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The International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth starts this Saturday! For the sixth time, activists from across different countries will be organising events to raise awareness on how the military and military values are promoted to young people, and how we can challenge it.

This year has been perhaps the most crucial year for conscientious objectors in Greece since the establishment of alternative civilian service in 1997-1998. After years of efforts, there was an opportunity for significant changes. Certain improvements in the legislative framework were achieved but the most important one, the reduction of the length of alternative civilian service was quickly annulled after the summer general elections by the new right-wing Greek government.

Trump outlined a strategy for securing the Southern Border that included peddling the idea that as president, he would build a large wall to keep out dangerous migrants (read: poor and of color) from the United States. This strategy of building border walls, which was significantly expanded under Presidents Bush, Clinton, and Bush Jr., has created a human rights disaster that barely gets any reasonable attention in United States media.

In Turkmenistan, appeals of two conscientious objectors against their one-year jail terms for refusing compulsory military service were rejected. Nine conscientious objectors are now jailed, six of them in 2019. The United Nations ruled that Turkmenistan violated the rights of three more conscientious objectors jailed in 2013.

Conscientious Objection Association (Turkey) member Furkan Çelik was indicted by the Office of Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor on charges of "alienating the public from military service." Furkan Çelik was accused in relation to the social media posts on CO Association's Twitter account.

In the year thus far, the growing military presence in the south-western territories of Cauca, Colombia, has put various communities, which make up the ancestral lands in which they inhabit, at great risk. The reports lodged by the CRIS- the Regional Indigenous Board of Cauca- have been many, and these complaints have been ignored and unaddressed by the Colombian government.

We are asking for your contributions for our new booklet on understanding the militarised video games industry and how to counter this narrative. How have video games become a tool for militarism? How we can counter the militarised narrative promoted by the video games industry? Send your pieces to us latest by 10th November.

On 23-29 November this year, activists from across the world are taking action against the militarisation of young people in their countries, cities and towns. Join us this November in the International Week of Action Against the Militarisation of Youth with your own nonviolent actions and events!

An Ashgabad court jailed 20-year-old Azat Ashirov for two years on 31 July for refusing compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. He had set out his objections in writing and offered to perform an alternative civilian service. Ashirov's jailing brings to seven the number of Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors known - as of 5 September - to be serving jail terms of between one and four years. Six of them are imprisoned at the Labour Camp at Seydi in the eastern Lebap Region.

A new report on Eritrea published by Human Rights Watch documents the devastating effects of the conscription system on the lives of young Eritreans. In Eritrea, all secondary school students —male and female— are forced to undergo military training to complete their final year. They are sent to Sawa military camp where they follow a schedule combining secondary school classes with compulsory military training.