(21.09.2023) On the International Day of Peace, September 21st 2023, War Resisters’ International (WRI), the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO), International Fellowship of Reconciliation and Connection e.V. (Germany) urge the involved countries in the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine to mobilise for peace instead of war, and the EU and the international community to invest in diplomacy and negotiations instead of weapons and militarism.WRI, EBCO, IFOR and Connection e.V. call Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to safeguard the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the right to freedom of expression, fully complying with the European and international standards, amongst others the standards set by the European Court of Human Rights. The right to conscientious objection to military service is inherent in the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, guaranteed under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is non-derogable even in a time of public emergency, as stated in Article 4(2) of ICCPR. (…more)
Category: Ukraine
UKRAINE: STOP THE PROCEEDINGS AGAINST YURII SHELIAZHENKO
Connection e.V., EBCO, IFOR, WRI, 15.09.2023
Please send a protest eMail
Yurii Sheliazhenko, conscientious objector, pacifist, human rights defender and the Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, has been placed under partial house arrest in Kyiv on 15th August, being accused of “justifying the Russian aggression”.
The sole “evidence” for this charge has been presented to be the Statement of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, adopted at the meeting on International Day of Peace 21 September 2022, entitled “Peace Agenda for Ukraine and the World”. What’s more, the statement explicitly condemns Russian aggression.
Send an email of support for Yurii to the President Volodymyr Zelenskyy using the template letter (in English, German and Ukrainian). More (in German)
Ukraine: Can Germany extradite deserters?
Natalia Nedilko, Deutsche Welle, 14.09.2023
What about conscripted men from Ukraine, who, despite prohibition, left the country during the war and found the asylum in Germany? Can they be extradited back to Ukraine? More (in German)