by 46 states.26 The European Convention is applicable to all but nine OSCE states: Belarus, Canada, the Holy See, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United States of America, and Uzbekistan. Art. 1 of the Convention obliges the contracting states to secure to “everyone [emphasis added] within their jurisdiction” the rights and freedoms under the Convention. It therefore applies to members of the armed forces as well as to civilians. 2. The Relevance of Human Rights for Members of the Armed Forces The approach of treating members of the armed forces as citizens in uniform is longstanding in many domestic legal systems. This requires that service personnel be, so far as is consistent with military life, accorded the normal civil and constitutional rights of other citizens. As we explain further in Chapter 8, treating members of the armed forces as citizens in uniform clearly favours integrating the military into society, rather than the alternative approach of insulating the military from political and social life. For example, the US courts have stated: “our citizens in uniform may not be stripped of basic rights simply because they have doffed their civilian clothes”.27 At the international level, the same Box 5.1 Main Human Rights Treaty Obligations and Their Relevance Right Right to Life Legal Source Art. 2 ECHR Art. 6 ICCPR Art. 6 CRC Art. 3 UDHR (life, liberty, and security) Art. 5 ECHR (lists circumstances where scope of the right may be curtailed in cases prescribed by law) Art. 9 ICCPR Art. 5 ICERD Art. 10 ICCPR Art. 1 UDHR (liberty and equality) Art. 3 UDHR (life, liberty, and security) Art. 14 ECHR Art. 3 ICCPR (does not list grounds on which discrimination may be based) Art. 14 ICCPR (equal before courts and tribunals) Art. 2 CEDAW Art. 15 CEDAW Art. 2 ICERD Art. 3 ICESCR Art. 2 CRC Art. 1 UDHR (liberty and equality) Art. 2 UDHR Art. 6 UDHR (right to recognition before the law) Art. 7 UDHR Preamble UN Charter Right to Liberty Right to Equality Examples of Relevance Extreme bullying of conscripts; inquests into unexplained deaths on military premises or during military service Detention under military justice systems Differences in treatment of women, religious and ethnic minorities, gay and lesbian service personnel (for example, discharge following pregnancy or upon discovery of sexual orientation, sexual harassment, limits on deployment of women to combat zones) 26  For ratifications by individual states, see: <http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/EN/Header/Basic+Texts/ Basic+Texts/Dates+of+ratification+of+the+European+Convention+on+Human+Rights+and+Additional+Prot ocols>. 27  Chappell v. Wallace, United States Supreme Court, 13 June 1983, United States Reports, Vol. 462, 1983, pp. 296, 304 (quoting Earl Warren, “The Bill of Rights and the Military”, New York University Law Review, Vol. 37, 1962, pp. 181, 188). 32 Handbook on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Armed Forces Personnel

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