Finland

24/07/1998

1 Conscription

conscription exists

Conscription is enshrined in art. 75 of the 1919 Constitution, which states: "Every Finnish citizen must take part in, or contribute to, the defence of the country as prescribed by law."

The present legal basis of conscription is the 1950 Military Service Act (452/50).

military service

All men between the ages of 18 and 30 are liable for military service in peacetime, and those between the ages of 17 and 60 in time of emergency or wartime. According to the government, conscripts are not to serve as combat troops in wartime. [1]

The length of military service is 8 months, nine and a half months in some branches of the armed forces, and 11 months for those trained to be reserve officers, non-commissioned officers or for certain technical duties. [1]

Reservist obligations pertain up to the age of 50; in the case of officers up to the age of 60. Reservist training lasts for 40 days, 75 days for non-commissioned officers or 100 days for officers. [1]

postponement and exemption

Postponement is permitted up to the age of 30 for students and for ´important personal reasons' (domestic or economic reasons).

Exemption is allowed on medical or social grounds. [1]

Jehovah's Witnesses are exempt from military service in peacetime. This exemption was legally defined in 1985 by the ´Act on Exemption of Jehovah's Witnesses from Military Service in Certain Cases', according to which Jehovah's Witnesses may repeatedly defer serving for a three-year period. Prove of membership of this religious group and participation in its activities must be produced. [4]

Citizens of the Ahvenanmaa (Åland) Islands are exempt from military service. This is a so-called demilitarised area, of which the population is Swedish speaking, the majority in the past having stated that they wanted to be part of Sweden. [2]

recruitment

Call-up for medical examination takes place at the age of 18, and call-up for military service at the age of 19 or 20. [1]

2 Conscientious objection

legal right

The right to conscientious objection has been legally recognized since 1931. Its present legal basis is the 1991 Civilian Alternative Service Act, according to art. 1 of which: "A person liable for military service, affirming that serious conscientious reasons based on religious or ethical conviction prevents him from performing his military service as prescribed by the Military Act (452/50), is exempt from performing it in peacetime and is directed to perform Civilian Alternative Service as prescribed by this Act."

It is not clear how far the right to conscientious objection is recognized in wartime. The Military Service Act states that COs must join in defence in wartime, but it is not clear what kind of service they are supposed to do. According to the government, conscripts are not to be used as combat troops in wartime. [1] [10]

procedure and practice

Applications for CO status must be made in writing to the Ministry of Defence or the commanding officer at the time of call-up. There is no individual examination of applications, which means almost all of them are apparently granted. [1]

Applications may be made while serving, to the conscript's regimental commanding officer. [1]

Also reservists may apply for CO status. Their applications must be made to the commanding officer of the military province. The applicant will be removed from his unit and is no longer required to engage in reserve training. [1]

The draft board and military authorities are obliged to inform conscripts about their right to conscientious objection. The possibility of substitute service is mentioned in the booklet handed out with the call-up notice. CO groups have reported on, actually illegal, restrictions on encouraging substitute service within the armed forces. [1] [6]

substitute service

The length of substitute service is 13 months, having been reduced from 16 months in 1991.

Substitute service is based on the citizen's duty to take part in national defence, as prescribed in the Constitution. According to Section 17 of the 1991 law: "Civilian service is to be arranged so that the individual tasks do not conflict with the convictions of the conscientious objector."

Substitute service is run by the Ministry of Labour. The ministry is assisted by a consultative committee, including representatives of the Ministry of Defence, of the bodies where substitute service may be performed and of the COs performing substitute service. [8]

Substitute service can be performed in government organisations, municipal or community organisations, churches and non-profit-making organisations in the fields of social or health care, education, culture, environmental protection or rescue operations. According to the 1991 law substitute service can be performed in non-governmental organisations, but they must be approved by the Ministry of Labour. According to CO groups, peace and third world organisations are usually not approved. [6]

COs get the same pay as conscripts in the armed forces, but the wages of COs are mostly paid for by their employers. [10]

Substitute service starts off with a two-month course on subjects like peace, internationalism, the environment and skills needed during the perform the substitute service. Representatives of CO-groups may also give lectures. [5]

It is also possible to perform unarmed service within the armed forces for a period of 11 months. This option is not often taken up: in 1994, only 90 conscripts performed unarmed service. [3]

3 Draft evasion and desertion

penalties

Failure to respond to call-up for military service is punishable by 20 days' imprisonment. [3]

