Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel This was reiterated by the Council of Europe’s Council of Ministers, in its 2010 recommendation on the human rights of members of the armed forces.318 Box 8.8: Bodies that determine claims of conscientious objection319 Civilian bodies Armed forces Austria, Cyprus, Estonia, Germany, Montenegro, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland The Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Romania, the United Kingdom Selective conscientious objection Selective conscientious objection is the conscientious objection to participation in a particular military campaign, as opposed to military service in general. Conscientious objection of this type has a long history, with examples ranging from Henry David Thoreau’s refusal to pay taxes in 1846 during the United States-Mexico war,320 to service personnel who refused to fight in the second Gulf War.321 It applies, in particular, to professional service personnel and reservists. Selective conscientious objection is potentially problematic for two reasons. First, since the objector is prepared to fight in other conflicts, the sincerity of the claim may be questioned. Second, the motivation may appear to be political rather than a dictate of conscience. In theory, a member of the armed forces with a selective objection could, subject to other considerations of effectiveness, be deployed to perform other duties. In practice, however, the outcome is likely to be the same as for a regular soldier who develops a conscientious objection after enlisting – discharge from the armed forces and loss of one’s career. Few states provide an exemption from service for selective conscientious objection. The United States Supreme Court has held that there is no constitutional requirement under the protection of freedom of religion to do more than provide a general right for those “conscientiously opposed to all war.”322 The German Federal Administrative Court, on the other hand, held in 2005 that freedom of conscience protected an army software engineer who refused to work on a computer program for reasons of conscience because he found the Iraq war to be unjust and illegal.323 140 318 Council of Europe, Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)4, op. cit., note 26, para. 42. 319 Responses to the ODIHR-DCAF 2018 questionnaire, qu. 20(e). 320 Henry David Thoreau, On Civil Disobedience (Chicago: Charles H. Kerr, 1989). 321 “Jail for Iraq refusal RAF doctor”, BBC News, 13 April 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4905672.stm. 322 Supreme Court of the United States, Gillette v. United States, 8 March 1971, United States Reports, Vol. 401, 1974, p. 437. 323 German Federal Administrative Court, Wehrdienstsenat (Military Service Division), 21 June 2005, Decision No. 12 of 2004, Case No. WD 12.04 (see Michael Bohlander, “Superior Orders, Unjust War and the Soldier’s Conscience”, Inter Alia, Vol. 4, 2005, pp. 17-19).