Seoul, South Korea - The lengthy debate over the right of Korean citizens to refuse mandatory military service will now be heard at the United Nations (U.N.).
Oh Tae-yang, a 30-year-old who became a public figure in 2002 when he was indicted for refusing the draft citing his Buddhist beliefs, will join 10 other Koreans in submitting a complaint to the U.N.'s Human Rights Committee that deals with the Korean government's alleged discrimination against military objectors.
``Oh and the other military objectors will argue on the international stage that the Korean government's decision to punish them under criminal law violate their basic human rights to freedom of thought and religion that should be protected by law,'' said Choi Jung-min, secretary general of a coalition of 36 activist groups and religious organizations advocating the rights of military objectors.
Military service is mandatory in South Korea, which is technically still at war with the Communist North. Under the law, all men over 20 years of age are obligated to perform 24 months of military service if they can pass a physical exam.
However, in recent years, more people have been questioning the compulsory nature of military service, with thousands of young men risking criminal records by rejecting conscription.
Since 2001, there have been 3,655 people in Korea who refused the draft for religious and moral reasons. They are called ``conscientious objectors,'' with 3,115 of them sentenced to 18 months in prison or heavier punishments. Currently about 900 of them are in prison.
The government rejects the arguments of military objectors, saying that it would be unrealistic to offer civil service as a substitute for military service since it would compromise military readiness.
However, growing voices are calling for the government to introduce civil service as an alternative to service in the military. Last December, the U.N. Human Rights Committee expressed concern over the country's persecution of conscientious objectors and recommended the government release two Jehovah's Witnesses who were imprisoned for disobeying their draft order.
In 2005, the state-run National Human Rights Commission, a presidential body, recommended that the government protect the rights of those refusing the draft for religious and other personal reasons, in opposition to a ruling by the Constitutional Court the previous year which said that the protection of individual religious beliefs is secondary to national security.
``The problem is that the government has a narrow and outdated view of the citizen's duty for national security, just defining it as young men serving as soldiers. Does this mean that women and men deemed physically incapable are not contributing to national security, despite the fact that the government uses their tax money to run the barracks?'' said Kim Deok-hyun, an official from the civic group, Citizen's Action Network.
``It is the government's responsibility to provide a variety of ways for citizens to contribute to national security without compromising their freedom of thought and religion. The talks on alternative civil services are a good start,'' said Kim.