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Opinion on the Constitutional Review (12th Abjudication of Constitutionality of Statues in on Article 8 of the Homeland Reserve Forces Act) [2007] KRNHRC 14 (1 January 2007)

In relation to the Constitutional Review on Article 15.8 of the Homeland Reserve
Forces Act requested by the Ulsan District Court, the Commission re-confirmed that the
right to conscientious objection to military service should be protected and alternative
military service program should be introduced, and decided to submit its statement on
prevention of punishment of those who conscientiously object to serve homeland reserve
forces to the Constitutional Court of Korea.

The Commission re-confirmed its opinion that Article 19 of the Constitution (Freedom
of Conscience) includes "freedom not to being forced to act against conscience (freedom of
conscience based on forbearance; conscientious objection to military service)," and that
conscientious objection to military service is within the scope of the protection of freedom
of conscience. It also re-confirmed that the government should not turn a blind eye to the
pain and suffering of conscientious objectors and should introduce alternative military
service programs to strike a balance between protection of rights of conscientious objectors
and national security.

As the UN Commission on Human Rights pointed out in a General Comment (No 36/1999),
the Commission noted that repeated punishment of conscientious objectors by
the Korean government was designed to change the conscience of conscientious objectors,
and that a person's conscientious objection to military service should be regarded as the
coaction and single action, regardless of the number of objections, if conscientious
objectors explicitly expressed their will not to participate in military training. This case is
under examination by the Constitutional Court.