Jehovah’s Witnesses Continue Facing Legal Challenges Over Conscientious Objection to Military Service

The organization of the military service provides different forms of social service to the community. Conscientious objection to military service is an internationally recognized and guaranteed fundamental human right. This promotes the use of alternative service arrangements in most national regions, allowing conscientious objectors to contribute to the community without military training and through different forms of social service.

Millions of conscientious objectors all over the world have the same voice, choosing not to engage in war on the basis of religious grounds or personal convictions. The first International Day of Conscientious Objectors was set for these people in 1982 and will be commemorated this year on May 15. Many know that the Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to perform military service because of their conscience. Even if they were persecuted, they would have done so.

The witness of Taiwan, James Zhan, said, “We love peace as Christians. Jesus commanded his disciples that they did not belong to the world. So we remain completely neutral in the world’s military, political and ethnic conflicts.” History records the brutal treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses during the Nazi regime for refusing to join the army. But up to the last few years, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been fined or imprisoned for conscientious objection to military service in many of the country’s military service regions.

For example, between 1953 and 2019, over 19,000 young Jehovah’s Witnesses were imprisoned in Korea, serving sentences totalling over 36,000 years in prison. One witness from the New Bamboo said, “I do not want to escape the basic duty of the nation, so I am grateful for having chosen to perform alternative service in a way that is not against my conscience. When I was in the hospital’s psychiatric ward, I began to think, to come and feel sorry for the sick, and to be able to live with them. The alternative service has given me the opportunity to serve the public, to be like my own, and to learn to be more caring and patient.”

Another witness, who lived in Illam, also said: “As the Bible taught me to show love and patience, I could perform alternative service in a foster home, so that I could feel that I could give a small contribution to society to help those who need help. During my service, I learned to be more compassionate and to serve others with humility.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Mandarin Chinese)