Learning Unit on Conscientious Objection to Military Service and to Military Taxation

Source of the Learning Unit:
Rosa Packard, NGO Representative, Conscience and Peace Tax International
I am available for consultation and to receive comments by email.

The grade(s) and school subject(s) in which the learning unit could be used.

Secondary School: History or Social Studies, Current Affairs, Religion or Philosophy,

The learning objectives the unit intends to achieve.

1. An awareness of the widespread discrimination against those whose religion or beliefs do not allow them to participate in war and are attempting to live their lives as members of a culture of peace even when they are surrounded by a culture of war.
2. To understand better the difference between:a culture of war that intends to kill the enemy and to deter the enemy by threats of killing and a culture of peace that intends to care for both the oppressed and the oppressor while transforming and detering the oppression by active nonviolence.
3. Clarification of personal beliefs and respect for the beliefs of others.

The peace and justice concepts upon which it is based.

• Commission on Human Rights, resolution 1998/77 of 22 April 1998 draws attention to the right of everyone to have conscientious objections to military service as a legitimate exercise of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as laid down in article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and article 18 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights.
• We The Peoples....Millennium Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action (22-26 May 2000) states: (page 17)

  "In the context not to be complicit in killings, we call for full legal recognition of the rights of conscientious objectors."

The materials required:

• Writing materials, blackboard or newsprint
• Access to a telephone for research
• Access to a computer for research
• Access to printed sources cited in bibliography

The Teaching Methods used:

• Story telling
• Personal reflection on questions
• Brainstorming collection of questions and resources for research
• Independent study
• Cooperative research
• Active listening in pairs for peer editing or peer counseling
• Reports
• Class discussion of ways to help support human right of conscientious objecton

Procedures

A. Teacher Presentation: (about 20 minutes)

1. Quote the above statements about conscientious objection from United Nations documents
2. Briefly explain the legal position of conscientious objectors in the country being studied
3. Read aloud to the class a story of a conscientious objector to participating in war in the country being studied or show a relevant video tape or invite a conscientious objector to speak to the class.

B. Class Activity: Personal Reflection and Plan for Study (at least 30 minutes - an hour if you have time)

1. As students to spend ten minutes re ëflecting upon and writing down notes about their present beliefs about participating in war. about the experiences influence them in that and about times when they acted on their belief. Do not ask for a finished statement, or ask them to hand it in or share it with the class. The aim is for them to become more aware of what they know and do not know, are clear tabout and not clear about.
2. At the end of the ten minutes, ask for questions and issues for further study, receive them without judgment or discussion and write them all down on the newsprint and the blackboard. If there is a visitor, they may be able to respond at this time.

C. Group Assignment: To Help Address Questions and Issues

1. Discuss how you would help a friend who is struggling with a decision about participation in the military. They may not be clear about their rights or clear about some aspects of what they believe, or be fully informed about the consequences of various decisions or be aware of Sources of support. Together list questions that need research. Assign tasks.
2. Call support or counseling groups for conscientious objectors in the country you are studying.
3. Ask them several questions that might help you help your friend. You can tell the hotline that this is part of your peace studies research
4. Explore resources that they suggest: these may be legal resources, government regulations literature from national groups or local counselors that provide information and support.
5. Compile a group report based on the research

D. Individual Assignment To Help Address Questions and Issues

1. Tell the story of a conscientious objector to military service (COMS) or a conscientious objector to paying military taxes (COMT)

2. If you know someone who has this experience, consider interviewing them. Otherwise look up stories of individual conscientious objectors in sources given in the bibliography.
   • What is their belief about participation in war?
   • How did this lead them to act?
   • Did their government or other people make them suffer for their belief?
   What work or service did they choose as an alternative to participating in war?

E. Follow up Class Discussion

1. Consider having students pair up and exchange reports with each other, giving each other editorial, research and substantive suggestions.for improvement
2. Consider asking students to present their reports to the class.
3. Consider holding a group dialogue in which students may speak in turn (or pass if they wish) to the issues out of their personal experience. As the teacher facilitates this dialogue, explain that students are asked not to debate, question, or comment on others experience, only to speak for themselves when it is their turn.
4. Consider individual or group decisions that arise out of the study such as:
   • writing letters to prisoners of conscience adopted by Amnesty International
   • writing letters to suggest improved legislation
   • forming peer support or peer counseling groups
   • designing posters, informative brochures etc. for public education.

Bibliography

Bart Horeman and M. Stolwijk, Refusing to Bear Arms: A World Survey of Conscription and Conscientious Objection to Military Service, War Resisters International, September 1998

UN Document E/CN. 4/2000/55, 17 December 1999
Civil and Political Rights, Including the Question of Conscientious Objection to Military Service Report of the Secretary-General submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 1998/77

Peter Brock: Pacifism Since 1914: An Annotated Reading List

Eileen Eagen: Peace Be With You: Justified Warfare or the Way of Nonviolence. Orbis Books, 1999.