Editorial

Welcome to CO-Update No 17, our first issue in 2006 - and so although a bit late also my best wishes for the year 2006 to everybody. We had originally planned to send out an issue of CO-Update between Christmas and New Year, but staff illness made this impossible. But with this issue we are back on schedule, and will hopefully keep on schedule now.

The recent European Court of Human Rights judgement on Osman Murat Ülke is encouraging, and we can only hope that it will in the medium term force Turkey to recognise the right to conscientious objection. What it has achieved so far is to put the issue on the political agenda in Turkey.

Similarly the National Human Rights Commission of Korea's recommendation to recognise the right to CO in South Korea generated quite some debate in the country at the end of last year. Let's hope that this is a good start for the right to CO in 2006, and that we will have more good news this year than we had last year.

Andreas Speck