Peace
Tax at the Council of Europe (3)
The Logic of Extending the Right to Conscientious Objection to Taxation
Contents:
•
Participation
in Military Activity
•
How
has the situation changed in the early 21st century?
•
Consequences
for the application of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human
Rights
•
Next
Steps
•
Footnotes
•
Other Papers in this Series
Participation
in Military Activity
The right
to conscientious objection to military service, a right well established
in international law and in particular in the context of the European
Convention of Human Rights (see Briefing Paper 2 in this series),
essentially acknowledges that people who for reasons of conscience
or profound conviction arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian,
philosophical or similar motives have an objection to participating
in military activity, are entitled to have this objection respected
by their government. The
next question is: what does participation in military activity
mean in the context of 21st century European societies?
In
the past, participation in military activity was seen as serving
in the armed forces. This concept stems from a period when large
armed forces were fighting territorial wars with relatively low
technology. The major investment in the armed forces was in personnel
and for that matter in personnel who could undertake their tasks
with limited training and on a relatively short term basis. This
was and is the basis for armed forces made up at least to some extent
of young male conscripts.
Conscientious
objection to military service came about from the profound conviction
arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical
or similar motives of such conscripts and potential conscripts who
objected to this form of participation in military activity.
At
the end of 2004, there remains conscription in 29 of the 46 Member
States of the Council of Europe [1]. The right to conscientious
objection to military service is therefore still an important issue.
The fact that even in this area the legal position for conscientious
objectors in some of these countries is far from ideal and falls
short of the relevant resolutions of the Council of Europe is a
matter of concern. It is the subject of a separate report published
by the Quaker Council for European Affairs and can be accessed on
our website from the Spring of 2005 onwards. But it is not the subject
of this briefing paper.
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How
has the situation changed in the early 21st century?
The
world is a different place in the early 21st century. Significant changes
have occurred in the way the military conducts its activities. The
fact that of the 46 Member States of the Council of Europe, 17 no
longer have conscription reflects this. One reason for this change
is that armed forces now rely more heavily on high technology hardware
and highly trained professional personnel to use that technology effectively.
The need for large numbers of conscripts serving for only relatively
short periods of time is no longer as prevalent. As a result fewer
people are called upon to participate in military activity through
personal conscripted service. But
smaller, highly professionalized and technologically equipped armed
forces do not come cheap. They have to be paid for, and as with
all armed forces, the citizens of all the Member States of the Council
of Europe pay for these. The amount they contribute will depend
on their earnings and on the detailed requirements for funding established
by their respective government. But it is quite clear: all of us
who have taxable income contribute to military expenditures by our
governments.
What
is more, the actual value (in monetary terms) of the contribution
we make in the form of taxes over a lifetime clearly far exceeds
the contribution an average conscript would make during a period
of service ranging from 6 to 26 months, particularly when that service
is undertaken during a period when forces are not put into harm’s
way.
It
seems clear that there is a reasonable argument to suggest that
payment – and payment on the scale of a considerable proportion
of direct taxes for life – constitutes participation in the
military activity paid for.
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Consequences
for the application of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human
Rights
On the
basis that the original resolution of 1967 (Resolution 337) accepted
that Article 9 applies to the issue of military service (see above)
then it would appear a logical consequence that if the general form
of participation in military activities for most citizens is now more
of a financial nature (rather than personal service in the armed forces),
then Article 9 of the Convention should similarly apply to the obligation
imposed by the state on its citizens to participate in military activity
in this way. This
is the basis for the Resolution proposed by QCEA to extend the application
of Article 9 expressly to the issue of taxation for military purposes.
The
text of the proposed resolution is available on our website at (www.quaker.org/qcea/peacetax)
in both English and French along with detailed explanations of each
part of the resolution.
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Next
Steps
QCEA
has presented the proposed resolution to the Human Rights Grouping
of the International NGOs with participatory status at the Council
of Europe on 26 January 2005. There, it was agreed that a full debate
on the proposed resolution will take place at the meeting of this
group in April 2005. The
purpose of taking the proposed resolution to this forum is to gain
their agreement to ask the Parliamentary Assembly and the Council
of Ministers of the Council of Europe to consider the issue and
to adopt the proposed resolution.
If
we are successful in this, then, once the proposed Resolution is
adopted, Member States would be asked by the Council of Europe to
put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure that citizens
can exercise this right effectively and that they are informed of
this right and how to exercise it.
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Footnotes
[1]
Though it will end in Slovenia in 2005 bringing the number to 28.
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Other
Papers in this Series
(1)
What is the Council of Europe HTML
PDF (278kb)
(2)
Freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and Conscientious Objection
in the Council of Europe HTML
PDF (256kb)
(4)
The Peace Tax – Frequently Asked Questions HTML
PDF (260kb)
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