11. Other resources and further reading
The UNHCR’s “Guidelines on Military Service“, examines what the conscience means for those seeking protection from service in State and non-State armed forces.
The NGO War Resisters International actively campaigns to promote the right to conscientious objection (the “right to refuse to kill”) and researches the prevalence of conscription and the right to conscientious objection worldwide. Its World survey of conscription and conscientious objection to military service was last comprehensively updated in 2005 – although some revisions have been made since that date.
The Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers promotes the prohibition on the conscription of children worldwide. It collects data on child conscription on an annual basis and publishes it in an annual report entitled “Global Report on Child Soldiers”.
The UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection No. 10: Claims to Refugee Status related to Military Service within the context of Article 1A (2) of the 1951 Convention and/or the 1967 Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees replaces the UNHCR’s Position on Certain Types of Draft Evasion (1991). The Guidelines complement the UNHCR Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and should be read alongside the UNHCR’s Guidelines on International Protection No. 6: Religion-Based Refugee Claims and Guidelines on International Protection No. 8: Child Asylum Claims.
- M. Jones., The Refusal to Bear Arms as Grounds for Refugee Protection in the Canadian Jurisprudence International Journal of Refugee Law, Volume 20, Issue 1, March 2008, Pages 123–165, https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/een008
- Immigration & Refugee Board, Ottawa, Canada (September 1992), Refusal to perform military service as a basis for a well-founded fear of persecution: Suggested framework of analysis https://www.refworld.org/pdfid/3ae6b32410.pdf
- Cecilia M. Bailliet, Assessing jus ad bellum and jus in bello within the refugee status determination process: Contemplations on conscientious objectors seeking asylum (2006) 20 Geo. Immigr. L.J. 337
- Military Service Evasion as grounds for refugee status: The case of Syria (Septermber 2015) https://rightsinexile.tumblr.com/post/128141383892/military-service-evasion-as-grounds-for-refugee
- Working document, Summary: Interpretation of EU law, Article 9(2)(e) of Directive 2011/95/EU where a [Syrian] national subject to compulsory military service has left his country of origin because of the threat of conscription and is now seeking recognition of refugee status [in Germany] 20 March 2019, https://curia.europa.eu/juris/showPdf.jsf;jsessionid=965C61EFC9FB144DFD3FD863C3DE7046?text=&docid=219893&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=req&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=1239916
Cases
- Ciric and Ciric v. Canada, 2FC 65 (1994). (Federal Court of Canada holding that refusal to serve in Serbian army in 1991 constituted protected political opinion).
- In Non-Litigious Procedure – Initiated by the Applicant Represented by Attorney Dr. Lilla Farkas Against the Office for Immigration and Nationality of MOI Represented by XY, No. 1, Hungary: Municipal Court of Budapest, 28 February 2000, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,HUN_MCB,47fdface8.html