Aims of EBCO

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (E.B.C.O.) aims:

1. To promote the right to conscientious objection to war preparations as a fundamental human right, on both national and international levels;

2. To obtain the legal instruments which make it possible to assert this right, these legal instruments being national legislation and international agreements, in particular the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

3. To ensure that this right is exercised normally, without giving rise to social, professional, institutional or other types of discrimination;

4. To promote an alternative to military service as a concrete contribution to peace-building and understanding between peoples;

5. To work to give this service a European and even an international dimension, in particular by making it possible to perform it in a foreign country, in international training sessions or in internationally oriented organizations;

6. To develop the right to asylum, in the countries which have signed the European Convention on Human Rights, for conscientious objectors who are citizens of countries which do not recognize, or insufficiently recognize their rights;

7. To contribute to the improvement of national legislation by the circulation of information on the countries where conscientious objectors enjoy a satisfactory situation;

8. To develop the international structuring of conscientious objectors' organizations and those which promote the right to conscientious objection;

9. To participate in all efforts to implement resolution no. 337 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in particular through the elimination of all restrictions on the right to conscientious objection in article 4 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and in every other instrument issued by supranational European bodies;

10. To have national legislation adapted in accordance with the European Parliament resolution of 7 February 1983 (and the resolutions deriving from this);

11. To promote the right to conscientious objection through the Human Rights Commission within the framework of the United Nations.