The right of conscientious objectors in Greece

 

Doc. 7577

17 June 1996

 

WRITTEN QUESTION No. 366

by Mr Van der MAELEN

1.         Mr Van der Maelen,

            Despite the promises given by successive Greek governments, despite the resolutions adopted by the European Parliament, despite the proposals made by the Council of Europe and the numerous protests coming from international human rights organisations, such as Amnesty International, notes that conscientious objectors in Greece are still, to this day, liable to be given a prison sentence of four years.  In its special report of March 1993, Amnesty pointed out that, since 1930, Greek conscientious objectors had been condemned to a total of 5 000 years' imprisonment.  Every day there are 400 conscientious objectors being held in Greek prisons.

2.         The right to freedom of conscience is, however, a fundamental human right (Article 9.1 of the European Convention on Human Rights).

3.         Recognising the freedom of conscience and emphasising the importance of the equality of all citizens before the law in terms of military service obligations, all other member states of the European Union which have or had a military service system offer or offered a civilian service as an alternative to military service.  These systems provide inherently for an assessment of conscientious objection and offer an alternative (but hardly less important) obligation to undergo a civilian service.

4.         To ask the Committee of Ministers

            i.          whether it can insist once more that the Greek Government set up a civilian service system as an alternative to military service for conscientious objectors;

            ii.          what the attitude of the current Greek Government is in respect of this question and whether it does not agree that, in respect of the rights of conscientious objectors, it is high time for Greece to fall into line with other European states and respect human rights.

Signed:

Van der Maelen, Belgium, SOC