CRISTINA MAZA
Newsweek
July 2, 2018
Human rights groups are calling on South Korea’s government to stop imprisoning conscientious objectors who refuse to participate in military service, including numerous Jehovah’s Witnesses who have served time over the years.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that a section of the country’s Military Service Act is unconstitutional because it obligates conscientious objectors to participate in military service. Human rights advocates said this ruling could be the first step toward creating alternatives for Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups that object to participating in the military. Representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses said that over 19,300 of the group’s members have served sentences since the end of the Korean War in 1953, serving more than 36,700 years behind bars overall.
“For many, it has been a lifetime wait. Over the past 65 years, young Witnesses have courageously held to their peaceful stand of conscience. We are grateful that the Constitutional Court has now acknowledged the fundamental human right to conscientiously object to participating in war,” David Semonian, international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at their world headquarters in New York, told Newsweek.
Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose all forms of military service, even the types of service that do not require direct combat. Representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses said that around 2,014 young men were imprisoned in South Korea in 2018.
http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-south-korea-are-imprisoned-refusing-participate-military-1005027
Newsweek
July 2, 2018
Human rights groups are calling on South Korea’s government to stop imprisoning conscientious objectors who refuse to participate in military service, including numerous Jehovah’s Witnesses who have served time over the years.
South Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that a section of the country’s Military Service Act is unconstitutional because it obligates conscientious objectors to participate in military service. Human rights advocates said this ruling could be the first step toward creating alternatives for Jehovah’s Witnesses and other groups that object to participating in the military. Representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses said that over 19,300 of the group’s members have served sentences since the end of the Korean War in 1953, serving more than 36,700 years behind bars overall.
“For many, it has been a lifetime wait. Over the past 65 years, young Witnesses have courageously held to their peaceful stand of conscience. We are grateful that the Constitutional Court has now acknowledged the fundamental human right to conscientiously object to participating in war,” David Semonian, international spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses at their world headquarters in New York, told Newsweek.
Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose all forms of military service, even the types of service that do not require direct combat. Representatives of the Jehovah’s Witnesses said that around 2,014 young men were imprisoned in South Korea in 2018.
http://www.newsweek.com/jehovahs-witnesses-south-korea-are-imprisoned-refusing-participate-military-1005027
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