The Greek government of SYRIZA should honor its promises about reduction of the length of alternative civilian service

Open letter of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) to the Alternate Minister of National Defence of Greece

To: Alternate Minister of National Defence of Greece, Mr. Panagiotis Rigas

CC: UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Mr. Ahmed Shaheed, Mr. Christos Karagiannidis, MP

Dear Mr. Rigas,

As it has been pointed out in advance by EBCO, the recent law 4609/2019 introduced only minor changes to the relevant legislation, and failed to bring the Greek legislation about conscientious objectors in line with the international human rights law and standards. As for the specific aspect of the length, as it has been pointed out also by other NGOs including Amnesty International,[1] as well as official institutions, such as the Greek National Commission for Human Rights,[2] the new law did not guarantee any reduction in the actual length of alternative service, as it only extended the discretionary power of the Minister of National Defence to reduce it further than the previous lower limit.

Currently, the actual length remains the same as it was before the law 4609/2019: for those due to perform full service, the length of alternative civilian service is still 15 months. Therefore, compared to 9 months of military service for the vast majority of conscripts serving in the Army, the length of alternative civilian service remains punitive and discriminatory, as it has been previously pointed out, inter alia, by the UN Human Rights Committee[3] and consequently by the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.[4]

During the period of discussion of the bill, both the Alternate Minister of National Defence,[5] as well as the rapporteur of the bill of the governing SYRIZA party[6] have stated that the length of (full) alternative service will be reduced by 3 months, from 15 to 12 months.

Worth noting that such a reduction would mean that the length of alternative service would still be 3 months longer than the length of military service for the vast majority of conscripts and thus punitive as it would fail to comply with repeated resolutions of the European Parliament, both in general[7] and specifically in the case of Greece,[8] that the length of alternative civilian should be of the same length as military service. But it would certainly be an important step towards the right direction.

However, a month and a half has passed since the publication of the law 4609/2019 at Government’s Gazette (A 67) and there has been no such ministerial decision to reduce the length of alternative civilian service.

In view of the imminent end of the current term of the government of SYRIZA, the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection urges the Alternate Minister of National Defence of Greece, Mr. Panagiotis Rigas and the government in general to honor their promises about reduction of the length of alternative civilian service to 12 months for full service, and equivalently for the categories of reduced service, as a step towards respecting international law.  

Yours sincerely,

Friedhelm Schneider

President of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection

 

[1] Amnesty International, “Greece: Observations on the right to conscientious objection - “serious violations of Greece’s obligations towards conscientious objectors remain unaddressed in proposed bill despite some positive steps””, 20 March 2019, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur25/0088/2019/en/

[2] (in Greek) Παρατηρήσεις επί των άρθρων 18, 21 και 22 του Σχεδίου Νόμου του Υπουργείου Εθνικής Άμυνας "Ρυθμίσεις Μέριμνας Προσωπικού Ενόπλων Δυνάμεων, Στρατολογίας, Στρατιωτικής Δικαιοσύνης και άλλες διατάξεις" (Αντιρρησίες Συνείδησης), 19.3.2019.

[3] UN Human Rights Committee, Concluding observations on the second periodic report of Greece, 3.12.2015, CCPR/C/GRC/CO/2, paras. 37-38. Available at: https://undocs.org/CCPR/C/GRC/CO/2

[4] UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Communication GRC 3/2016, 31.10.2016. Available at: https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=22834

[5] E.g. Interview of the Alternate Minster of National Defence to the Radio Station “Agency 104,9 FM” of the Athens News Agency – Macedonian News Agency, as reported by Avgi newspaper, 13 March 2019. http://www.avgi.gr/article/10845/9674950/p-regas-me-koinoniko-prosemo-to-n-s-gia-to-prosopiko-ton-enoplon-dynameon

[6] Second speech of the Rapporteur of the SYRIZA party for the relevant bill, Mr. Christos Karagiannidis, Session of 18 April 2019.

[7] European Parliament, Resolution on respect for human rights in the European Community (annual report of the European Parliament), (Α3-0025/93), 11 March 1993, para. 51, as it has been published in the Official Journal of the European Communities C 115, 26 April 1993, Minutes of the sitting of Thursday, 11 March 1993, page 183. Resolution on conscientious objection in the Member States of the Community, (Α3-0411/93), 19 January 1994, para. 9, as it has been published in the Official Journal of the European Communities C 44, 14 February 1994, Minutes of the sitting of Wednesday, 19 January 1994, page 105.

[8] Resolution on the situation concerning basic rights in the European Union (2001) (2001/2014(INI)), para 42, text adopted on 15 January 2003, available at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P5-TA-2003-0012+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN

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