These are written comments submitted by Friends World Committee for Consultation (Quakers) jointly with Amnesty International, Conscience and Peace Tax International, International Commission of Jurists and War Resisters’ International. They were submitted to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Vahan Bayatyan (The Applicant) vs. ARMENIA (The Respondent Government). The submission argues that conscientious objection to military service is protected under the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Art. 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).

In this written statement, Quakers highlight several cases before international human rights mechanisms where conscientious objection to military service is at issue, offering comments and recommendations.

QUNO Geneva's newsletter for November to January 2010. Featured stories:

• Conscientious Objection to Military Service
• Securing the Millennium Development Goals
• A Letter from QUNO New York
• Reasons to be Hopeful? Prospects for the Disarmament Agenda 2010
• Women in Prison
• QUNO Seeks New Programme Assistants
• From Trade Justice to Climate Justice? Reflections Around the WTO’s 2009 Ministerial Conference
• Quaker United Nations Summer School
• Quakers at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
• Panel Discussion on Intellectual Property and Food

Quakers welcome the September 2009 Minute on the right of conscientious objection to military service by the World Council of Churches, and recommend States consider it.