Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Finland

CCPR/CO/82/FIN
2 December 2004

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14. The Committee regrets that the right to conscientious objection is acknowledged only in peacetime, and that the civilian alternative to military service is punitively long. It reiterates its concern at the fact that the preferential treatment accorded to Jehovah's Witnesses has not been extended to other groups of conscientious objectors.

The State party should fully acknowledge the right to conscientious objection and, accordingly, guarantee it both in wartime and in peacetime; it should also end the discrimination inherent in the duration of alternative civilian service and the categories that can benefit from it (arts. 18 and 26 of the Covenant).

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Source: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G04/449/95/PDF/G0444995.pdf?OpenElement