Right to Refuse to Kill

In February, War Resisters’ International, Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) and International Fellowship for Reconciliation (IFOR) started a new webinar series on campaigning for conscientious to military service. The webinars included presentations from activists and experts from different countries. They also included some case studies and testimonies from CO's around the world. The presentations (in English, Spanish and some in Turkish) are now available on the Refuse to Kill Youtube Channel.   

An open letter signed by a coalition of human rights groups, including Child Rights International Network, Amnesty International UK and Human Rights Watch, urged the defence Ministry to stop recruiting children aged under 18.

At the beginning of 2021, the Salvadorian government, while discussing possible reforms to the Constitution, raised the possibility of establishing compulsory military service. The Ombudsman urged the government not to include the compulsory military service issue in this discussion. More recently, the Ministry of Justice and Security announced that it’s planning to increase, within five years, from 20,000 to 40,000 the number of members of the Armed Forces which raised again the question around the compulsory military that at the moment is voluntary.

When in some countries conscientious objection has been recognised and in others, conscientious objectors continue to be imprisoned, some governments are considering introducing compulsory military service for women covering it up with gender equality and anti-discrimination discourses. This has been the case for countries like México, Colombia, the United States and more recently in South Korea and Switzerland.

War Resisters' International, together with Connection e.V. and Union Pacifiste de France, released a new publication, Conscientious Objection in Turkey. The booklet, published in English, Turkish, French and German, includes articles on the situation of conscientious objectors in Turkey, the history of the conscientious objection movement in the country, as well as the experiences of COs from Turkey who sought asylum in other countries. 

Conscientious objectors to military service continue to be imprisoned in many countries today. WRI regularly updates its list of imprisoned conscientious objectors and organise solidarity for them. In this story, you will see conscientious objectors who are known to be behind bars or serving in labour camps by June 2021.

On Monday (12th July), Ukrainian Pacifist Movement organised a protest near Turkish embassy in Kyiv in support of conscientious objectors in Turkey. In their statement, they said “Turkey does not recognize human right to conscientious objection, enforce conscription with outrageous cruelty and severely punish objectors, imposing fines and imprisonment for so-called desertion, excluding pacifists from social life to a degree of "civil death," closing their bank accounts, depriving them of access to public services.” 

Join us on 7th July, Wednesday (5pm CEST), for a discussion with campaigners and conscientious objectors from Turkey. To register and find more info read our story.

WRI strongly condemns the brutal attacks against conscientious objector Ruslan Kotsaba and stands in solidarity with him. We also join the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement (UPM) in their call to the authorities to investigate the attacks against Kotsaba thoroughly and take necessary steps to ensure his and other UPM activists’ safety. 

For the first time, the Supreme Court of South Korea upheld a lower court's acquittal of a conscientious objector who refused to perform military service due to his personal convictions other than religious convictions based on Jehovah Witness belief. 

Conscientious Objection Association (Turkey) released the English edition of their latest bulletin, covering updates on conscientious objection to military service in Turkey from March and April 2021. 

The bulletin includes information on the rights violations of conscientious objectors in Turkey as well as the legal cases followed by the association.

Our webinar series, Campaigning for Conscientious Objection to Military Service, continues with a new event on 16th June (4pm London, 5pm Geneva).

This time, we will have a particular focus on conscientious objection and asylum. On our webinar: