Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Supreme Court disrupts Ukraine’s accession to EU by repressions for faith and pacifism

(27.10.2025) In the midst of an international scandal around the imprisonment and torture of conscientious objectors, the judges showed a little mercy to Vitalii Kryushenko without due acquittal, but did not even mention it on the court’s website, as the policy of repression for faith seems to remain unchanged. The Joint Chamber of the Cassation Criminal Court of the Supreme Court denied a cassation complaint against the sentence to a prisoner of conscience Vitaliy Kryushenko, but suspended the sentence and released him from prison with one-year probationary term.

Constitutional complaints of three conscientious objectors will be judged jointly

(17.10.2025) Constitutional Court of Ukraine decides whether the state have a right to deny in alternative service to those who can’t join the army because of beliefs, and whether it is legitimate to imprison people for holding fast to high standards of conscience. On 15 October 2025, the Second Senate of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine decided to consider constitutional complaints of Vitalii Alekseienko, Serhii Ivanushchenko, and Dmytro Zelinsky jointly in one constitutional proceeding. Previously, reasons to join the constitutional proceedings were pointed out in the amicus curiae brief submitted by the Director of the Institute of Peace and Law, Yurii Sheliazhenko, which the Court decided to add to the case file on 1st October.

Advocating for conscientious objectors in Ukraine, including in the occupied territories, UN Council for Human Rights

(09.07.2025) Connection e.V. in collaboration with WRI has taken the floor in the plenary of the UN Human Rights Council to address the members of the Council on the situation of conscientious objectors in Ukraine.

Oral statement given at Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus

UN Human Rights Council, 59th Session

(26.06.2025) Today at the UN in Geneva it took place at the 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus. On this occasion, Connection e.V. together with War Resisters’ International prepared and delivered a statement in the plenary addressing the right to conscientious objection to military service and the increasing militarization of the society including the educational system leading to underage exposure to militaristic trainings.