International Conscientious Objection Day

Today, 15th May, is International Conscientious Objectors Day! Around the world activists are using this joint day of action as an opportunity to raise awareness of conscientious objection, to highlight particular movements for conscientious objection now, and strengthen the international network that is active around 15th May.

Right to conscientious objection still not guaranteed in Europe

Amnesty International, marking the International Conscientious Objectors Day, renews its call on all states to recognise the right to conscientious objection to military service. Nearly two years ago the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that states must respect the right to conscientious objection as part of their obligation to respect the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, bringing European law in line with international human rights standards.

Today is International Conscientious Objectors day: http://www.wri-irg.org/COsDay2013. Around the world, campaigners are raising awareness of the people who continue to be persecuted and imprisoned for refusing to kill, as well as remembering the generations who refused to go to war.

Connections and discon­nections: anti­militarism, feminism, women, conscientious objection and contra-hegemonic sexualities – 10/11 May 2010

As part of the activities for 15 May 2010, an inter­national seminar will take place in Asunción, Para­guay, on 10 and 11 May 2010, organised by La comuna de Emma, Chana Y Todas las Demas in coope­ration with a range of other groups from Paraguay and Latin America.

South Korea was War Resisters' International's focus for International Conscientious Objection Day 2009 - 15 May. Jointly with the Korean organisations Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection (KSCO) and World Without War (WWW), WRI had organised an international meeting and training of conscientious objectors in Seoul, with participants from Eritrea, Germany, Finland, Macedonia, Israel, Puerto Rico, Spain, and South Korea.

International Conscientious Objectors' Day is observed around the world on 15th of May. It has been observed with nonviolent actions since 1986. This year the focus of the day is on South Korean conscientious objectors' (CO) poor human rights situation. International Conscientious Objectors' Day is organized by War Resisters' International (WRI) and its affiliated organizations.
 South Korea does not recognise the right to conscientious objection. Objectors to military service are sentenced to 18 months in prison. On March 31st , 458 COs were serving their sentences.


Without question, were I to face call-up again, I would again object to military service. However, at the same time, I don't ever want to be put into prison again.

At the time of writing this appeal, more than 450 conscientious objectors are serving prison sentences of usually 18 months in South Korea. Since 1939 more than 15,000 conscientious objectors have been to prison in the country, which up still does not recognise the right to conscientious objection.

I have an American friend who used to stay in Korea a few years ago. And I remember once he said to me that his family in the USA would often tell him to come back before a war would happen between North and South Korea. After hearing what his family said to him, I realised that people outside Korea thought about a war or a military tension even more than the people living in Korea did. (...)

To be liberated or to be incarcerated? It is an unavoidably acute question. The world we live in, at the global level, is constantly at war. Not surprisingly, as of the beginning of January 2009, we can see the war currently continuing in Gaza. The 20th century is remembered as an age of wars and presumably so will be the 21st. The US government started the 'war on terror' against Iraq after the 11 September attacks. The Iraq war was nothing but another dreadful war. Not only were the nation state of Iraq and the terrorists deemed to be enemies of the US, but the US clearly declared this was a war against evil. Clarifying who is evil requires great care.

On 1 December 1 2005, I called a press conference to declare my conscientious objection to military service, with two other conscientious objectors. Since I became active in a university student movement, I had been thinking of becoming a conscientious objector, not as a pacifist but as a radical statement of resistance to the State. Interestingly enough, only after my decision to become a conscientious objector did I begin to try to live as a pacifist.

I participated in student movements during my college years. That experience influenced me even after I graduated, and I felt very uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a soldier loyal to his country. I not only found it difficult to follow orders from any superior without questioning, but was most afraid of the forceful and violent nature of the military culture that builds up the sense of hierarchy.

South Koreas conscien­tious objectors have been very successful in using the United Nations human rights system, but so far did not achieve the right to conscientious objection in their own country.