The case Adyan and Others v. Armenia (application no. 75604/11) concerned four Jehovah’s Witnesses who were convicted in 2011 for refusing to perform either military or alternative civilian service because of their religious beliefs. Before both the local authorities and the courts, they argued that, even though domestic law did provide for an alternative to military service, it was not of a genuinely civilian nature, as it was supervised by the military authorities. They were released from prison in 2013 following a general amnesty. They served more than two years of their prison sentence.
In today’s Chamber judgment in the case the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been: a violation of Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Court found that the Armenian authorities had failed at the relevant time to make appropriate allowances for the applicants’ conscience and beliefs and to guarantee a system of alternative service that had struck a fair balance between the interests of society as a whole and those of the applicants.
In particular, it found two main shortcomings in the system of alternative service. First, it was not sufficiently separated from the military system: either as concerned authority, control or applicable rules, the military being involved in the supervision and organisation of the alternative service, including such aspects as spot checks, unauthorised absence, transfers, assignments and the use of the military rules; or as concerned appearances, civilian servicemen being required to wear a uniform.
Secondly, the programme was significantly longer (42 months rather than the 24 months
for military service), which had to have had a deterrent, even punitive effect. Moreover, although legislative amendments were introduced in 2013, and the applicants could have
applied to have their convictions quashed, by that time they had already served almost two years of their sentences.
The Court held that Armenia was to pay the applicants 12,000 euros (EUR) each for non-pecuniary damage.
