From May 17 to 26 Connection e.V. will present its work at the International Ecumenical Peace Convocation, which will be held in Kingston, Jamaica. Together with the Quaker United Nations Office and the Eritrean Antimilitarist Initiative we will organize a working group to strengthen the human right of conscientious objection as well as the right for persecuted deserters and conscientious objectors to get asylum in exile. It is expected that 1,000 will attend the conference.

We hope to make new contacts at an international level there. One of the mainstays of an effective support of conscientious objection is a good and lively network as well as personal contacts to activists in other countries.

Conscientious objector İnan Süver started a hunger strike 14 days ago to protest the 20-day isolation punishment given to him after his short escape from prison. In the evening of 3 May, he was transferred to the E Type Closed Prison in Manisa (western Turkey). On 21 April, Süver escaped from the Manisa Saruhanlı Open Prison. One day later, he was arrested in Izmir and taken to the Buca Prison (Izmir). Süver started a hunger strike after he was arrested in Izmir. On 3 May, he was now given a 20-day isolation punishment because he insisted on continuing the hunger strike.

Conscientious objection to military service is not explicitly recognised in the international human rights standards. This has led some States to argue that it is not protected by them. However, this is not the case. The Human Rights Committee, the expert body which supervises the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is clear that conscientious objection to military service is protected under the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, and has stated so in Views (decisions) on individual communications, in its General Comments and in Concluding Observations. In addition, the (former) UN Commission on Human Rights adopted a series of resolutions on conscientious objection to military service, and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief of the UN Human Rights Council have also addressed the issue.

The U.S. AWOL soldier André Shepherd today instructed his attorney to institute legal proceedings against the negative ruling on his application for asylum by the Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge [Federal Bureau of Migration and Refugees] that was served two days ago. At a press conference held by Connection e.V., PRO ASYL, and the Military Counseling Network in Frankfurt am Main, he commented at length.

War Resisters’ International, the international network of pacifist and antimilitarist organisations with more than 80 affiliates in more than 40 countries, is concerned about the arrest of Egyptian pacifist and conscientious objector Maikel Nabil Sanad, 25, from Cairo [3]. According to information received by War Resisters’ International, Maikel Nabil Sanad was arrested in his home in the Ain Shams neighbourhood if Cairo at about 10pm on 28 March 2011 by military police. He was only able to call his brother on the next day, to inform him of his arrest.