Helvetin Pastori/Pastor of Hell

I've already talked about the treatment of conscientious objectors here in Finland in previous posts (links at the end of this one). This is because Finland still has mandatory conscription for men, an aspect of life here that I personally do not care for and neither do multiple human rights organisations. It's also a personal topic for me, as I am under Finnish law considered as a conscientious objector myself. However, even though the Finnish system has received criticism for human rights violations, there are countries where the situation is even worse. That's why as a part of the International Week of Action Against Militarization of Youth, in this post I will talk about the treatment of conscientious objectors in other countries. Some general information about conscientious objection before we go any further. The right to conscientious objection is derived from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads: " Everyone has the right to freed...

While I said in my previous post that I would leave this topic alone for a while, there has been a change of plans. Next week, November 20-26, War Resister's International organizes The International Week of Action Against Militarization of Youth. Since I consider myself as an anti-militarist, I decided to take a head start on the campaign and talk about one more problem about Finnish conscription: the draft process itself. This is because the whole process has basically been created to benefit the military from the very beginning. First of all, the whole process is controlled by the military. This becomes perfectly clear from the very beginning. Some time during the spring of the year you turn 18, you will receive a letter from the military,  telling you it's time to step into service. The letter includes the actual date of your draft, a personal information form and a booklet detailing information about military service. It also tells you to take a medical checkup, on whi...