INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ON CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION TO MILITARY SERVICE: A PARALLEL WITH THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT OF COLOMBIA

Abstract

Conscientious objection to compulsory military service in Colombia was not listed as a fundamental right in the original text of the Political Constitution of 1991. For nearly two decades, the Constitutional Court of Colombia denied its existence within the legal order, until 2009. At the international level, different multilateral and human rights protection organizations conceived the same and guaranteed it, against the States responsible for its violation. The purpose of this work is to expose the international standards of these organizations for the recognition and application of conscientious objection to compulsory military service, comparing them with the recent pronouncements of the Constitutional Court of Colombia.