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Campaigners welcome new right to leave the armed forces for under-18s

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The government has today promised to give teenage soldiers the right to leave the armed forces up until age 18 if they are unhappy. ForcesWatch and other NGOs have been campaigning on this and other issues relating to under-18s in the armed forces as the Arned Forces Bill does through parliament.

 The government has today promised to give teenage soldiers the right to leave the armed forces up until age 18 if they are unhappy.

This announcement has been welcomed by ForcesWatch, a network concerned with ethical issues involving the armed forces, and other human rights groups. ForcesWatch said they would be watching closely as the details are published to ensure that the law is changed in both letter and spirit. 

Currently, people joining the forces at 16 or 17 have no right to discharge (after the first six months) until turning 22 but must rely on the discretion of commanding officers to get a discharge.

Today the Minister for Defence Personnel, Andrew Robothan MP wrote in a statement to the Armed Forces Bill Committee, “Following a review of discharge policy I am pleased to announce that, for those under the age of 18, the ability to be discharged will in future be a right up to the age of 18, subject to an appropriate period of consideration or cooling off.”… Read more

Court martial raises fears over forces personnel’s right to conscience

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A medic in the Royal Navy, who is facing court martial, will argue in court tomorrow that he has a legal defence. Michael Lyons has been charged with “wilful disobedience” because he asked not to participate in rifle training last September after having applied for conscientious objector status.

A medic in the Royal Navy, who is facing court martial, will argue in court tomorrow that he has a legal defence.

Michael Lyons has been charged with “wilful disobedience” because he asked not to participate in rifle training last September after having applied for conscientious objector status.

Lyons could face up to ten years’ imprisonment if convicted.

Michael Lyons’ lawyer will argue that because Mr Lyons had already declared a conscientious objection at the time of the incident, the command for him to participate in rifle training was unlawful. Furthermore, the court martial proceedings were put in place while the process of establishing whether Mr Lyons could be discharged as a conscientious objection was ongoing.

Mr Lyons’ defence are also concerned that there could be a perception that the judge in this case is not impartial. In a previous hearing the judge was asked to recuse himself from the case because he acted as Senior Prosecutor for the RAF in the case of Mohisin Khan in 2004.… Read more

British sailor denied right to conscientious objection as world marks CO Day

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Only a few days after International Conscientious Objectors’ Day on Sunday (15 May), a member of the Royal Navy with moral objections to the war in Afghanistan will be tried for ‘wilful disobedience’.

British sailor denied right to conscientious objection as world marks CO Day

A British NGO has said that members of the UK armed forces are still denied full rights to conscientious objection.

Forces Watch pointed out that only a few days after International Conscientious Objectors’ Day on Sunday (15 May), a member of the Royal Navy with moral objections to the war in Afghanistan will be tried for ‘wilful disobedience’.

Michael Lyons, a naval medic, will face a court-martial in Portsmouth on Friday 20 May. He asked not to participate in rifle training last September after having applied for conscientious objector status. This application was turned down and was also rejected by the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objection (ACCO) in December.

Michael’s objection was based on medical ethics, which led him to believe that injured people should be treated equally whatever their nationality. He also objects to the level of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. But ACCO told him his objection was “political” rather than “moral”.

Emma Sangster, Co-ordinator of Forces Watch, said:

“95 years ago, the UK became the first country in the world to formally recognise the right to conscientious objection in law.… Read more

Navy medic may face 10-year sentence for ‘disobedience’: Plight of conscientious objectors highlighted by man who refused rifle training

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A Royal Navy medic with ethical objections to the Afghanistan war could face up to 10 years in prison after refusing to undergo rifle training. The Navy will hold a preliminary court-martial hearing against Michael Lyons on Friday.

Campaigners see the court martial as the Navy’s attempt to deter other service personnel opposing military duty on grounds of conscience, religion or freedom of thought.

A Royal Navy medic with ethical objections to the Afghanistan war could face up to 10 years in prison after refusing to undergo rifle training. The Navy will hold a preliminary court-martial hearing against Michael Lyons on Friday.

Campaigners see the court martial as the Navy’s attempt to deter other service personnel opposing military duty on grounds of conscience, religion or freedom of thought.

The 24-year-old had applied for conscientious objector status when he was ordered to take firearms training last September before a tour of Afghanistan. Pending the outcome of his hearing, Lyons attended but asked not to participate. After several hours during which he was threatened with arrest, he was sent back to base. When his case was later dismissed, the Navy told him he would be court-martialled for “wilful disobedience”.

