Helvetin Pastori/Pastor of Hell

This is simply another short update on conscription. In my two previous posts on the topic I covered developments regarding the proposed legislation two remove the special exemption from military service given to Jehovah's Witnesses and the parliaments Constitutional Committee giving it's support to it . Since then, another committee, this time the Defense Committee has reviewed the bill. Apart from this, there has been discussion what actually happens to all those total objectors who have been released by court, because it's not as clear as might seem. Not surprisingly, the Defense Committee supports the proposed bill. I'm not even a little shocked. I've made multiple posts on this topic and pointed out multiple times how blatantly Finnish politicians ignore Finland's commitments to human rights when it comes to this topic. Basically this means that the bill is now ready to go for a vote in parliament, which like I've pointed out, it's guaranteed to...

Well, it's been a while. It's been four months since my last post here, although that was not my plan. So, what has happened during this time? Short answer, work. As I've mentioned before, I actually work two jobs. Considering some of the things I've said here, it might be surprising that I work in security. I mainly work as a security guard and on the side as a bouncer. And as if working two jobs wasn't hard enough, bouncers mostly work nights, meaning I also have to deal with changing my daily cycle fairly regularly, which seriously messes up my sleep patterns.So basically, since I work to jobs, I don't have that much time to spend on writing and whenever I have any free time, lot of times I'm just too tired to focus on a longer post. Now, since my last post I've changed jobs. I was hired as a substitute for the Summer, during which my job was mostly to guard the entrance to an industrial area and monitor the traffic. However that ended in the end of...

Vuoden 2018 toinen saapumiserä aloittaa palveluksensa 9.7. Olen kirjoittanut tästä aiheesta aikaisemmin pääasiassa englanniksi. Myös suomeksi olen kirjoittanut nykyjärjestelmän ongelmista ja käynyt myös läpi Kokoomusnuorten alkuvuodesta esittämää armeijamallia. Kuitenkin, ottaen huomioon ajankohdan ja viimeaikaiset kehitykset tällä saralla, on juuri sopiva ajankohta käsitellä aihetta uudelleen. Kuten ylempänä linkatuissa kirjoituksissa mainitsin, on nykyinen järjesteömä saanut kritiikkiä niin kansainvälisesti, kuin täältä kotimaasta. Kansaivälisistä ihmisoikeuselimistä esimerkiksi YK:n ihmisoikeuskomitea on kiinnittänyt huomiota siviilipalveluksen pituuteen. Koska sivarin pituus on kaksinkertainen lyhyinpään asepalvelukseen verrattuna, komitea pitää sitä rangaistuksenomaisena ja on vaatinut sen lyhentämistä. Toinen kritiikin aihe on ollut totaalikieltäytyjille langetetut vankeustuomiot ja Jehovan todistajille poikkeuslailla annettu vapautus. Komitea pitää totaalien vankeustuomio...

I thought I could have let this topic be for a bit longer, but apparently no. Earlier today, news broke that Jussi Niinistö, Finland's minister of defense is worried about financial problems the military will see in the near future. His solution, among other things, included temporarily suspending, or at least limiting, the possibility for women to volunteer for military service. According to him, by not taking in volunteering women into service for a year, the military could save up to 4 million euros. Not surprisingly, this has led to a massive backlash against him. If you've read my blog before, you can probably see why this is a stupid idea. Finland still retains conscription for men. And I mean men. Women are not forced into service, meaning that every woman serving in the military is doing so of their own free will. On the other hand, the system has received a lot of criticism from international human rights bodies, most notable ones being the UN Human Rights Committee a...

On the 23rd of February 2018, the Helsinki Court of Appeals made a land mark decision. The court acquitted a total objector, meaning a person who refuses both military and the alternative civil service, from charges on "refusal of civil service", on which he had previously been sentenced to 173 days in prison. This is the first time this has happened, so the question is, what does this decision mean for the future? First some background information. In my first post on this matter , I mentioned that Jehovah's Witnesses have been exempt from conscription since 1987. This is because back in the day, Witnesses were practically the only group of total objectors in the country. Just like today, the system received a lot of criticism on human rights violations, not the least of which was directed towards the practice of imprisoning  total objectors. In an effort to end the criticism, the Finnish government at the time passed a law which allows Jehovah's Witnesses to avo...

On the 22nd of February 2018, Amnesty International released it's annual report on human rights. Since I live in Finland, I decided to take a look on what they said about my country. In this post, I will take what the report said and give my comments and some additional info on the topics discussed. Refugees and asylum seekers "Many changes in the law introduced in 2016, including restrictions of the right to free legal representation and reduced time frames for appeals, continued to affect refugees’ and asylum-seekers’ rights. The likelihood of asylum-seekers being forcibly returned to countries where they might be at risk of human rights violations (refoulement) was increased. The government had not evaluated the combined impact of these changes by the end of the year." Short time ago, I actually made a post on this matter . After a a court in France was concerned about Finland's standards on returning asylum seekers and refused to return an Iraqi man whose ...

Tästä aiheesta on tullut kirjoitettua englanniksi, mutta kirjoitetaanpa vaihteeksi suomeksi. Tiistaina 6.2 käsitellään Porvoon käräjäoikeudessä ainakin kolmen totaalikieltäytyjän tapausta. Aseistakieltäytyjäliitto on järjestämässä mielenosoitusta oikeustalon eteen ( tapahtuman Facebook sivu täällä ). Koska en itse omien menojen takia paikalle pääse, päätin valjastaa sosiaalisen median voiman puhuakseni asevelvollisuuden ongelmista, jotka monilta suomalaisilta tuntuu unohtuvan. Otetaan ensimmäiseksi käsittelyyn ihmisoikeudet. YK:n alaisuudessa toimivat YK:n Ihmisoikeuskomitea ja Ihmisoikeusneuvosto sekä Amnesty International ovat kiinnittäneet huomiota siviilipalveluksen pituuteen, jota kaikki järjestöt pitävät rangaistuksen omaisena. Tämä siksi, että siviilipalveluksen pituus on yli kaksinkertainen lyhinpään asepalveluksen kestoon verrattuna. Ihmisoikeussopimuksien perusteella vaihtoehtoinen palvelus asepalvelukselle ei saa olla kestoltaan syrjivä. Ymmärrettävästi, kaikki eivät nä...