Conscientious objection

The South Korean Constitutional Court ruled against conscientious objectors on 26 August 2004. This ruling is in line with an earlier ruling of the Supreme Court from 15 July, in which the court stated that "individual freedom of conscience can't be more important than accepting calls of duty for the defense of their own country". The court said seeking freedom of conscience as a member of society can only be admitted when the person follows the rules that others follow.

From 8-18 August 2004, WRI's CO Campaigning Worker visited South Korea, where he took part in a peace camp organised by Solidarity for Peace and Human Rights, one of the main groups behind Korea Solidarity for Conscientious Objection (KSCO).

This is the first issue of WRI's new CO UPDATE email newsletter. The newsletter is produced by WRI's The Right to Refuse to Kill programme, in cooperation with the Myrtle Solomon Memorial Trust.

This new email newsletter will provide information on new developments regarding conscription, military service, and conscientious objection. In this way it complements and updates WRI's report Refusing to bear arms, published in 1998.

This is the complete version of the Constitutional Court Decision. Here you can find a summary

Decision

This is a summary of the Constitutional Court Decision. Here you can find the full version

Background of the Case

CCPR/CO/81/SEMO
12 August 2004

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21. The Committee takes note of the information provided by the delegation whereby conscientious objection is governed by a provisional decree, which is to be replaced by a law, which will recognize full conscientious objection to military service and an alternative civil service that will have the same duration as military service (art. 18).

From Peace News Jun-Aug 2004

For the third time, War Resisters' International organised an international training and action for International Conscientious Objectors' Day. After the Balkans and Israel, the focus of this years' activities was Chile and Latin America - with the central activities taking place in Santiago de Chile. Andreas Speck, WRI's CO Campaigning Worker reports from Santiago.

This is the complete version of the Decision on Conscientious Objection of the Supreme Court of South Korea. Here you can find a summary

Decision

Case: 2004Do2965, Violation of the Military Service Act
Defendant: Myung-Jin Choi (8xxxxx-xxxxxxx), Unemployed
Address: 1060, 2-Ka, Kumho-Dong, Seongdong-Ku, Seoul
Petitioner: Defendant
Counsel Listed on the Addendum
Trial Court Holding: Eastern District Court of Seoul 2004.4.28. Judgment 2004No79 Decision
Date of Judgment: July 15, 2004

The Court Order

Petition is denied. (Affirmed.)

This is a summarised version of the Supreme Court Decision. Here you can see the full version

2004Do2965 Delivered on July 15, 2004*

Violation of the Military Service Act Main Issues

[1] The meaning of a "justifiable cause" under Article 88(1) of the Military Service Act, a punishment provision for evasion of enlistment
[2] The scope of protection and the nature of the freedom of conscience under Article 19 of the Constitution

The ruling of the Korean Supreme Court is in breach of the International Covenant on Civil and Political RightsWar Resisters' International, the international network of pacifist organisations with affiliates in more than 40 countries, regrets the decision of the South Korean Supreme Court to uphold the conviction of a conscientious objector.

Service required to replace military service

In its last conclusion, the Committee considered that the duration of the service that replaced compulsory military service was excessive (Conclusions XVI-1, pp. 98). The report refers in this respect to a document that was to have been forwarded to the Committee by the Ministry of Defence but of which there is no trace. It therefore considers that the situation has not changed.

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Source: http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/Conclusions/State/Cy…