Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
April 15, 2011
(Korean)

UN Human Rights Committee rules in favor of conscientious objectors in South Korea

GENEVA—On March 24, 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) ruled, for a third time, that South Korea violated its obligations under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) when it imprisoned conscientious objectors. Relying on a similar decision rendered in 2006, the Committee stated that these prison sentences imposed on conscientious objectors “amounted to an infringement of their freedom of conscience and a restriction on their ability to manifest their religion or belief.”

This ruling involves 100 conscientious objectors who are Jehovah’s Witnesses and who were sentenced to a prison term of one and a half years for refusing to perform military duty because they chose to follow their Bible-trained conscience. According to their attorney, André Carbonneau, “these conscientious objectors now have criminal records. They hope that, with the UNHRC’s favorable decision, they will be able to clear that record and resume a normal life.” 

While the South Korean government continues to invoke its current situation with North Korea as justification for refusing to recognize the right of conscientious objectors, the Committee dismissed these arguments. Furthermore, the Committee confirmed that “the right to conscientious objection to military service inheres in the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

Consequently, the Committee stated that South Korea was “under an obligation to provide” the 100 conscientious objectors who had filed complaints “with an effective remedy, including expunging their criminal records and providing them with adequate compensation. The State party is under an obligation to avoid similar violations of the Covenant in the future, which includes the adoption of legislative measures guaranteeing the right to conscientious objection.”

Over the past 60 years, about 16,000 young Jehovah’s Witnesses have been sentenced to a total of over 30,000 years in prison. Currently there are 843 Jehovah’s Witnesses serving sentences as prisoners of conscience in South Korea. Thus, South Korean prisons hold about 90 percent of all conscientious objectors to military service imprisoned throughout the world.

The South Korean Supreme Court has dismissed appeals from conscientious objectors for relief, and there are currently seven cases pending before the South Korean Constitutional Court. The more than 840 young men languishing in Korea’s prisons as conscientious objectors hope that this new decision from the Committee will motivate the authorities to resolve the issue.

Contacts:
In Republic of Korea: Dae-il Hong, tel. +82 010 203 3595
In USA: General Counsel, tel. +1 845 306 0700