When his application was heard last December, Lyons was the first person to appear before the Advisory Committee on Conscientious Objectors (ACCO) since 1996.… Read more

Armed forces report reveals MPs’ confusion over recruitment of under-18s

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The report by the House of Commons Committee on the Armed Forces Bill has rejected proposals to raise the minimum age of recruitment to 18.  But ForcesWatch, an NGO that submitted evidence to the Committee, suggests that the wording of the report reveals a lack of clarity over the law in this area, even among MPs and senior military personnel.

Today’s report by the House of Commons Committee on the Armed Forces Bill has rejected proposals to raise the minimum age of recruitment to 18 (1).  But ForcesWatch, an NGO that submitted evidence to the Committee, suggests that the wording of the report reveals a lack of clarity over the law in this area, even among MPs and senior military personnel (2).

The Committee reported that they have “raised concerns with the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff, Lt Gen. Sir William Rollo, who clarified the MoD?s position regarding the discharge of unhappy minors”.

But ForcesWatch suggests that William Rollo’s evidence was itself unclear.  He said that there is a “a window at 18, for a further three months, where they [forces personnel] can apply to leave”.  It is unclear which provision this refers to.

In law, a Discharge As Of Right (DAOR) applies to recruits under 18 for only the first six months of service. … Read more

‘Boy soldiers’ artwork shown outside Parliament

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boy soldier art work

A three-dimensional art installation depicting child soldiers is being displayed outside the Houses of Parliament as part of a peace campaign.

The sculpture, by Hertfordshire artist Schoony, shows the boys sprayed with the words Dulce Et Decorum Est – words from Wilfred Owen’s World War I poem.

Schoony is a special effects artist who made prosthetics for the film Rambo.

Schoony said: “Sending children to war is horrific and highlighting this injustice is really important to me.

boy soldier art work“My nephew is aged seven in this art piece; the age of some of our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq as they would have been 10 years ago. It is a future I do not want for my nephew.”… Read more

Cadet forces to be expanded in state schools

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Military ‘spirit’ is to be encouraged in classrooms with the expansion of cadet forces in state schools.

Michael Gove, the education secretary, wants to see more after-school uniform parades to instil the “spirit of service” in the next generation.

On Monday he will announce further measures to increase the influence of the armed forces in the classroom.

Schools in England and Wales are already preparing for the ‘Troops to Teachers’ programme that will see former ex-service personnel offered free training courses to take up a second career in teaching.… Read more

One in 10 Army recruits ‘bullied and intimidated’

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A decade after Deepcut, MoD reports reveal failure to tackle problem affecting hundreds of trainees.

Hundreds of young army recruits are still suffering from physical beatings and intimidation at the hands of their instructors, despite a series of fatalities at training camps in recent years and amid allegations that soldiers were being bullied to death.

A series of previously unpublicised reports obtained by this newspaper highlight growing concern surrounding the issue this weekend. They include a new annual survey of recruits by the Ministry of Defence that reveals that hundreds report having been beaten or intimidated by their superiors. More than one in 10 of all trainee soldiers – what the report describes as a “notable minority” – claimed to have been unfairly or badly treated and, of these, more than one in five said they had been picked on continually.

According to the report, made available to MPs just over a week ago, less than three-quarters of recruits felt that training was always conducted without sexual or racial harassment. And nearly a quarter did not feel able to take their concerns to a person in authority.

Another, unpublished, report obtained this weekend sheds light on the extent of abuse being suffered by service personnel.… Read more

More than 17,000 episodes of troops going Awol since 2003

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British soldiers have gone on the run from their posts on more than 17,000 occasions since the start of the Iraq war, The Independent can reveal.

As resources for the armed forces remain stretched to cope with Britain’s commitments in Afghanistan, official figures from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) show that there were more than 2,000 cases of soldiers going absent without leave (awol) last year, with 17,470 incidents recorded since the Iraq invasion in 2003.

The internal Government statistics, released to The Independent under the Freedom of Information Act, show that 375 soldiers remained at large at the end of last year, although MoD sources insisted that the figure has since fallen. Army officials are battling hard to tackle the problem that has persisted throughout Britain’s gruelling operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.… Read more

At least 1,000 UK soldiers desert

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More than 1,000 members of the British military have deserted since the start of the Iraq war, the BBC has learned.

Figures for those still missing are 86 from 2001, 118 from 2002, 134 from 2003, 229 from 2004, 377 from 2005, and 189 for this year so far.

The news comes as Parliament debates a law that will forbid military personnel from refusing to participate in the occupation of a foreign country.… Read more