Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Israel: Feminist Counseling Network New Profile

(06.09.2023) My name is Or and I have been New Profile’s Counseling Network co-coordinator for the past 4 years. New Profile is a feminist anti-militarist movement that has been active in Israel since 1998. I am writing this as a part of the. #ObjectWarCampaign, organized by Connection e.V., the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, the European Office for Conscientious Objection and War Resisters’ International. The #ObjectWarCampaign is a very important campaign that calls European countries to acknowledge the right to asylum of people that ran away from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine as an act of refusing to take part in the war, to kill or be killed.

Trial of a Draft Dodger: The “Lida Precedent”

(17.07.2023) On July 6, 2023, in Lida (Grodno region), a 28-year-old man was sentenced to one and a half years of imprisonment for draft evasion. This may seem to be nonsense because in Belarus, individuals can only be called for compulsory military service until the age of 27.

(Re)introducing Conscription in the Gulf

From Soft Power to Nation-Building

(22.06.2023) Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more than 20 countries have suspended¹ or abolished conscription.² Most were either former Soviet States or within proximity of Moscow. Once the Soviet expansion came to a halt and the highly tense and militarized dual world order came to an end, civil-military relations that dominated that period began to change, ushering different demilitarization processes worldwide. In Europe, especially, this resulted in a shift in military priorities. After the elimination of the imminent threat, once military preparedness and military might become less pressing concerns for European and ex-soviet countries, their respective governments went on to reduce their military supplies as well as the sizes of their military personnel. This was mainly done by changing the military recruitment systems from compulsory to voluntary – in other words, abolishing and/or suspending conscription.

Draft centers in northwestern Syria: Are opposition factions mandating conscription?

(20.05.2021) The opposition-affiliated armed groups Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Jaysh al-Izza (Army of Glory), and Ansar al-Tawhid, operating in northwestern Syria, launched recruitment drives to enlist new elements into their ranks. Recruitment was promoted through three separate statements.