conscientious objectors (COs) and campaigners of conscientious objection (CO) from across Asia to discuss the problems COs are facing today and how to counter these problems. The event is organised by World Without War in cooperation with Connection e.V. and War Resisters’ International.

EBCO, WRI, IFOR and Connection e.V. strongly condemn the fact that Yurii Sheliazhenko, a well-known conscientious objector, pacifist, human rights defender and lawyer, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, has been placed under partial house arrest by the Solomyanskyi District Court of Kyiv on 15 August 2023.

Found in 1976, Nurol Makina is a Turkish defence company, specialising in the manufacture of armoured vehicles used by military, police, and security forces around the world. Nurol Makina is owned by Nurol Holding, a conglomerate which owns a range of companies covering the construction, defence manufacturing, energy, investment banking and tourism industries. A number of other companies owned by Nurol Holding are focused on manufacturing weapons.

CONTENT WARNING: this article makes references to sexual violence, torture, and other details that some readers may find upsetting.
The Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organisation founded in 2014 by former GRU officer Dmitry Utkin and businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, and has been described as “one of Russia’s most influential foreign policy tools”. Since its founding, Wagner Group has become known for its readiness to use extreme levels of violence and brutality during its operations.

On 4th July, European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and War Resisters' International (WRI) have made an urgent appeal to the Lithuanian immigration authorities regarding the case of  Ivan Strashkevich, a conscientious objector from Belarus who is currently seeking asylum in Lithuania.

The German antimilitarist group Antimilitaristische Aktion Berlin (Antimilitarist Action Berlin) have found evidence that Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency (“Verfassungsschutz Berlin”) is monitoring their activities.

17 years after the first ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in favour of a Turkish conscientious objector, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe now took a surprisingly straightforward stance.

"As of last Friday, June 23rd, the Movement of Conscientious Objectors has been officially labeled as a "foreign agent" in the Russian Federation. This action, while a demonstration of the effectiveness of our work, is fundamentally a discriminatory application of law that contradicts universally accepted human rights and freedoms."

Conscientious Objection Watch (Vicdani Ret Izleme) has published a new report about the still missing right of conscientious objection in Turkey, not only describing the prosecution and punishment but also the consequences for conscientious objectors to live in a state of civil death.