Compendium of Standards, Good Practices and Recommendations Republic of Ireland: Article 28(3) (3.1) War shall not be declared and the State shall not participate in any war save with the assent of the House of Representatives. (3.2) In the case of actual invasion, however, the Government may take whatever steps they may consider necessary for the protection of the State, and the House of Representatives if not sitting shall be summoned to meet at the earliest practicable date. Most written constitutions contain a guarantee of the rights of individuals. Members of the armed forces will be entitled to enjoy these rights in the same way as other citizens unless the constitution states otherwise. Where such restrictions exist, they usually apply to specific rights, such as the right to stand for parliament or freedom of association or assembly. Constitutional provisions dealing explicitly with the human rights of armed forces members tend to be introduced for two reasons. First, in countries with conscript armies, the constitution may provide a right of conscientious objection to military service. A number of these constitutional provisions are summarized in Box 8.2 in “Chapter 8: Conscientious Objection to Military Service”, which examines in detail the human rights issues surrounding conscientious objection. Second, the history of a particular country may suggest that it is necessary to guarantee the neutrality of the armed forces in the constitution as the highest normative level. For example, the constitution may enforce a separation between the military and political leadership. In such cases, the human rights of service personnel are to some extent restricted in pursuit of a higher constitutional goal. Restrictions on the political rights of armed forces members are dealt with at greater length in “Chapter 5: Civil and Political Rights”. These two concerns apart, it is uncommon for matters touching on the human rights of members of the armed forces to be referred to in a written constitution. The tendency has been to regard members of the armed forces as citizens in uniform – entitled to the same civil and political rights as the remainder of the population, although these rights may, where necessary, be subject to legal restrictions owing to the nature of military service. 61