Inter­na­tio­nal Support of Conscien­tious Objec­tors and Deserters

Report concerning the situation of the right to conscientious objection in Bolivia

UN Univeral Periodic Review

(18.07.2024) Connection e.V. has prepared and submitted to the UN a country based report in preparation of the upcoming 48th session of the Universal Periodic Review of the State of Bolivia. The formal session will take place at the UN in Geneva in November 2024.

Vitali Dvarashyn: The Story of how a Belarusian conscientious objector

Being caught in the millstones of two state systems in Lithuania and in Belarus

(16.07.2024) Some time ago, Lithuania claimed to be a safe democratic country, which in 2020 clearly declared its desire to save repressed Belarusians from the wrath of a mad dictator Alexander Lukashenko. But then it changed its mind. Vitali Dvarashyn is one of Belarusian conscientious objector to military service whom Lithuania decided to persecute and continues to hound, and it’s unclear how it will all end.

Interim Resolution on Violations of the Right to Conscientious Objection in Turkey

Newsletter of the Conscientious Objection Watch Initiative

(16.07.2024) This is Merve Arkun, the coordinator of the Conscientious Objection Watch, from Turkey. I would like to inform you about the interim decision of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the Ülke Group of Cases monitoring the situation of conscientious objectors in Turkey. Eighteen years after the European Court of Human Rights issued its first judgment in favor of conscientious objector Osman Murat Ülke, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe added a new one to its interim decisions on violations of the right to conscientious objection in Turkey.

Mikita Sviryd: The story of a Belarusian deserter in Lithuania

Stuck between the threat of death penalty in Belarus and illegal refugee status in Lithuania

Mikita Sviryd, a Belarusan deserter who, when the war started in Ukraine, fled illegally to Lithuania because he was afraid that the Belarusan army would go to Ukraine to help Russia. Today Mikita is an illegal refugee, Lithuania has denied the young deserter political asylum. In Belarus, desertion can be punishable by death penalty. Today, he is desperate and expects nothing good in his future. What is for geopolitics the fate of one guy who at the age of 19 decided to give up being a soldier? #protection4Nikita