Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Show your solidarity with conscientious objectors and deserters!

Sign Now!

Ask the European Union with us:

- Grant protection and asylum to deserters and conscientious objectors from Belarus and the Russian Federation!

- Urge the Ukrainian government to stop persecuting conscientious objectors to military service and to guarantee them a full right to conscientious objection!

- Open the borders to those who oppose war at great personal risk in their country!

Link to petition

Why is this important? For more than a year, the Russian Federation has been waging a war of aggression in Ukraine, with devastating consequences. There seems to be no end in sight. Yet we know that men and women on all sides are evading the crimes of war. Tens of thousands are fleeing the Russian Federation and Belarus to avoid being recruited for the war. Thousands are leaving Ukraine because they see their human right to conscientious objection in danger. They are all our hope for overcoming violence.

This petition is run by Connection e.V., International Fellowship of Reconciliation, European Bureau for Conscientious Objection and War Resisters’ International

Germany: Federal Office for Migration rejects asylum for Russian refusers

Russia, Belarus, Ukraine: What about the protection of refusers?

(17.02.2023) In autumn 2022, many German politicians agreed that Russian deserters, draft evaders and conscientious objectors should be protected. But the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is creating other facts. PRO ASYL and Connection e.V. demand clear improvements for conscientious objectors from all sides who do not want to fight in this war.

Eritrea: Crackdown on Draft Evaders’ Families

Collective Punishment Over Forced Conscription Campaign

(09.02.2023) The Eritrean government has in recent months punished relatives of thousands of alleged draft evaders as part of an intensive forced conscription campaign, Human Rights Watch said today.Eritrean security forces have been heavily involved in operations in support of the Ethiopian government since the outbreak of conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November 2020, and have carried out some of the conflict’s worst abuses. Eritrean authorities have conducted waves of roundups in Eritrea to identify people it considers draft evaders or deserters.

Desertion in order to not participate in war

Numbers for Russia, Belarus and Ukraine

(02.10.2022) We know that thousands of military conscripts have fled Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.But it is not possible to obtain accurate numbers on desertion, conscientious objection to military service and military draft evasion in these countries. No statistics record how many there really are. Therefore, at this point we can only try to estimate those numbers.