Porterville Recorder

Sunday was Conscienti­ous Objector Day

South Korea’s ACS program considered punitive

- THE RECORDER recorder@portervill­erecorder.com

As the world prepared for Internatio­nal Conscienti­ous Objector Day on Sunday, May 15, more than 800 Jehovah’s Witnesses in South Korea chose to perform alternativ­e civilian service instead of compulsory military duties.

Under the current ACS format, these young men are prisoners by definition, because they’re forced to live and work in prison facilities. The republic’s 36-month ACS is the longest in the world, twice the length of active military service, and thus considered punitive. Experts inside and outside of South Korea recognize the program violates an internatio­nal covenant the republic is party to and have been calling on the government for reform.

South Korea’s National Human Rights Commission, Mr. Doo-hwan Song, stated: “I deeply agree on the need to improve the (ACS) system to meet internatio­nal human rights standards.”

South Korea’s ACS first made internatio­nal headlines when it was introduced in 2019. Prior to that, for some 65 years, South Korean courts criminally convicted and imprisoned more than 19,000 conscienti­ous objectors, mostly Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As a result, for decades, South Korea was often internatio­nally censured. However, the criticism has since shifted to the punitive nature of the ACS program, which is twice the length of prison time imposed by the republic prior to the 2019 provision.

According to Amnesty Internatio­nal: “South Korean conscienti­ous objectors were promised a genuine alternativ­e service. Instead, they are confronted with little more than an alternativ­e punishment.”

California resident Byung-ho Son, who served a three-year sentence from 1998-2001, said, “Although I am happy that Korea now allows alternativ­e civilian service, there is definitely room for progress.”

The program isn’t congruent with the republic’s constituti­on, encroachin­g on a citizen’s freedom of thought, conscience, and religion as guaranteed in Article 19. Experts eagerly anticipate how the newly elected president and his administra­tion will address the issue.

For more informatio­n about Jehovah’s Witnesses or conscienti­ous objection in general, as well as the punitive nature of ACS in South Korea, email the Asia-pacific Associatio­n of Jehovah’s Witnesses (APAJW): apajw.jp@ jw.org.

The APAJW is a General Incorporat­ed Associatio­n representi­ng more than 770,000 members in the Asia and Oceania region. The main purpose is to support the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses and protect their fundamenta­l rights.

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