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Case Hermaja:[ English | Suomeksi | Nederlands | Français ]
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Conscientious Objection In Finlandby Kaj Raninen, Union of Consciensus Objectors, Finland There still exists a very extensive conscription system in Finland.
About 80% of all male Finnish citizen do the military service. Bit more
than 10 % are exempted from service and about 7 % apply for civilian
service.
Civilian serviceCivilian service was created in Finland in 1931 and since that it has existed continuously except the period of Second World War: the then existing - as well as the current - Civilian Service Act quaranteed the right to consientious objection only in peace time. The number of civilian servers stayed at a relatively low level until the end of the 80´s, when only 800 conscripts applied for it annually. At early 90´s the number started to grow rapidly and since mid-90´s it has stabilized to 2.500 per year. During the past couple of years the number of applicants has started to grow again and this year there will possibly be over 3.000 applications. The current Civilian Service Act came into force in the beginning of
1992. According to it every conscript may, after he has taken part in
enrollment, apply for civilian service anytime before the start of his
military service or during it. The applicant must declare that serious
religious or ethical reasons of conscience prohibits him to serve in
army, but this conviction is not "examined" at all and every
application is accepted automatically.
The Civilian service lasts 395 days, so it is over twice as long as the most common military service (which lasts 180 days). It is organized by the Ministry of Labour. Hospitals, administrative byroos, houses for aged, kindergartens, schools, universities and cultural institutions are among the most common service places. Besides these public service places, it is possible to do civilian service also in some private non- profit organizations separately accepeted by the Ministry of Labour. During the service the civilian server is entitled to daily allowance, free accomodation, eating and health care paid by the service place, although in practice these are not always realized. Beside the punishment-like length of civilian service and the restriction of the right to conscientious objection only to peace time, there are many practical problems in Finnish civilian service system, which are in the first place consequences of the poor organizing of civilian service. As a consequence of growing number of civilian servers there is a lack of service places and many of them neglect their legal obligations by, for example, refusing to give the free accomodation for their civilian servers. The Finnish Civilian Service is not "integrated" as effectively as in
some other countries. Many political decision-makers see it rather as a
"necessary evil" which is a threath to military than as a source of
cheap labour force. The basic reason for this is probably the
historically derived high social appreciation of army and extensive
conscription system.
Total objectionLeaving out Jehova´s Wittnesses, there were very few total objectors in Finland until the mid 80´s, at most a couple annually. Total objector movement arose at the end of 80´s as a protest against the Contemporary Civilian Service Act, which came into force in 1987 and lenghtened the service period to 480 days. Between 1987-91 over 100 Finnish conscripts refused to do either military or civilian service. They were "conditional total objectors", their protest was focused expressly to the defects of this law. After the current Civilian Service Act took effect in 1992, total objection became more infrequent although it never disappered, and the arguments of total objectors changed too. More and more total objectors announced their opposition to conscription system as such, not solely to abuses of Civilian Service Law, and refused to serve within the limits of conscription in any cases. In the late 90´s total objection became more common again. In 1999 totally 56 total obejectors announced authorities of their refusal, which is the highest number since the Jehova´s Wittnesses were exempted. The number will probably be even higher this year. This growth is partly explained by the aggravation of problems in civilian service system (the service period of conscripts was shortened in 1998, but civilian service period has remained unchanged) but not entirely: the "unconditional" total objection which protests against the conscription system as such seems to be growing noticeably too. Total objectors are senteced to unconditional prison sentence, which length is formally provoded: it is half of the service period undone counted as a civilian service tíme. If a total objector has not done any service before his refusal, his sentence will be 197 days. The prison sentences of total objectors are normally executed in open prisons, where there is a possiblity to work or study outside the prison during the sentence. Since November 1999 Amnesty International has adopted 22 Finnish total objectors as a prisoners of consciousness, because it regards the length of Finnish civilian service as punitive.
Case Hermaja:
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