Yurii Sheliazhenko — Arbitrarily Detained to Be Forcibly Conscripted — a Victim of Cruel and Humiliating Treatment
24th March 2026
The undersigned organisations express their deep dismay over what happened to Mr. Yurii Sheliazhenko and strongly condemn the serious human rights violations committed against him by the Ukrainian authorities.
Yurii Sheliazhenko was forcibly taken by the Ukrainian police in Kyiv on the evening of March 19th and arbitrarily deprived of his liberty for over 44 hours without his family or lawyer being able to ascertain his whereabouts or condition. He was taken to the Pechersk District Police Station and later to the Svyatoshyn Military Registration and Enlistment Office.
His phone has been seized and he could not communicate, nor could he have legal assistance against the unlawful deprivation of liberty, in blatant violation of Ukrainian and international human rights law.
He described his brutal experience in a video testimony on YouTube where he also reported physical violence — he has been beaten and pepper-sprayed, for instance — and humiliating treatment while arbitrarily detained. His concluding words in his video testimony are: «Now I know at least to some degree how focibly detained conscientious objectors are feeling. And it will inspire me to work more and better.»
Yurii Sheliazhenko is a well-known conscientious objector, publicly declared since 1998, a pacifist and a human rights defender. He is also an academic, the executive secretary of the «Ukrainian Pacifist Movement» (Український Рух Пацифістів), member organisation of «War Resisters’ International» (WRI), Director of the «Institute for Peace and Law» (Інститут миру і права) in Ukraine, council member of the «International Peace Bureau» (IPB), and a Board member of the «European Bureau for Conscientious Objection» (EBCO) and of «World Beyond War» (WBW).
We are relieved that he is now free and no longer detained. However, he has endured a traumatic experience, and we remain extremely alarmed because he continues to remain under constant threat of forced conscription, in violation of Ukrainian domestic law and international human rights standards. Therefore, we continue to call for his immediate protection1.
We urge the Ukrainian authorities to:
— promptly and duly investigate the incident, which amounts to extremely serious human rights violations, and ensure full accountability;
— withdraw from persecuting and criminalizing peace activists and conscientious objectors to military service like Mr. Yurii Sheliazhenko;
— refrain from any practices of forced mobilization;
— release all conscientious objectors to military service currently imprisoned in Ukraine.
Signatory organisations:
— «Agir pour la Paix» (Belgium; Action for Peace)
— «Another Development Foundation»
— «Conscientious Objection Watch» (Vicdani Ret İzleme; Turkey)
— «European Bureau for Conscientious Objection» (EBCO)
— «German Peace Society — United Conscientious Objectors» (Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft — Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegnerinnen, DFG-VK)*
— «International Fellowship of Reconciliation» (IFOR)
— «International Fellowship of Reconciliation ⸻ Austria» (IFOR Austria; Internationaler Versöhnungsbund ⸻ Österreich)
— «International Peace Bureau» (IPB)
— «Lex Innocentium, 21st Century» (Ireland)
— «MIR Italy» (Movimento internazionale della riconciliazione; Italian branch of IFOR)
— «Pax Christi Flanders» (Pax Christi Vlaanderen; Belgium)
— «Peace Institute» (Mirovni inštitut; Slovenia)
— «Peace SOS» (Netherlands)
— «Peace Tax Network» (Netzwerk Friedenssteuer; Germany)
— «Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)» in Belgium and Luxembourg
— «RootsAction» (USA)
— «Stop Fuelling War» (Cessez d’alimenter la guerre, SFW; France)
— «War Resisters’ International» (WRI)
— «World BEYOND War» (WBW)
Additional organisations are invited to endorse this statement.
Update in progress.
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CALL TO ACTION TO SUPPORT YURII SHELIAZHENKO ↷
1 «Yurii Sheliazhenko Abducted by Police in Ukraine» — WBW; «Urgent Action: Free Conscientious Objector Yurii Sheliazhenko» — IPB
Keywords: ⇒ Ukraine ⇒ Yurii Sheliazhenko