Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel Box 8.2: Examples of Constitutional provisions concerning conscientious objection298 Estonia, Article 124: Those who refuse service in the Defence Forces for religious or ethical reasons shall be obliged to participate in alternative service, in accordance with the procedures prescribed by law. Germany, Article 12(a)(2): A person who refuses, on grounds of conscience, to render war service involving the use of arms can be required to render a substitute service. The duration of such substitute service may not exceed the duration of military service. Details are regulated by a statute that may not interfere with the freedom to take a decision based on conscience and that must also provide for the possibility of a substitute service not connected with units of the Armed Forces or of the Federal Border Guard. Portugal, Article 276(4): Conscientious objectors who by law are subject to the performance of military service shall perform civic service with the same duration and degree of arduousness as armed military service. Slovenia, Article 123(2): Citizens who for their religious, philosophical, or humanitarian convictions are not willing to perform military duties must be given the opportunity to participate in national defence in some other manner. Spain, Article 30(2): The law shall determine the military obligations of Spaniards and shall regulate, with all due guarantees, conscientious objection, as well as other grounds for exemption from compulsory military service; it may also, when appropriate, impose community service in place of military service. However, it is important that legislation also provides procedures for implementing the right to conscientious objection, as the UN OHCHR has argued: “Legal recognition of conscientious objection or alternative service, without implementing provisions, can lead to legal uncertainty and frustrate the exercise of these rights in practice.”299 298 ODIHR, Legislationline.org, op. cit., note 111. 134 299 UN OHCHR 2012, op. cit., note 273, pp. 48-49.