FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
===============================================
Thursday 7 July 2011
ARMENIA: EUROPEAN COURT FINDS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR WAS WRONGFULLY
CONVICTED AND JAILED – BUT WHAT WILL GOVERNMENT DO?
The European Court of Human Rights has today (7 July) published a Grand
Chamber judgment finding that Armenia violated Vahan Bayatyan’s right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion violated. Bayatyan, an Armenian
Jehovah’s Witness, was imprisoned from September 2002 to July 2003 for
refusal on grounds of conscience to perform compulsory military service.
Armenia currently has 69 prisoners of conscience – all Jehovah’s Witnesses
– in jail for refusing conscription. Armenian officials gave only cautious
responses to the verdict to Forum 18 News Service, but the Jehovah’s
Witnesses noted to Forum 18 that it should both lead to the prisoners of
conscience being freed, and “help our fellow believers who are facing are
facing the same issue in Azerbaijan and Turkey”. Armenia claims amendments
to the Alternative Service Law now in Parliament will take the current
alternative service out of the control of the military. But the wording of
the amendments is unclear and does not unambiguously state this. Lieutenant
Colonel Sasun Simonyan, who was involved in preparing the amendments, told
Forum 18 that – as at present – anyone doing alternative service who
violated their terms of service would be dealt with by the Military
Prosecutor’s Office.
ARMENIA: EUROPEAN COURT FINDS CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR WAS WRONGFULLY
CONVICTED AND JAILED – BUT WHAT WILL GOVERNMENT DO?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Exactly eight years after he brought his case to European Court of Human
Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg in 2003, the Court’s Grand Chamber this
morning (7 July) ruled that Vahan Bayatyan had his right to freedom of
thought, conscience and religion violated and awarded him compensation.
Bayatyan, an Armenian Jehovah’s Witness, was imprisoned from September 2002
to July 2003 for refusal on grounds of conscience to perform compulsory
military service. Of the 17 judges, only the judge from Armenia, Alvina
Gyulumyan, dissented from the decision. There are currently 69 imprisoned
conscientious objectors in Armenia – all Jehovah’s Witnesses – and the
ECtHR judgment directly affects their cases.
Armenian officials gave only cautious responses to the verdict. “If this is
the decision of the European Court, the government must pay the
compensation,” Karine Kalantaryan, spokesperson for the Justice Ministry,
told Forum 18 News Service from the Armenian capital Yerevan on 7 July.
“The government has always paid compensation handed down in such cases.”
However, asked about the implications of the judgment for the current
prisoners, she referred to Deputy Justice Minister Emil Babayan. His
Assistant told Forum 18 the same day that he was out at a conference.
A senior official of the central government apparatus – who asked not to be
identified – told Forum 18 that “in the execution of the judgment, the
government might review the situation of the imprisoned conscientious
objectors”, but gave no promises.
Jehovah’s Witnesses welcomed the judgment. “This landmark judgment by the
Grand Chamber should lead to the eventual release of the 69 Jehovah’s
Witnesses imprisoned in Armenia, and helpour fellow believers who are
facing are facing the same issue in Azerbaijan and Turkey,” one told Forum
18 from Yerevan on 7 July.
The Armenian government claims amendments to the Alternative Service Law
now in Parliament will take the current alternative service out of the
control of the military. However, human rights defenders and Jehovah’s
Witnesses have told Forum 18 of their doubt at this claim, as the wording
of the amendments does not clearly establish this.
Rights violated
In today’s ECtHR Grand Chamber judgment, the Court found that Bayatyan’s
right, under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights and
Fundamental Freedoms, to freedom of thought, conscience and religion had
been violated. It stated that Bayatyan’s “failure to report for military
service was a manifestation of his religious beliefs. His conviction for
draft evasion therefore amounted to an interference with his freedom to
manifest his religion as guaranteed by Article 9” (see
).
This overturns the controversial 2009 judgment that Bayatyan’s right to
freedom of thought, conscience and religion had not been violated (see
Commentary by Derek Brett of Conscience and Peace Tax International at
). Bayatyan appealed
after that judgment (see F18News 7 December 2010
).
The ECtHR today noted, among other points, Armenia’s formal commitments to
respect the right to conscientious objection when it joined the Council of
Europe (see below). Considering the case, the ECtHR found that the
conviction and imprisonment was “not necessary in a democratic society” and
so violated Article 9. Indeed, the Court argued that: “respect on the part
of the State towards the beliefs of a minority religious group like the
applicant’s by providing them with the opportunity to serve society as
dictated by their conscience might, far from creating unjust inequalities
or discrimination as claimed by the Government, rather ensure cohesive and
stable pluralism and promote religious harmony and tolerance in society.”
The Court’s judgment – which is final and cannot be challenged – orders the
Armenian government to pay compensation to Bayatyan within three months of
10,000 Euros (5,267 Armenian Drams, 77,500 Norwegian Kroner or 14,253 US
Dollars), plus a further 10,000 Euros in costs.
As well as paying compensation and costs, states are required to abide by
judgments by also ensuring that the reasons for violations found by the
ECtHR are removed. This can include changing legislation.
Other Council of Europe member states which currently imprison
conscientious objectors are Azerbaijan (see F18News 22 February 2011
), and Turkey (see
F18News 17 March 2010
). Today’s ECtHR
judgment – in a comment that may have implications for the laws and
official actions of both states – noted that “the overwhelming majority” of
Council of Europe member states have “already recognised in their law and
practice the right to conscientious objection”.
Armenia’s Council of Europe commitment
On its accession to the Council of Europe in January 2001, Armenia formally
pledged to: “adopt, within three years of accession [i.e. by 25 January
2004], a law on alternative service in compliance with European standards
and, in the meantime, to pardon all conscientious objectors sentenced to
prison terms or service in disciplinary battalions, allowing them instead
to choose, when the law on alternative service has come into force to
perform non-armed military service or alternative civilian service”.
The current Alternative Service Law was adopted in 2003 (coming into force
on 1 July 2004), but despite amendments in 2004 and 2006, it still fails to
meet Armenia’s Council of Europe commitment to allow a choice of
“alternative civilian service” to be possible. Jehovah’s Witnesses and a
Molokan who initially accepted the Law’s “alternative service” quickly
abandoned it when it became clear that the “alternative” was controlled and
overseen by the military. They were soon imprisoned, and Armenian has
failed follow its Council of Europe commitment to pardon – and therefore
release – its prisoners of conscience who object to compulsory military
service (see F18News 7 December 2010
).
69 imprisoned conscientious objectors
As of the beginning of July, 69 young men – all Jehovah’s Witnesses – were
imprisoned for refusing both military service and the military-controlled
alternative service, Jehovah’s Witnesses told Forum 18. All were sentenced
under Article 327, Part 1 of the Criminal Code, which punishes evasion of
the call-up to military or alternative service. The maximum sentence under
this article was increased to three years’ imprisonment in December 2005.
Of the current 69 prisoners, four are serving maximum sentences of 36
months, 35 are serving 30-month sentences, one is serving a 27-month
sentence, 28 are serving 24-month sentences, one is serving an 18-month
sentence and one a 12-month sentence. Seven of the prisoners were sentenced
in 2011, with the most recent two trials in April. The 69 prisoners are
serving their sentences in prisons in Artik, Erebuni, Kosh and Nubarashen.
The number of conscientious objector prisoners has hovered around 70 for
several years, almost all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses. One Molokan (an
early Russian Protestant-style Christian community), Pavel Karavanov, was
also imprisoned as a conscientious objector, being freed in 2006 (see
F18News 2 May 2007