“Respect for the conscience and the judgement of citizens is fundamental in every democracy,” added Tom Gerety, lecturer from the Faculty of Law at New York University, in front of an audience of more than 220 people. According to Andreas Speck from War Resisters’ International, and in spite of the fact that international legal norms dictate to the contrary, Colombia’s youths are obliged to carry out compulsory military service. For example, the 90,000 Colombian youths who were recruited in a single day in December 2009 did not have the right to express opposition and opt out of joining the military.
From left to right: Tom Gerety, Derek Brett, Daniel Bonilla (Andes University)
As a result, in March 2009, an alliance of organizations began legal proceedings citing the unconstitutionality of failing to respect the right to conscientious objection to compulsory military service. Although the Colombian Constitutional Court declared its recognition of this fundamental right in October 2009, the final text has still not been published. Nevertheless, as Derek Brett emphasised: “Conscientious objectors must not be discriminated against, not at any time or under any circumstance.”
Currently, Colombian youths cannot graduate from university or find work if they do not have a military pass. In some areas, soldiers also perform so-called “raids”, in which they pick up youngsters and make them join the military against their will. These have been declared “arbitrary detentions” by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. It is also important to note that in several regions of the country, social inequality forces many disadvantaged young people to take military service due to the lack of any economic alternative.
“No obligation should be placed above a fundamental right,” concluded Brett together with the other international experts. On a global scale, compulsory military service has been abolished in 100 countries. The right to conscientious objection is applied in a further 70 countries. There are only seven countries in the entire world where this right is still not respected. Colombia is one of those countries.
The panel was made up of Tom Gerety, New York University; Derek Brett, Conscience and Peace Tax International; Aquiles Arrieta, Assistant Magistrate at the Constitutional Court; Antonio Menéndez, Legal Coordinator at the United Nations (OACNUDH); Daniel Bonilla, Director of the Group G-Dip at the University of Los Andes; Andreas Speck, representative for War Resisters’ International, and Xavier León, conscientious objector from Ecuador who took his case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
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