Peace
Tax at the Council of Europe (2)
Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and Conscientious Objection
in the Council of Europe
Contents:
•
Introduction
•
European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
•
The
history of the Council of Europe and Conscientious Objection
•
QCEA
and the collective complaint against Greece
•
Footnotes
•
Other Papers in this Series
Introduction
We
see the right to Conscientious Objection to military taxation to be
a logical consequence of the right to Conscientious Objection to military
service. The latter has its legal foundation in the European Convention
of Human Rights. In this briefing paper we will look at all these
concepts and how they tie in with each other. Return
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European
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms
| Article
9 – Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
Everyone
has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion;
this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief
and freedom, either alone or in community with others and
in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief,
in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
Freedom
to manifest one's religion or beliefs shall be subject only
to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary
in a democratic society in the interests of public safety,
for the protection of public order, health or morals, or for
the protection of the rights and freedoms of others. |
The
European Convention on Human Rights is more than a declaration;
it has legal status and implications. The interpretation of its
text is therefore particularly important. The text given above is
Article 9 of the Convention. It grants all citizens of Member States
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Because
this freedom can have very wide application, the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe has had to find ways to clarify what this
really entails. It can do this through adopting Resolutions, which
are then as binding as the Convention itself. Member States then
have to adhere to the Convention, and respect the Resolutions.
One
area in which there is such a Resolution relates to Conscientious
Objection to military service. As you can see from the text above,
Article 9 of the Convention does not mention military service at
all. However, the Parliamentary Assembly has adopted a Resolution
[1] which clearly states that the right to Conscientious Objection
to military service is a fundamental aspect of the right to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion as enshrined in Article 9 of
the Convention.
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The
history of the Council of Europe and Conscientious Objection
The
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was the first European
Institution, indeed the first international organisation of states,
to formally recognise conscientious objection to military service.
In
September 1965 Amnesty International raised with the Council the
question of conscientious objection in relation to Article 9 (freedom
of conscience, thought and religion) of the European Convention
on Human Rights. The Council asked the Max Planck Institute for
Comparative Public Law and International Law in Germany, to prepare
a study of the situation in the Member States, as a result of which
the Consultative Assembly on 26 January 1967 adopted Resolution
337
Although
most Council of Europe Member States gradually changed their national
laws to respect the right of Conscientious Objection to military
service the issue is still an ongoing concern. The position of Conscientious
Objectors differs considerably from one country to another and differences
in the law unfortunately result in varying levels of protection
across Europe. The situation of conscientious objectors can therefore
be wholly unsatisfactory in Member States which have recognised
the right to conscientious objection [2].
In
order to change this situation the Parliamentary Assembly issues
recommendations on the topic, which suggest changes the non-complying
countries should introduce in their laws.
A citizen
of a Council of Europe Member State who believes her or his right
to Conscientious Objection is not being respected by the government
can bring this government before the European Court of Human Rights
after s/he has exhausted process through the national courts of
their country of citizenship.
A third
way to approach the issue of Member States not complying with Article
9 and Resolution 337 is by making what is called a collective
complaint.
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QCEA
and the collective complaint against Greece
Conscientious
Objection to military service is something that remains on the agenda
of QCEA. Although
the European Convention on Human Rights is the largest Human Rights
Treaty of the Council of Europe, it also has other treaties on human
rights. One of these treaties is the European Social Charter which
not only protects human rights, but also sets out a supervisory
complaints mechanism. This allows NGOs enjoying participatory status
with the Council of Europe to lodge complaints against Member States
of the Council of Europe. QCEA has this status and lodged a complaint
in 2000 with regard to Greece’s treatment of conscientious
objectors to military service. We claimed that Greece’s practice
was in conflict with the rights allowed in the European Social Charter
[3]. The claim was based on the fact that the nature of the alternative
to military service was in fact so harsh that it broke the Greek
government’s obligation to respect the prohibition to forced
labour, as given in Article 1 of the European Social Charter.
The
European Social Charter, Part I, Article 1
The
Contracting Parties accept as the aim of their policy, to
be pursued by all appropriate means, both national and international
in character, the attainment of conditions in which the following
rights and principles may be effectively realised:
1
Everyone shall have the opportunity to earn his living in
an occupation freely entered upon.
|
QCEA
argued successfully that Greece was not respecting the right to
conscientious objection as allowed in Article 9 in the European
Convention on Human Rights as well as the provision in the European
Social Charter. However, it was through the mechanism of the Social
Charter that we could take action. The outcome of the complaint
was that the Committee of Experts found Greece to be in breach of
Article 1, paragraph 2 of the Social Charter. Following the complaint,
the representative of the Greek government announced that they were
considering a number of amendments and changes in the rules regarding
Conscientious Objection to military service.
The
fact that the Council of Europe has repeatedly demonstrated its
commitment to the rights of Conscientious Objectors to military
service shows how highly it regards the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion. With this high regard in mind, QCEA is
asking the Council of Europe to see the close connection between
the right to conscientious objection to military service and the
right to conscientious objection to military taxation. The next
briefing paper in this series will address this.
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Footnotes
[1]
Resolution 337 (1967) available on the Council of Europe website at:
http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/AdoptedText/ta67/BRES337.pdf
[2]
QCEA has undertaken a survey of the current situation with regard
to Conscientious Objection to Military Service in the Member States
of the Council of Europe, and this information will be available
on QCEA’s website from Spring 2005 onwards.
[3]
Greece was forcing conscientious objectors to serve for up to 39
months. Military service varied from 18 to 21 months depending on
which of the services it was served in and there was a possibility
of reduced military service of between 3 and 12 months. As at 2005,
alternative service is 23 months compared to 12 months military
service for ordinary soldiers and 17 months for offices.
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Other
Papers in this Series
(1)
What is the Council of Europe HTML
PDF (278kb)
(3)
The Logic of Extending the Right to Conscientious Objection to Taxation
HTML PDF
(254kb)
(4)
The Peace Tax – Frequently Asked Questions HTML
PDF (260kb)
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