European Bureau for Conscientious Objection

“The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection publishes today its Annual Report on Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Europe 2020, in honour of Jean Van Lierde (1926-2006) who was born on 15^th February, the most famous Belgian conscientious objector and first EBCO President”, EBCO’s Vice-President Sam Biesemans stated today.

“After decades of lobbying and campaigning, it’s now a reality! Nuclear weapons have now become illegal under international law. This is a ground breaking step towards a world free of nuclear weapons!”, Alexia Tsouni, EBCO president stated today.

The retrial of Ukrainian journalist, pacifist and conscientious objector Ruslan Kotsaba started yesterday, and what is more, he was attacked by a far-right mob and sprayed with a fire extinguisher with the mob chanting “Death to the enemies! Ukraine above all!”

Ukrainian journalist, conscientious objector and a member of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement Ruslan Kotsaba will be on trial again on Friday (22nd January) for a video he posted in 2015 in which he was calling to boycott military mobil

On 5 January 2021 sixty Israeli teenagers published an open letter addressed to top Israeli officials, in which they declared their refusal to serve in the army in protest of its policies of occupation and apartheid.

Four panel sessions of an informed debate on conscientious objection from legal, philosophical, theological and religious perspectives, and finally

a discussion on how legislators and governments in liberal democracies should react to claims of conscience.

Online event

You can now watch online the original french version of the documentary "Maurice Montet: conscientious objector and integral pacifist" here

It was published by FemArtAct today, on 1/1/2021, to honor the 100 years of War Resisters' International!

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Vous pouvez désormais visionner en ligne la version originale française du documentaire "Maurice Montet: objecteur de conscience et pacifiste intégral" ici

Pol Pareja, Barcelona, ​​December 24, 2020

A group of young men stood before military service on Christmas night in 1975 and with them began a fight that would involve tens of thousands of people over 30 years.

OPEN LETTER  To:  Court Stadtrayongericht Kolomyja, Gebiet Iwano-Frankiwsk 78200 Kolomyja, Hruschewskyj-Prospekt 29 E-Mail:inbox@kmm.if.court.gov.ua  

Cc:    Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, hotline@ombudsman.gov.ua 

Office of General Prosecutor, zvern@gp.gov.ua  Security Service of Ukraine, callcenter@ssu.gov.ua  

10 December 2020, the court in Kolomyya scheduled hearings in a criminal case of Ruslan Kotsaba, the journalist and pacifist who published in 2015 video blog calling to boycott mobilization for armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine. 

À l'occasion de la Journée internationale des Droits de l'Homme, le 10 décembre 2020, l'Union Pacifiste de France (UPF), le BEOC-EBCO et la WRI-IRG co-organisent la première du documentaire "Maurice Montet: objecteur de conscience et pacifiste intégral".

Vous pouvez vous joindre à cet événement en ligne le vendredi 11 décembre à 18h00, heure de Paris, en cliquant sur le lien Zoom suivant:

Today, 1st December, is Prisoners for Peace Day, a chance to show solidarity with conscientious objectors imprisoned for their refusal to take up arms, and those activists imprisoned for their resistance to war and militarism.

EBCO held its General Assembly 2020 today (this time online due to the COVID-19), bringing together conscientious objectors and activists from national and international organisations in a number of countries: Belgium, Cyprus (both from the Republic and the northern part), Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Catalonia/Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

QUNO is undertaking a project which aims to analyse specific countries’ refugee status determination guidance. This project wishes to understand whether guidance on refugee status determination and conscientious objection to military service (thematic or on specific countries) are in line with human rights law and UNHCR guidance, and to understand how this is applied in different contexts. For this reason, QUNO requires access to guidance, if existing, provided by different countries.

On the 7th of September 2020 the Grand Chamber panel of the European Court of Human Rights rejected the request to refer the case of Dyagilev v. Russia (no. 49972/16) to the Grand Chamber, thus rendering thejudgement of 10 March 2020 final.