PAX CHRISTI AND THE RIGHT TO REFUSE TO KILL

1995 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the end of the Holocaust; it marks the beginning of the nuclear age with the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; it marks the founding of the United Nations.

1995 also marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of a Catholic peace organization for the reconciliation of former enemies and for gospel peacemaking in the world, Pax Christi.

In December 1965, the Catholic bishops of the world, at Vatican II, affirmed the right of conscientious objection to military service in the Pastoral Constitution, "The Church in the Modern World."

On March 10, 1987, the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations passed by a large majority a Resolution asserting that, "Conscientious objection to military service should be considered a legitimate exercise of the right of freedom of thought, conscience and religion recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Pax Christi, which enjoys consultative status with the United Nations, has made several interventions to the Human Rights Commission on the issue of conscientious objection. In March 1993, the representatives of Pax Christi spoke before the Human Rights Commission in Geneva in support of a clarifying Resolution regarding conscientious objection. The fact that conscientious objection became an agenda item for the Human Rights Commission arose out of the written and spoken intervention of the representative of a Catholic Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with consultative status.

We of Pax Christi note that at its 51st session from January to March 1995, the Human Rights Commission will examine the question of conscientious objection on the basis of comments provided by governments. As an NGO, Pax Christi will supply comments on the question received from its national sections in Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Australia.

Pax Christi strongly supports the Resolution of the Commission on Human Rights of March 8, 1993 (E/CN.4/1993/L.107) on conscientious objection to military service, and asks that the Commission give special consideration to the following points:

1. Objectors who reach their position during military service should be released into alternative service under civilian control. This should apply to objectors in a volunteer army.

2. In conflicts, especially those involving ethnic and religious issues, unwilling conscripts whose convictions are opposed to war and killing should be accorded asylum and safe transit to another state or area.

3. Alternative civilian service should not be punitive in nature nor longer than the term of military service.

4. Persons who have been recognized by their governments as conscientious objectors should, when qualified, be eligible for works of peace in such specialized agencies as the Office of High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF, UNEP, etc.

The question of conscientious objection is attached to the item, "The Role of Youth in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights." Youth will be motivated to respect human rights when their own human rights are respected. One right claimed by more and more young people in this bloodstained century is the right to refuse to kill.

Catholics who refuse to kill find their inspiration in Jesus who accepted suffering and refused retaliation, and who taught in the Sermon on the Mount to forgive injuries and love the enemy. Aware that the disarmament programs of governments proceed slowly, young people choose personal disarmament, the disarmament of the heart.

A UN agency reminds us that war begins in the minds of human beings. Peace, too, begins in the minds and hearts of human beings. Young people, passionately committed to the UN aim of a warless world, refuse to be a part of the enterprise of war aimed at injuring and killing human beings and destroying their homes and livelihoods. Their refusal, as conscientious objectors to military service, shows them as the prophetic vanguard of world peace.

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The appeal is open to join for all organizations and persons. One who wants sign this appeal, within February 12, 1995 can send his signature to Chris Hunter, Quaker Peace & Service, Moscow. Fax +7-095-2543496, e-mail: qps@glas.apc.org