Human Rights of Armed Forces Personnel Chapter 1: Introduction The starting point for this compendium is the OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security. The Code of Conduct makes several references to the rights of armed forces personnel, the most important of which is paragraph 32: “Each participating State will ensure that military, paramilitary and security forces personnel will be able to enjoy and exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms as reflected in OSCE documents and international law, in conformity with relevant constitutional and legal provisions and with the requirements of service.” This paragraph underscores the notion that the human rights of armed forces personnel are subject to any limitations and duties of military service provided for by national law. Other provisions of the Code of Conduct refer to the human rights of service personnel in the context of the political neutrality of the armed forces (paragraph 23); recruitment and conscription (paragraph 27); rights and duties, as well as exemptions from, or alternatives to, military service (paragraph 28); and the obligation of states to provide appropriate legal and administrative procedures to protect the rights of military personnel (paragraph 33).1 The OSCE Code of Conduct is firmly grounded in the provisions of human rights treaties, including the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ECHR) of 1950, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and considers armed forces personnel as “citizens in uniform”, a concept also confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights.2 Accordingly, service personnel retain their human rights and fundamental freedoms, but these are subject to certain limitations and duties imposed by military service. OSCE participating States’ understanding of “citizens in uniform” varies, however, and usually depends on the military culture and history of a particular state, such as a recent transition to democracy and its experiences of conflict. For these reasons, no single model for protecting the human rights of armed forces personnel exists. Therefore, this compendium puts forward various models and good practices applied in OSCE participating States aimed at integrating human rights into the armed forces. The country examples and specific cases mentioned in this report serve to illustrate practices, challenges and jurisprudence relating to the protection of human rights of armed forces personnel, and are not intended to single out specific OSCE participating 18 1 OSCE, Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security, Budapest, 3 December 1994, https://www.osce. org/fsc/41355; also, for detailed commentary on the Code of Conduct, see: Victor-Yves Ghébali and Alexander Lambert, The OSCE Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security: Anatomy and Implementation (Leiden/Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005). 2 European Court of Human Rights, Matelly v. France, no.10609/10, 2 October 2014.