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Alternative civilian service, also calledalternative services,civilian service,non-military service, andsubstitute service, is a form ofnational service performed in lieu of militaryconscription for various reasons, such asconscientious objection, inadequatehealth, orpolitical reasons. Alternative service usually involves some kind of labor.
Alternative civilian service is service to a government made as acivilian, particularly such service as an option forconscripted persons who areconscientious objectors and object tomilitary service.
Civilian service is usually performed in the service of non-profit governmental bodies or other institutions. For example, in Austria, men drafted for alternative civilian service mainly serve in healthcare facilities and retirement homes, while other countries have a wider variety of possible placements.
Alternative service is often rejected by antimilitaristconscientious objectors, who still regard it as part of the military system. Many argue that it is not inconveniencing the military in any way, and in fact paints them in a good light. Moreover, in the past non-military service has often freed up people for work in the military, or enabled people to return to the military e.g. nursing. Those conscientious objectors who also reject alternative service are known as absolutists or total objectors.
TheTwenty Classes was a program used by the Turkish government during World War II to conscript the male non-Turkish minority population mainly consisting of Armenians, Greeks and Jews. The prevailing and widespread point of view on the matter was that, anticipating entry to World War II, Turkey gathered in advance all unreliable non-Turkish men regarded as a potential "fifth column".
Lack of alternative service inArmenia in 2003–2004 was considered to violate freedom of religion by theEuropean Court of Human Rights in 2011.[1]
A citizen of the Russian Federation shall have the right to replace military service by alternative civilian service in case his convictions or religious belief contradict military service and also in other cases envisaged by the federal law.
