Recently, Avocats Sans Frontires-Belgique (Lawyers with Borders – Belgium) came out with an in depth report about the Israeli refusers. It is quite long but has many interesting details. One thing I was quite interested and happy to see is that they reinforce my interpretation that the UN Commission on Human Rights ‘ report on COs, supports both selective objectors as well as pacifists.
“The issue of selective conscientious objection has arisen in previous conflicts including for Israelis during the war on Lebanon, for the US in the war on Vietnam, and has arisen again more recently with the war on Iraq. Contrary to the arguments of the respondent that no Western democracy has accepted the principle of selective conscientious objection, as the Court acknowledges a number of such democracies have accepted this principle including Holland and Australia.”