Call for change in Amnesty policy

<*> One of the actions to come out of the ICOM and the WRI Triennial will be an effort to persuade Amnesty International to modify its mandate on conscientious objection.

Currently, Amnesty will not normally adopt conscientious objectors who have refused a genuinely civilian and non-punitive alternative service.

As a result of this policy, AI will issue appeals for conscientious objectors imprisoned in Greece, where no alternative civilian service exists, but stays silent about total resisters incarcerated in Spain or Germany, for example.

Some national sections of Amnesty, for instance in the USA and the Netherlands, have already argued that Amnesty should recognise resistance to conscription as an act of conscience. In addition, Amnesty members who are personally writing in support of imprisoned Greek Jehovah's Witnesses are also concerned that, if Greece introduces civilian service, the same person will remain in prison but no longer recognised by Amnesty as a prisoner of conscience. For copies of the joint ICOM-WRI resolution in English, Spanish, French, or German. Please, send a copy of the signed resolutions and letters addressed to Amnesty International to KEM-MOC.

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KEM-MOC, Iturribide 12-1, 48006 Bilbao, Euskadi, state of Spain (fax: +34 4 4790383)

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