hankyoreh

An appellate court has asked the Constitutional Court to rule on whether Article 88, Section 1, of the conscription law, which makes it illegal to be a conscientious objector, is unconstitutional, at a time when the government has delayed plans to offer alternative forms of service in lieu of the required term of two or more years. The administration of President Lee Myung-bak has said since its inauguration that it would reconsider such a plan.

On September 5, the Chuncheon District Court said it had asked the Constitutional Court to rule on whether Article 88, Section 1, of the conscription law violates the Constitution because it makes it illegal to be a conscientious objector. This is the first time in six years that the Constitutional Court was asked to rule on whether the law is unconstitutional. Ahead of the request, the Chuncheon court allowed a 21-year-old man, who is identified by his surname Park and was sentenced to 18 months in jail by a lower court on charges of violating the conscription law, to be released from prison on bail in August. The Chuncheon court is involved in appeals trials involving four conscientious objectors, including Park.

The Chuncheon court pointed out that Article 88, Section 1, of the conscription law allows for the possibility that freedom of conscience could be undermined by not allowing for conscientious objectors. In particular, the court said it decided to ask the Constitutional Court to rule on the matter because the Defense Ministry has recently rebuffed a plan to revise military service laws so that conscientious objectors would be allowed to perform alternative forms of service.

“The Constitutional Court has advised the country to allow alternative forms of military service and conscientious objectors have been waiting for an introduction of an alternative service program for decades,” said an official at the Chuncheon court. “There were once hopes about alternative service, but those hopes were dashed on the grounds that there had been a change in the social mood,” the official said.

In 2004, the Constitutional Court ruled in a 7-2 vote that alternative military service would not violate the Constitution and advised the government to allow conscious objectors to perform alternative forms of service. At the time, the government also worked to introduce an alternative service program.

Since then, the courts have delayed trials on conscientious objectors amid expectations that an introduction of the program was imminent. However, the trials resumed again in July when the Ministry of Defense was known to be reconsidering the idea.

Attention is also being focused on Constitutional Court President Lee Kang-kook, who was a chief justice of the Supreme Court at the time of a 2004 case involving a conscientious objector and submitted a minority opinion in favor of the right to be one. “Punishing someone accused of refusing military service on religious grounds undermines human dignity. In addition, it does not fulfill the original purposes for punishment such as crime prevention and education,” Lee said in his opinion. “It would be desirable for freedom of conscience to be respected and guaranteed.”

About 420 conscientious objectors have been arrested for violating Article 88, Section 1, of the conscription law, according to data collected by an organization of families of conscientious objectors who have been arrested. Another 100 conscientious objectors are in the midst of trials without detention. Hong Young-il, the leader of the organization, said that since the Defense Ministry expressed a negative view about the possibility of allowing conscientious objectors to perform alternative forms of service, there have been additional convictions.

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