More Prisoners of Conscience for Finland
I've covered this in my resent posts but now it's official . On the 27th of February 2019, the Finnish parliament voted 153-27 to end the special exception from military service given to Jehovah's Witnesses. This means the current status quo in which total objectors are not convicted is coming to an end. This is of course not a surprise but it's still depressing to see how little our legislators seem to care about human rights. So, what happens next? Well, next the bill has to be signed by the president. Theoretically, the president could just veto it which he wont do, because president Sauli Niinistö (side note: not related to minister of defense Jussi Niinistö) is very much a conscription supporter. Even if he did, the veto would only act as a delay as the parliament can override a presidential veto by voting on a bill a second time. It's been speculated that the bill will take effect as early as the 1st of April or by latest the 1st of May. Until then the statu...