ARMENIA SLOW TO PASS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION LAW
Despite international court ruling, Jehovah’s Witnesses who refuse to
perform alternative service under military command risk prosecution.
By Gayane Lazarian – Caucasus
CRS Issue 671,
14 Jan 13
Armenia’s government appears to be dragging its feet over changing the
rules for military conscription, a year after a pan-European court
ruled that Jehovah’s Witnesses had been mistreated as conscientious
objectors.
In November 2011, the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR, ruled
that Armenia should pay compensation to 17 men who were detained and
wrongly accused of desertion.
In 2005, the men withdrew from a civilian service scheme intended to
give committed pacifists like Jehovah’s Witnesses an alternative to
mandatory conscription. Civilian service had been launched the previous
year as part of Armenia’s obligations as a Council of Europe member.
The men were assigned civilian work in schools, hospitals and
elsewhere, but left six months later when they realised they were
actually under military command, something that went against their
absolute commitment to pacifism.
“We were told this was civilian service, but it turned out to be
military after all,” said Hayk Khachatryan, one of the 17 men who
were arrested, held in detention for months and charged with desertion.
The ECHR found that since Armenia had no legislation that made it a
crime to withdraw from alternative service, detaining and charging
the men was unlawful.
In response to the ruling, the Armenian government acknowledged that
military control of civilian service was a problem, and began drafting
changes to the law in March 2012.
The amendments now being proposed would differentiate between
“alternative military service” and “alternative labour service” –
the latter structured to rule out any military involvement, so that
the most committed of conscientious objectors could take part.
Alternative military service would last 30 months, and alternative
labour service 36 months, as opposed to the standard two years served
by conscript soldiers.
Ten months on, it is unclear when the draft amendments will be
completed by the justice ministry committee tasked with producing them.
Artur Ispiryan, who works for the legal department of the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, said, “The first version of the bill said that regional
governors would oversee alternative service… but that point was
removed. At the moment, it isn’t clear what this will be replaced
with, but it’s essential that supervision is exclusively civilian in
nature. That isn’t just what we want; it’s an international standard.”
According to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, around 30 of their members are
currently in jail for refusing to perform military service. Courts
in Armenia are currently reviewing 25 cases, so further convictions
are possible.
Several dozen Jehovah’s Witnesses still have complaints pending at
the ECHR, and the government has asked them to withdraw their cases
while the law is changed.
Stepan Danielyan, head of the Cooperation for Democracy Centre,
believes the government remains wary of changing the law, even though
the ECHR ruling made it clear this was essential.
“The delay stems from the fact that the defence ministry and the
government have no clear idea about what to do with the law,”
Danielyan said. “They don’t want a conflict with the OSCE or with
other international organisations. But on the other hand, passing the
legal amendments could be risky because there are also other people
who don’t want to do military service out of conviction.”
Alexander Amaryan heads the Centre for Assistance and Rehabilitation
for Victims of Destructive Sects, which is hostile to the Jehovah’s
Witnesses, and he claims that conscription-age men join the group
simply to get out of joining the army.
“For young people who don’t want to serve in the army, the easiest
way of avoiding it is to join the Jehovah’s Witnesses,” he said.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses say they are happy to provide membership
lists to show that this is not the case.
“It isn’t that easy to become a Jehovah’s Witness,” Ispiryan said in
response to the allegation of fraudulent members. “There have been
no cases of this.”
Trainee priests of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the country’s main
faith group, are able to avoid conscription. But church spokesman
Vahram Melikyan insisted that Apostolic Church clergy should not be
compared with others who decided not to join the military.
In addition, he said, “There are cases where our students don’t take
up their exemption and go off to serve in the army for two years,
and then return to continue their [seminary] education.”
Avetik Ishkhanyan, head of the Armenian Helsinki Group, said the
government should focus on real draft-dodgers. Official figures
show that since 2002, about 10,000 people have avoided conscription,
and only 444 of them were Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Gayane Lazarian is a journalist with ArmeniaNow.com.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenia-slow-pass-conscientious-objection-law