A/HRC/23/22 Service also said that Armenia continued to imprison conscientious objectors to military service, and alleged that there were 31 conscientious objectors in prisons, all of them Jehovah’s Witnesses. Forum 18 News Service also claimed that the alternative service in Armenia was not a truly civilian alternative service because it was supervised by the Military Police under regulations laid down by the Defence Ministers, and that all breaches of orders or regulations were dealt with by the Military Prosecutor’s Office. It also took the position that alternative service at 42 months, compared with compulsory military service of 24 months, was excessively long. 52. Forum 18 News Service indicated in its reply that Azerbaijan continued to imprison conscientious objectors. The Jehovah’s Witnesses also alleged that Azerbaijan prosecuted and convicted conscientious objectors, and indicated that there were two cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights involving Jehovah’s Witnesses. 53. War Resisters’ International highlighted the lack of coherency between recognition of the right to conscientious objection to military service and its implementation. It stated that in 2009 the Colombian Constitutional Court recognized the right of conscientious objection to military service, and urged the Colombian Congress to pass a law to regulate this right. War Resisters’ International noted, however, that there was currently no legislative provision regulating conscientious objection and in practice the right did not exist. The Government of Colombia indicated that a proposed law had been under consideration in the Colombian Congress since 2010, although it had not yet been adopted. The Defensoria del Pueblo of Colombia also reported that the proposed law had not yet been adopted. 54. Human Rights Watch noted that Eritrea did not recognize conscientious objection to military service and did not permit alternative service. Human Rights Watch alleges that, in 1994, the Government arrested three Jehovah’s Witnesses, who remained incarcerated 19 years later. It also alleged that other Jehovah’s Witnesses had also been imprisoned subsequently, and that Eritrea had no time limit on imprisonment of conscientious objectors. It stated that those persons were imprisoned in isolation, and that the Government did not allow access to the Jehovah’s Witness prisoners to ascertain how they were treated. Human Rights Watch indicated that, since Eritrea did not publish information on individuals who were imprisoned, it was plausible that there may be other conscientious objectors imprisoned in addition to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. 55. The Jehovah’s Witnesses claim that there are 56 Witnesses currently imprisoned in Eritrea, and that 15 of them were known to have been imprisoned for conscientious objection to military service. Like Human Rights Watch, it maintained that three of the prisoners had been imprisoned since 1994. The Jehovah’s Witnesses stated that the national military service requirement had no provisions for conscientious objection, and that most Jehovah’s Witness between the ages of 18 and 40 were in hiding. Jehovah’s Witnesses’ alleged that those who were arrested by the military police and expressed their conscientious objection to military service were detained and often tortured. 56. War Resisters’ International reported a case of repeated punishment in Israel where it alleged that a conscientious objector who refused to serve in the Israeli military had been subject to repeated call-up, followed by refusal to service, and repeated punishment. 57. The Jehovah’s Witnesses indicated that the Republic of Korea had not implemented the Views of the Human Rights Committee in the three communications decided recognizing the right to conscientious objection to military service. Other replies from the International Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Centre for Civil and Political Rights also noted the failure of the Republic of Korea to implement the Committee’s decisions. The Jehovah’s Witnesses indicated that there were 50 complaints pending before the Committee from Jehovah’s Witnesses. The Jehovah’s Witnesses alleged that there were currently 669 14