Strasbourg Observers

View posts from: military service

  • Alfred Benny Auner

A.P. v. Austria: Death of Conscript During ‘Heat March’ – The Question of Causality

February 14, 2025

By Alfred Benny Auner T.P. died during a ‘heat march’, merely one month into his compulsory military service. Although the decision to hold the march in extreme temperatures was considered ‘problematic’ by national authorities, and the military personnel involved acted negligently after T.P. collapsed, the ECtHR, in its judgment of 26 November 2024, A.P. v. Austria (1718/21), found […]

  • Işıl Kurnaz

Does a requirement to undertake 1 day of reserve military service engender a right to conscientious objection? The recent judgment of the ECtHR in Kanatlı v. Turkey offers a new perspective.

April 05, 2024

Işıl Kurnaz Since around the mid-1800s, the term “conscientious objection” has been used to describe a refusal driven by an individual’s moral conscious to engage in military duties. Although the right to conscientious objection is not defined in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – or indeed, in any UN instrument – it is […]