Release conscientious objectors Ayelet Brachfeld and Mattan Helman
Use this form to send the letter below to the relevant authority (Minister of Defence Avigdor Lieberman). You can add your own notes in a separate box after the standard text, if you wish. You must include a name, address, and email address; a copy will be sent to you with a cc to the WRI office (so we have a record of how many email letters have been sent out for this particular case).
Dear Avigdor Lieberman,
Ayelet Brachfeld and Mattan Helman are currently in prison for their refusal to join the Israeli military. This is Mattan's seventh imprisonment, and Ayelet's third. They claim their human right to conscientious objection as guaranteed by Article 18 of the ICCPR. In a decision from January 2007, the United Nations Human Rights Committee recognised the right to conscientious objection as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, as guaranteed by Article 18 ICCPR.
Repeated imprisonment is a violation of international legal standards. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in opinion 24/2003 on Israel came to the conclusion that the repeated imprisonment of conscientious objectors in Israel is arbitrary, and therefore it constitutes a violation of 14 par 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Israel is a signatory.
I urge you to immediately release Ayelet Brachfeld and Mattan Helman, all other conscientious objectors, and ensure that they are not re-imprisoned in the future.
Yours sincerely,
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