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military service

Webinar on conscientious objection to military service in Turkey

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Webinar on conscientious objection to military service in Turkey

Update, the webinar has been moved to Saturday 21st November at 3pm CET

Sat 21st NOV 2020 - 15:00

Date and time: November 21, 2020, 3pm CET

Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Turkey

This autumn the Conscientious Objection Association (Vicdani Ret Derneği) in Istanbul has launched a new project. The association would like to start a campaign and lobby work to gather international support for pushing the human right to conscientious objection in Turkey. The project also includes research and documentation of the particularly difficult situation of draft evaders and conscientious objectors (COs).

In Turkey, the right to conscientious objection is not recognised and COs face a lifetime persecution, with repeated charges. Alongside hundreds of thousands of draft evaders, conscientious objectors face “civil death”, which means they cannot work legally with social security, travel freely, vote in elections or stand for an office, as well as being charged with multiple fines for not attending the military. In other words, they are robbed off their civil rights. The situation hasn’t changed despite multiple decisions by the European Court for Human Rights prosecuting Turkey for its treatment of COs.

We invite you to participate in a webinar where we will discuss:

  • The general situation of conscientious objectors in Turkey today,

  • The project of the Conscientious Objection Association,

  • How to develop and strengthen the campaign for COs.

Please register here (no later than 5th November)https://wri-irg.org/en/story/2020/registration-form-conscientious-objec…

This webinar is organised by Connection e.V.War Resisters’ InternationalVicdani Ret DerneğiEuropean Bureau for Conscientious ObjectionInternational Fellowship of Reconciliation

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IFOR submits report on Lithuania to the Human Rights Committee (123rd Session)

Lithuania reintroduced conscription to military service in 2015 for males 19 years of age and older. Although the government provides alternative to service, IFOR submits a report to the Human Rights Committee expressing concern about the ways these alternatives are militaristic in nature. These alternatives illustrate the way government institutions often circumvent the international right to conscientious objection.    

Read the full report

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