#warresistersinternational — Public Fediverse posts

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
11
The other men were released unconditionally in April 1919, well after the Armistice. On returning home, they were widely seen as cowards and were spurned by their local communities. They were formally disfranchised for five year.
Legal recognition of Conscientious objection has continued to be recognised in the UK ever since.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
10
The men were transferred to Rouen, from where they were sent back to England by ship, after facing an angry French crowd on the quay-side. From the ship they were taken to Winchester Prison. On 11 July 1917 Alfred Martlew, one of the sixteen, was found drowned, reported in a newspaper under the heading "An Objector Drowned".
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
9
Arnold Rowntree, a Quaker and MP for York, immediately raised the matter in Parliament. It’s likely that this influenced the then Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, and the death sentences were commuted to ten years’ penal servitude.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
8
As the train transporting these “absolutist” Conscientious Objectors was travelling through London a message detailing their plight was thrown onto a platform. The message was picked up by a sympathetic railway worker and delivered to the offices of the No Conscription Fellowship.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
7
On 29 May 1916 the Richmond Sixteen were taken from Richmond Castle and transported to France. Once there, they were considered to be on active service, which meant that they might face a firing squad if they refused to obey orders. The authorities hoped this might serve as an example to others considering conscientious objection.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
6
Some conscientious objectors served in non-combatant roles. Others maintained an absolute objection. Many of these “absolutists” were treated harshly. One group of these “absolutists” became known as “the Richmond 16.”
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
5
Military Service Tribunals were bodies formed by borough, urban district and rural district councils to hear applications for exemption from conscription into the British Army during the First World War.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
4
Many conscientious objectors cite religious reasons. Members of the Historic Peace Churches such as Quakers, Anabaptists. Others cite moral, political or philosophical objections such as a refusal to kill another human; socialism or “International brotherhood.”
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
3
In 1974, the Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations, Seán MacBride said, in his Nobel Lecture, "To the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights one more might, with relevance, be added. It is 'The Right to Refuse to Kill'."
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
2
In 1948, the issue of the right to "conscience" was dealt with by the United Nations General Assembly in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It reads:
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union

Eleven posts in the run up to Armistice Day – The Story of The Richmond 16
1
Many conscientious objectors have been harshly treated when their beliefs led to actions conflicting with their society's legal system or government.
In Great Britain, the first formal exemption was granted the mid 18th-century following problems with attempting to force Quakers into military service.
#conscientiousobjection
#warresistersinternational
#peace pledge union