We, the undersigned, have participated in the Amnesty International roundtable meeting on the right to conscientious objection to military service, the right of aa persons serving in the armed forces not to be subjected to torture or ill-treatment, and the imprisonment and forcible drafting of conscientious objectors. The meeting was held on 15 April 1997, at the Andrey Sakharov Museum, in Moscow. The meeting was co-organized by the Moscow Helsinki Group, Human Rights Centre Memorial, Organization of Soldiers' Mothers of St. Petersburg, Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, the Movement Against Violence, the Anti-Militarist Radical Association, and the Andrey Sakharov Centre. After careful consideration of these concerns, we call on the Russian Government to do the following:

- release immediately all imprisoned conscientious objectors to military service and suspend legal proceedings against those seeking recognition of their right to conscientious objection to military service;

- halt immediately the practice of forcible drafting or imprisonment of conscientious objectors to military service;

- enact immediately the necessary legislation recognizing the right to conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of freedom of thought, conscience and religion, in line with Article 59 of the Russian Constitution and the relevant United Nation and Council of Europe resolutions and recommendations;

- ensure that such legislation provides for an alternative civilian service, of a non-punitive length and of purely civilian character and under civilian control; such an alternative service must be available to all recognized as conscientious objectors to military service on grounds of conscience or profound conviction;

- ensure that such legislation does not differentiate between conscientious objectors on the basis of the nature of their particular beliefs, or discriminate against recognized conscientious objectors for failure to perform military service;

- ensure that such legislation allows for persons to register as conscientious objectors at any point in time before their conscription, after call-up papers have been issued, or during military service;

- ensure that persons liable to conscription are informed in advance of their rights, and that such information is made available to all those concerned;

- recognize the role of non-governmental organizations in making such information available to all those concerned, and in promoting the right to conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of freedom of thought, conscience and religion among the general public;

- take urgent measures to stop the practice of torture and ill-treatment in the army, known as "dedovshchina";

- conduct prompt, impartial and effective investigations (including professional medical investigations) into all individual complaints by conscripts and their families, or when they are reasonable grounds to believe that torture or ill-treatment has taken place - even if no formal complaint has been made;

- bring those responsible for torture and ill-treatment of soldiers to justice in the courts;

- ensure that every victim of torture or ill-treatment in the army has access to means of obtaining redress and an enforceable right to fair and adequate compensation, including the means for as full a rehabilitation as possible;

- ensure that information regarding the absolute prohibition of torture and ill-treatment is included in the training of all members of the armed forces;

- establish a special human rights training programme for conscripts and officers to include the principles of the Russian Constitution and other national laws concerning human rights; the principles of international humanitarian law and international human rights standards to which Russia is a party, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the UN Convention against Torture and the European Convention on Human Rights;

- establish an effective system of civilian control over the activities in each army unit and especially with regards to investigations of alleged torture and ill-treatment;

- ensure the possibility of regular visits to the army units and for meetings with soldiers of members of the human rights community, religious representatives, medical personell and other civilian organizations.

The meeting also recognizes that during 1996 President Yeltsin announced that Russia would have a professional army by the year 2000 and that compulsory military service would be eliminated. We are aware that his views about the reform of the army were outlined in a special Decree Number 722 on the transition to the establishment of a professional army in Russia. The meeting calls on President Yeltsin to ensure that the reform process includes the abolition of all federal, local or insitutional acts, rules and regulations relating to the activities of the armed forces which violate the Constitution and international standards on the right to conscientious objection and the human rights of all personell in the armed forces.