In Finland it is compulsory for men to attend either to military service of at least six months or non-military service of at leas 12 months. If you refuse attending either one, you will be put in jail for six months. Women are not obliged to this.
For many it takes an year out of their lives. And if you're going to go studying after high school and have the service from January to December, you'll basically lose two years.
An arguement used against this is that on the other hand women become pregnant and then lose working time because of that. I don't think that is a good arguement after all. You cannot compare compulsory things with things that de facto often happen, but aren't compulsory (thank god).
The fight for equality on this matter has driven some to seek for asylum because of their political opinion. People put in jail because of their views of pacifism in Finland are in fact political prisoners.
In 2001 a man seeked asylum in Belgium because of a loophole in Belgian law that allowed other EU-citizens to seek refuge. The Supreme Administrative Court of Belgium rejected the application after all, but Finland didn’t ask Belgium to hand him over back to Finland (Himberg 2010).
Considering asylum seekers from Finland, that is thought to be the safest country in the world (Leach 2017), might sound a little far-fetched when there are people fleeing actual war zones and still having problems getting asylum. But as long as Finland claims to be a civilized country and at the same time as the only EU-country having political prisoners, I don’t see the matter irrelevant.
The other EU-countries should express their opinions on Finnish customs by granting asylums for the non-militant Finns.
P.S. I myself went to the army and even enjoyed it, kind of. And afterwards I also worked there for few months as a sergeant. But that doesn’t mean that I would support the compulsoriness of the military or non-military services. I probably would’ve also come up with better use for that time in my life.
Considering asylum seekers from Finland, that is thought to be the safest country in the world (Leach 2017), might sound a little far-fetched when there are people fleeing actual war zones and still having problems getting asylum. But as long as Finland claims to be a civilized country and at the same time as the only EU-country having political prisoners, I don’t see the matter irrelevant.
The other EU-countries should express their opinions on Finnish customs by granting asylums for the non-militant Finns.
P.S. I myself went to the army and even enjoyed it, kind of. And afterwards I also worked there for few months as a sergeant. But that doesn’t mean that I would support the compulsoriness of the military or non-military services. I probably would’ve also come up with better use for that time in my life.
References:
Himberg, Petra (2010): “Totaalikieltäytyjä Jussi Hermaja pakeni Belgiaan”, Yle Elävä Arkisto. (See: https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2010/01/05/totaalikieltaytyja-jussi-hermaja-pakeni-belgiaan.)
Leach, Naomi (2017): “Finland is named the world's safest country... with the UK and USA ranking behind Zimbabwe”, Daily Mail. (See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4404900/Finland-named-world-s-safest-country.html.)
Himberg, Petra (2010): “Totaalikieltäytyjä Jussi Hermaja pakeni Belgiaan”, Yle Elävä Arkisto. (See: https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2010/01/05/totaalikieltaytyja-jussi-hermaja-pakeni-belgiaan.)
Leach, Naomi (2017): “Finland is named the world's safest country... with the UK and USA ranking behind Zimbabwe”, Daily Mail. (See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4404900/Finland-named-world-s-safest-country.html.)
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