ABSTRACT: The special motion presented by Antonio Stango and Nikolaj Khramov and approved by the Federal Council which took place in Rome from January 2 to January 7, 1990, with 53 votes in its favour, and one abstention, addresses the Supreme Soviet of the USSR requesting the approval of a law to recognize the right of conscientious objection to military service.

The Federal Council of the transnational Radical Party, meeting in Rome from January 2 to January 7, is addressing an appeal to the Soviet Supreme of the USSR as well as to any other institutionally competent Soviet authority, that a law may be approved without delay recognizing the right of conscientious objection to military service in the Soviet Union and establishing an alternative civilian service. Recognition of such a right and the consequent institution of civilian service as a substitute, for those who are prevented by their own conscience from doing military service, is a real and urgent need, and all the more so considering that in the USSR dozens of people have already been condemned to prison for refusing conscription. We emphasize likewise, that civilian service must be effectively such and for the public good. It should not come under military control, nor should it be treated as a punishment, with a longer duration than that of military service.

We appeal to the Soviet authorities for the immediate release of those conscientious objectors sentenced to imprisonment for their refusal to serve in the Soviet army, such as our comrade Oleg Gorshenin from Orsk, Sverdlovsck, who is a member of the Radical Party, without waiting for approval of the law instituting an alternative civilian service. We are also asking that further arrests should not be made, to the detriment of those who have already announced their refusal to serve in the army because of their personal convictions, such as Serghej Polosov, Radical militant from Leningrad.

We are convinced that in the Soviet U nion it will be impossible to organize real democracy without due respect and legal recognition of the freedom of conscience and the right to refuse military service, a right which is sanctioned by Resolution no. L73 of the Commission for the Rights of Man, and by the European Parliament.