On 8 July, Olga Karach was one of five Belorussian oppositionists sentenced (in their absence) to 12 years in prison. The charges included ‘conspiracy to seize power by unconstitutional means’, ‘promotion of extremist activity’ and ‘discrediting the Republic of Belarus’.
Olga is known to PN readers for her human rights and anti-conscription work with the international centre for civil initiatives, Nash Dom (‘Our House’). She lives in exile in Lithuania, which has…
The first major policy announcement of the British general election campaign came from the Conservative prime minister. Rishi Sunak announced his intention, if re-elected, to set up compulsory ‘National Service’ for 18-year-olds.
This would involve either 12 months’ full-time military service (for perhaps 30,000 young people, who would be selected) or 25 days’ voluntary work in the community over a year for the other 90 percent of 18-year-olds.
The plan, which seems aimed at…
On 15 May, the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement’s executive secretary Yurii Sheliazhenko set fire to a draft card at the start of the group’s online gathering for International Conscientious Objectors’ Day. UPM said: ‘[D]espite some fair judgments in favor of conscientious objectors and pacifists... the majority of judicial practice in Ukraine illegally condones political repressions.’ Yurii himself is facing an unjust prosecution (see PN 2671). In the UK, there were events in Bury St…
Please write a letter of support for 21-year-old Mikita Sviryd, who deserted from the Belarusian army in May 2022 over the Ukraine War and fled to Lithuania. Mikita has unfortunately failed his claim for asylum in Lithuania.
The Lithuania-based human rights group ‘Our House’ (‘Nash Dom’) is collecting letters of support to present to Mikita’s appeal court.
A suggested text is on the PN blog or you can…
PN has received this request for letters of support for a Belorussian deserter who did not want to become involved in the Russian war against Ukraine. The text of a draft letter of support is below.
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23 May 2024
Dear friends!
In May 2022, 19-year-old Belarusian Mikita Sviryd ran away from the…
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace formula declares a commitment to democracy. And real democracy, as dialogue-driven nonviolent governance, could indeed put an end to all wars in the world, if pursued seriously. But Ukrainian people in many ways, formally and informally, are left with no choice other than subordination to military command, despite public opinion polls that reveal disgust with military dictatorship.
Ukraine could not defeat Russian aggression by suffocating civil…
More than 30 organisations across Europe have called for a week of action leading up to 10 December, International Human Rights Day, pressing for protection for all those who refuse military service in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
The #ObjectWarCampaign coalition, which includes Connection eV (International Support of Conscientious Objectors and Deserters), the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) and War Resisters International, is urging the European Union to open its…
On 20 September, the prosecution failed to appear in court in Kyiv to begin its case against Ukrainian pacifist Yurii Sheliazhenko.
Yurii, executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, has been told he will be charged with ‘justifying Russian aggression’. His flat was raided on 3 August and he has been given a night-time curfew (10pm – 6am) until 11 October (though he is allowed to leave for an air raid shelter if there is an attack, or for medical assistance).
Yurii…
[Lying on the Red Sea coast in North East Africa,] Eritrea is a former Italian colony, and it was federated to Ethiopia after Italy lost the Second World War to allied forces. Haile Selassie [emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 – 1974] broke the agreement by forcing Eritrea to be annexed. Therefore, in 1961, the 30-year war for independence broke out, this became the longest conflict in Africa.
Eritrea and Eritreans were isolated during the war of independence and the outlook of Eritreans…
In Ukraine, Mykhailo Yavorsky, a 40-year-old Christian from the southwestern city of Ivano- Frankivsk, is out on bail, preparing to appeal against a one-year jail term handed down on 6 April for refusing military service on grounds of conscience, reports Forum 18.
Ukraine has suspended the right to conscientious objection (including the right to alternative service) – something that has been denounced by the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO).
‘I adhere to the…
Rather than pouring fuel on the flames by sending more and more weapons, the government should be supporting those resisting war and welcoming conscientious objectors in the UK.
British prime minister Rishi Sunak and the home secretary Suella Braverman should offer asylum to Russians who refuse to be part of the war in Ukraine.
Since the invasion of Ukraine began, calls to offer asylum to Russian objectors have been backed by MPs including Labour’s Lloyd Russell Moyle and the…
Raised Voices sing songs by Sue Gilmurray and Holly Near in front of the Conscientious Objectors commemorative stone at the National Conscientious Objectors Day event in Tavistock Square, Central London, on 15 May 2023. A message from Belarusian peace activist Olga Karach was played at the ceremony.
Ukrainian conscientious objector Vitaliy Alexeienko had his appeal rejected on 16 January and is believed to have been imprisoned shortly afterwards by order of an appeal court in Ivano-Frankivsk in Western Ukraine. Ukraine has suspended the right of conscientious objection.
Vitaliy, 46, had told the authorities last June that he refused to be conscripted into the Ukrainian army because of his pacifist religious beliefs.
He said that he was willing to take up alternative…
A European-wide petition calling to protect the rights of conscientious objectors (COs) on all sides of the Ukraine conflict was launched on 21 September, the UN International Day of Peace.
The petition calls for protection and asylum for deserters and conscientious objectors from Belarus and the Russian Federation. It urges the Ukrainian government to stop prosecuting conscientious objectors, instead granting them internationally-guaranteed rights.
It challenges all nations…
Messages of solidarity were sent around the globe on 15 May, as protests and vigils were held to mark International Conscientious Objectors’ Day.
Countries such as Colombia and Turkey saw demonstrations calling for the abolition of conscription. Peace campaigners in countries from Spain to Japan sent messages of support to conscientious objectors in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
In Finland, protests against conscription were combined with demonstrations against the Finnish…
