Standing up at the United Nations for conscientious objectors’s right to refuse to participate in the war in Ukraine
UN Human Rights Council, 57th Session
(28.03.2025) On Friday March 28th 2025 the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights presented his report on the situation of human rights in Ukraine at the United Nations in Geneva.
Following several Member states taking the floor in the plenary of the Human Rights Council to comment and address questions to the High Commissioner, Connection e.V., together with War Resisters International, delivered an oral statement which also reported the names of several conscientious objectors to military service who are currently persecuted, sentenced or forcibly recruited, in violation of the non-derogability of art. 18 even at time of war, as reminded by the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the beginning of the 58th session of the Human Rights, a couple of weeks ago.
The statement prepared by Connection e.V. mentioned as well the Venice Commission’s opinion on alternative (non-military) service requested by the Ukrainian Constitutional Court which is available here.
The European Commission for Democracy through Law - better known as the Venice Commission, is the Council of Europe’s advisory body on constitutional matters. More info are available here.
You can watch the interactive dialogue here.
Statement by WRI and Connection e.V. as pdf-file
Mr. President,
War Resisters’ International (WRI), together with its partner Connection e.V., thanks the High Commissioner for the report.
We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine suffering from the Russian aggression1 and call on the international community for a concrete genuine support to stop this war.
We are concerned for the forced conscription in the occupied territories and the imprisonment and torture of objectors reported by the Commission of Inquiry2
We are also concerned for the de facto not recognition of the human right to conscientious objection to military service in Ukraine.
Prisoners of conscience Dmytro Zelinsky3, Vitalii Kryushenko4 and Serhy Semchuk5 should be immediately released, as well as conscientious objectors detained in military units, such as the pastor Oleksandr Solonet6. We are concerned by the prison sentencing of objectors like Valentyn Adamchuk7, and appeal for their acquittal. We welcome the response from the Venice Commission to the Ukrainian Constitutional Court request clarifying that CO has to be provided for even in times of war and thus conscientious objectors should not be compelled to bear or use arms [during war]8.
It’s concerning that conscientious objectors are being denied public trial9, and that the parliament is about to adopt in a second reading a draft bill making the judgments in their cases secret10.
We share the concerns of the Ukrainian Parliament Human Rights Commissioner regarding systemic human rights violations by military recruiters during mobilization, [such as arbitrary deprivation of liberty, use of force and firearms and the denial of access to lawyers]11.
We urge Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and detentions for refusal to fight12.
We call on Ukraine to fully implement the human right to conscientious objection to military service [in line with international standards], stop the persecution of conscientious objectors and human rights defenders who support them13, such as Yurii Sheliazhenko.14
Thank you.
Footnotes
2 https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/ukraine/2024-12-31-pr41-ukraine-en.pdf (paras. 90, 91); see also a journal-istic investigation https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2937
3 https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2906; https://freedomofbelief.net/articles/ukrainian-adventist-dmytro-zelinskys-battle-continues-in-constitutional-court
5 https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2964
6 Pastor Oleksandr Solonets of Reformation Church “Hram Vidnovlennya” in Kherson is a conscientious objector forcibly mobilized by military recruiters at checkpoint in Chernivtsi region on 20 January 2025 when he cared a group of children traveling for rehabilitation to Western Ukraine. He remains detained in a military unit, and his commanders deny all appeals and ignore human right to conscientious objection to military service. His faith community recorded a video asking for his release: https://youtu.be/gMxZm6qNI9U
7 https://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2964 ; https://friends.org.ua/907
8 https://www.coe.int/en/web/venice-commission/-/opinion-1219 ; see also https://friends.org.ua/1018
9 https://www.civilni.media/214/
12 https://astra.press/english/2024/08/16/4078/
13 https://ebco-beoc.org/sites/ebco-beoc.org/files/2024-05-15-EBCO_Annual_Report_2023-24.pdf
14 https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/eastern-europe-and-central-asia/ukraine/report-ukraine/
Connection e.V. and War Resisters’ International: Standing up at the United Nations for conscientious objectors’s right to refuse to participate in the war in Ukraine, 58th Session. March 28, 2025
Keywords: ⇒ Ukraine