EBCO General Assembly and parallel action in Nicosia, Cyprus

EBCO PRESS RELEASE

Brussels, 1 November 2023

The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) held its General Assembly in Nicosia, Cyprus, on 28 October 2023, organised as a hybrid meeting both in person in the buffer zone, in the Home for Cooperation, and online, kindly hosted by the Initiative for Conscientious Objection in Cyprus. The General Assembly of EBCO was attended by representatives of its member organisations from Belgium, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

“We came together to discuss the current challenges, especially given the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, and organise our actions towards protection of all conscientious objectors, deserters and non-violent anti-war protestors from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. We also discussed about the violations of the rights of conscientious objectors in Cyprus, as well as the failure of Turkey to implement the relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, and the failure of Greece to comply with the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee on the appeal of Petromelidis. Last but not least, we expressed our solidarity with the conscientious objectors in Israel and our clear position against all the violence in the conflict, indiscriminate killings and destruction. And we urged for an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine, in Palestine, and in all the conflict areas worldwide”, EBCO’s President Alexia Tsouni stated today.

The right to conscientious objection to military service is inherent in the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, guaranteed under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which is non-derogable even in a time of public emergency, as stated in Article 4(2) of ICCPR.

EBCO is currently running the following joint international campaigns:

#ObjectWarCampaign: Protection and asylum for all deserters and conscientious objectors to military service from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine.
the appeal to the European Commission and the European Parliament about necessary measures for the international protection of Russian conscientious objectors, deserters and those who surrendered or were captured, also promoted by the Movement of Conscientious Objectors to military service in Russia.
the campaign to drop all charges against Yurii Sheliazhenko, Executive Secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, who is under partial house arrest since 15/08/2023.
#protection4olga campaign: Protection and asylum for Olga Karatch, director of the Belarusian organisation "Our House" in Lithuania, whose application for political asylum was rejected by the Lithuanian authorities on 18/08/2023.

As a parallel action, a presentation of the book of Greek conscientious objector Michalis Maragkakis was co-organised by EBCO, the Association of Greek Conscientious Objectors and the Initiative for Conscientious Objection in Cyprus on 27/10/2023 at the Social Space Kaymakkin. The moderator of the discussion was Gina Chappa, EBCO board member in Cyprus, while the speakers of the panel were Greek conscientious objectors Michalis Maragkakis, Lazaros Petromelidis and Theodoris Diamantidis.