Refusal to perform substitute service is punishable by imprisonment of half the length of remaining service time. [8]

total objection

Since the length of substitute service was reduced in 1991 the number of total objectors has decreased significantly from between 30 and 40 to about 5 known cases per year. If a total objector has applied for CO status, he is usually sentenced to imprisonment lasting half the remaining service time (six and a half month if he has not started substitute service yet). On release he won't be called up for service any more. If he has not applied for CO status, he is more likely to be sentenced for refusal to respond to a call-up or desertion, possibly leading to several short terms of imprisonment as the sentence may be repeated in case of repeated refusal. [5] [10]

According to CO groups, in practice many total objectors are exempt from service for medical reasons. Also numerous total objectors are said to have left the country. [2]

5 History

In the 70s conscientious objection became a controversial issue in Finnish society as more and more conscripts applied for CO status and more applications got rejected too. At that time individual examinations of applications still took place, sometimes including a hearing by a tribunal. Many rejected applicants refused to perform military service and were sent to prison, some of them being adopted by Amnesty International as prisoners of conscience - which was a considerable embarrassment to the Finnish authorities.

In 1985 a new law on substitute service was passed. The law was given a trial period of five years, from 1 January 1987 to 31 December 1991. Its purpose was to deal with the problem of holding prisoners of conscience and to reduce the number of conscripts applying for CO status. Accordingly individual consideration of applications came to an end, but substitute service was increased from 12 to 16 months - twice the length of military service. The 1985 law turned out to be very controversial; there were many protests, including strikes by CO groups, and the number of to COs unwilling to perform (parts of) substitute service increased.

According to a 1990 government working-group report, a much lengthier substitute service was needed in order to test the objectors' sincerity, since there was no consideration of individual applications. The length of the substitute service prescribed finally by the 1991 Civilian Alternative Service Act (13 months) seems to have been the result of a compromise between working-group members holding different opinions. [5] [7]

Since the 70s the general attitude in Finnish society towards conscientious objection seems to have changed gradually. Owing to the tradition of conscription during World War, when all Finnish men were called up to fight the Soviet invasion, conscientious objection was looked upon with suspicion for decades. In recent years this has seems to have changed. Since the introduction of the 1991 law the number of CO applications has, in fact, more than doubled. [5] [8]

An indication of the changing attitude towards conscientious objection might be that the son of the Finnish president recently announced that he will apply for CO status; the president himself publicly stated to be proud of his son. [10]

6 Annual statistics

The armed forces comprise 31,000 troops (which is 0.60 percent of the population).

Each year about 33,000 young men reach conscription age. There are 23,000 conscripts in the armed forces. [9]

The following table gives the number of recognized COs in recent years (as a percentage of the number of eligible conscripts): [1]

1988 683 (2.02 %)

1989 882 (2.73 %)

1990 713 (2.00 %)

1991 1052 (3.28 %)

1992 2029 (6.11 %)

1993 1931 (5.64 %)

About 95 percent of applications are granted. [1] [10]

Figures for later years are not available, but it is believed that over 2000 are granted CO status annually. [5] [10]

Sources

[1] Finnish Ministry of Defence 1994. Response to Quaker Council for European Affairs inquiry, 3 May 1994. [2] Kampanjen Mot Verneplikt 1994. Response to Quaker Council for European Affairs inquiry. [3] Hämäläinen, Jukka 1995. Country report Finland, in: Conscientious Objection to Military Service - a Human Right, documentation of the Conference of European Churches on "Conscientious Objection and Peace Service", 9-14 October 1995 in Minsk. Conference on European Churches (CEC) / EAK, Geneva/Bremen. [4] Maeland, Henry John 1993 Accommodation of Conscience - The Scandinavian Experience. [5] Reports by Finnish Union of Conscientious Objectors to the International Conscientious Objectors' Meeting 1993-1994. [6] Finnish Union of Conscientious Objectors 1992. Civilian Service Shortened in Finland. Helsinki. [7] Amnesty International 1991. Conscientious objection to military service. AI, London. [8] UN Commission on Human Rights, 1992. Report of the Secretary-General prepared pursuant to Commission resolution 1991/65. United Nations, Geneva. [9] Institute for Strategic Studies 1997. Military Balance 1997/98. ISS, London. [10] Hämäläinen, Jukka 1997. Country report Finland, in: Conscientious objection in Europe: ways of freedom of conscience for COs in European countries, Documentation of a conference October 1997, Connection e.V., Offenbach.

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