Conscientious objection to obligatory military service has been, and still is, one of the oldest and most effective, innovative and difficult forms of nonviolent direct action within the repertoire of the antimilitarist, antiwar and pacifist movements around the world.
L’objecció de consciència reveals how nationalism, militarism and patriarchy are deeply imbricated. Through experiences that have taken place in different countries, the book describes how the objector facilitates transition from individual to collective resistance, while it clearly states the limitations of democracy and the reality of the power of State. Opposition practices go further than a refusal to obligatory military service: they propose a very different duty, the duty to guarantee “security” in a completely new meaning of the term.
The editors
Örgür Heval Çinar is a PhD. in Law and activist for Human Rights. He works at the St. Anthony’s College in Oxford and he is a legal assessor of the European Council. He has collaborated with the Istanbul section of the Human Rights Association and Human Rights Watch.
Coskun Ütserci is an activist for peace and human rights. Founder of the Smyrna War Resisters Association, he also runs workshops on antimilitarism, conscientious objection and nonviolence. Since 1992, he has been working at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey.
18.01.2015
