Conscientious objection
Published by deviousdiva May 29th, 2006 in Conscientious Objection.A recent report from Amnesty international on the issue of conscientious objection:
Conscientious objectors in Greece are still facing repeated prosecution for their beliefs. Amnesty International calls on the Greek authorities to amend conscription legislation in line with international standards and to bring to an end the repeated prosecutions against individual conscientious objectors, in accordance with the international legal principle “no one shall be liable to be tried or punished again for an offence for which he has already been finally convicted or acquitted”
The report looks in detail at three cases. The first covers the punitive length of alternative service:
Lazaros Petromelidis, 43, is the President of the Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors and is married with one child. He first objected to military service on grounds of conscience in 1992 and has been repeatedly prosecuted and convicted for insubordination since then
The second covers the case of a professional soldier refusing to go to Iraq. In his public refusal he said:
I refuse on grounds of conscience to participate in or contribute by any means to the relentless massacre of the Iraqi people… My refusal is also a minimal act of solidarity with the Iraqi people as well as to the peaceful sentiments of the Greek people
The third case looks at conscientious objection on religious grounds.
The convictions of these Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objectors are in violation of their right to change their religious beliefs and develop a conscientious objection even if they have joined the armed forces in the past. Amnesty International urges the Greek authorities to cease all such prosecutions and to recognize these persons’ right to adopt new religious beliefs at any time in their life and to develop a conscientious objection
For the full report click here
Technorati Tags: greece, conscientious objection
Let me remind fellow bloggers that the Greek Constitution states the following:
Article 4
(6) Every Greek able to bear arms shall be obliged to assist in the defence of the nation, as provided by law.
To object is illegal under the Greek constitution. Remember, this is the same constitution used to defend the rights of Karahasan.
Does a nation like Hellas cede some of its sovereignty by changing its constitution to satisfy a suprantional body such as Amnesty International?
Does Amnesty take into account that defensive measures of some nations are different than others?
Is issuing a report on such an issue offensive to Greek people on the day of the 511th anniversary of the last gasp of freedom on the walls of Constantinople before they were occupied for over 400 years?
But Amnesty is making recommendations of the changes that should be made to the law so that Greece is in line with UN resolutions. Specifically the following:
Reduce the length of alternative, civilian service so that it is no longer of a punitive and discriminatory duration, in line with UN Resolution 1998/77 Article 6 which states that "States, in their law and practice, must not discriminate against conscientious objectors in relation to their terms and conditions of service, or any economic, cultural, civil or political rights";
Ensure that conscientious objectors have the right to claim conscientious objector status at any time, both up to and after entering the armed forces, in accordance with UN Commission on Human Rights resolutions 1993/84 and 1998/77
Ensure that alternative civilian service falls under entirely civilian authority (including the examination of applications for conscientious objectors), as stipulated in Article 3 of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Resolution 1998/77 which "calls upon States that do not have such a system to establish independent and impartial decision-making bodies with the task of determining whether a conscientious objection is genuinely held in a specific case, taking account of the requirement not to discriminate against conscientious objectors on the basis of the nature of their particular beliefs"