Interfaith Activism
Conscientious Objectors
Amnesty International is concerned about soldiers and reservists around the world who have been detained because of their refusal to perform their military service.
Amnesty International considers a conscientious objector to be any person liable to conscription for military service or registration for conscription to military service who refuses to perform armed service or any other direct or indirect participation in wars or armed conflicts for reasons of conscience or profound conviction. Their profound conviction may arise from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical, political or similar motives, and may be "selective," omitting a requirement of a strict pacifist position or opposition to all armed conflict.
 Five israelis from right to left: Shimri Tzameret, Noam Bahat, Adam Maor, Hagai Matar and Matan Kaminer stand outside an Israeli military court in Jaffa soutern Tel Aviv, January, 2004 after appearing in court. A military tribunal sentenced them to a year in prison for refusing to serve in the occupied Palestinian territories. (© AFP) |
The right to conscientious objection also extends to those individuals who have already been conscripted into the military service, as well as to soldiers serving in professional armies who have developed a conscientious objection after joining the armed forces.
Wherever such a person is detained or imprisoned solely because they have been refused their right to register an objection or to perform a genuinely alternative service, Amnesty International will adopt that person as a prisoner of conscience.
The right to conscientious objection to military service is not a marginal concern outside the mainstream of international human rights protection and promotion. It is a basic component of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion - as articulated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Amnesty International believes that all conscientious objectors should be given the opportunity to perform an alternative civilian service that is not punitive in length and that is of purely civilian character and under civilian control.