Council of Europe anti-racism body encourages Ukraine to offer Jehovah's Witnesses alternative civilian service; Ukraine says legislation is being prepared

The Council of Europe's anti-racism monitoring body has encouraged Ukraine to give Jehovah's Witnesses and other religious objectors a civilian alternative to military service during the war, in a country report published on 21 October 2026. In a reply printed at the back of the same report, Ukraine's government says legislation on that kind of service is already being prepared.^[1]

The report is the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI)'s sixth report on Ukraine, adopted on 30 June 2026. It discusses how wartime mobilisation affects religious minorities, and Jehovah's Witnesses are the only community it names in its discussion of military service. It relays allegations of mistreatment of Witnesses taken to military units (in its section on the armed forces) and figures on criminal cases against them, and ends its discussion of military service by encouraging the authorities to talk to the community and offer it "non-military alternative service".^[1]

Ukraine answers three of those points directly. It says the abuse figure counts reports, not proven violations; it disputes ECRI's wording that conscientious objection "has been ruled out"; and it says legislative proposals are being prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Environment.^[1]

What ECRI is, and what this report is

ECRI was set up by the Council of Europe. The report's foreword describes ECRI as an "independent human rights monitoring body" working on racism, discrimination, xenophobia, antisemitism and intolerance, including discrimination on grounds of religion.^[1]

ECRI reviews every Council of Europe member state in turn, in rounds that run about five years, called monitoring cycles; this is Ukraine's sixth. The foreword says ECRI's reports "are not the result of inquiries or testimonial evidence" but "analyses based on information gathered from a wide variety of sources": documents, a visit to the country, and a confidential exchange with the government on a draft. What ECRI produces are recommendations to the government concerned.^[1]

ECRI's delegation visited Ukraine from 15 to 19 September 2025, meeting people in Kyiv and in the Zakarpattia region. Unless it says otherwise, the report describes the situation up to 19 March 2026, the date ECRI examined the first draft; later developments are, as a rule, not covered.^[1]

The government may ask for its own comments to be printed alongside the report. Ukraine did. That appendix, the report notes, "does not form part of ECRI's analysis and proposals".^[1]

The war as the starting point

ECRI places the whole report in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion. Its preliminary remarks recall that in 2022 it "condemned the aggression in the strongest terms" and expressed full support for Ukrainians fighting for their country's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Martial law was introduced in March 2022 and, the report notes, was still in force at the time of ECRI's visit in September 2025, and Ukraine has used Article 15 of the European Convention on Human Rights to suspend (in legal terms, derogating from) some of its obligations under the Convention: those on liberty, fair trial, private and family life, and effective remedies.^[1]

The section on religious minorities opens the same way. ECRI says it "fully acknowledges the grave situation faced by Ukraine and its right to self-defence following the war of aggression by the Russian Federation, which has necessarily led to stricter conscription measures" (paragraph 97).^[1]

Allegations of abuse in military units

The abuse allegations appear in the report's discussion of the armed forces. After praising recent steps there, including a new department for service members' rights and a complaints hotline, ECRI says in paragraph 95 that it is "seriously concerned about allegations of mistreatment and physical abuse faced by a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses who were forcibly taken to military units".^[1]

It reports that more than 150 such incidents were reported between March 2024 and June 2025, and that reports also point to "widespread verbal harassment and threats motivated by religious intolerance". The footnote for these figures cites a September 2025 update from the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses and a 2024 report by the UN human-rights office (OHCHR). The report does not identify any of the people involved.^[1]

These are allegations relayed to ECRI, not findings it made itself. In the formal list of recommendations, ECRI then asks the authorities to send a "firm, regular message of zero tolerance" for racism, religious intolerance and anti-LGBTI prejudice within the police, border guards and armed forces, and to make sure that any signs of such conduct are effectively investigated (paragraph 96).^[1]

Hate speech

Separately, in paragraph 45, ECRI says it is concerned by reports that Witnesses "have occasionally been subject to hate speech, including verbal abuse and vandalism of their places of worship". According to information given to ECRI, this is sometimes accompanied by narratives "portraying them as “anti-Ukrainian” or insufficiently patriotic due to their conscientious objection to military service". The sources cited are again the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses and the 2024 OHCHR report.^[1]

The criminal-case figures

Paragraph 98 sets out figures on prosecutions between January 2022 and December 2025. ECRI presents them as reported to it ("reportedly"; "ECRI also learned"), and the footnote points to publications of Jehovah's Witnesses and of the European Association of Jehovah's Witnesses. According to the report:^[1]

• 967 criminal proceedings were opened against Witnesses under Article 336 of the Criminal Code, which covers evading call-up during mobilisation and carries up to five years in prison. Of these, 345 reached court, and trial courts handed down sentences in 47.
• 13 proceedings were opened and sent to court for "refusing military orders" (Article 402).
• 44 cases were opened for "unauthorised abandonment of a military unit" (Article 407), seven of which were sent to court. The report says these offences led or may lead to sentences of up to ten years.
• As of December 2025, one Witness was reportedly being held in custody before trial or serving a prison sentence, "while seven cases were referred to court".

A footnote adds that the situation is "said to have been particularly problematic" after an information letter from the Prosecutor General's Office in August 2024. That letter, sent to regional prosecutors, concerned the Supreme Court's legal position in a decision of 13 June 2024 (case No. 601/2491/22) on what must be proved for an Article 336 offence.^[1]

"Ruled out", or not yet provided for?

In paragraph 97, ECRI echoes concerns raised by civil-society groups, by Ukraine's parliamentary human-rights commissioner and by the OHCHR about "the current mobilisation, under which conscientious objection has been ruled out". It describes the people affected as believers who "refuse armed and non-armed military service but who are nonetheless willing to perform alternative civilian service and contribute to their country’s war effort".^[1]

Paragraph 99 sets out the legal position as ECRI understands it. In October 2025, Ukraine's Supreme Court ruled that Ukrainian law "does not provide any exemption from compulsory military service during mobilisation based on conscientious objection". The same ruling affirmed that mobilisation does not remove a person's right to refuse to carry or use weapons and to perform only non-combat military duties. ECRI also notes that complaints were pending before Ukraine's Constitutional Court, which rules on whether laws are compatible with the Constitution, over the wartime limits on objection and the criminal penalties for refusing service on those grounds.^[1]

What ECRI asks Ukraine to do

Paragraph 100 points the authorities to an opinion from the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional law. Ukraine's Constitutional Court had asked it for an amicus curiae brief (a legal opinion offered to a court by an outside body; literally, friend of the court) on alternative service, and it adopted one in March 2025. As ECRI summarises it, the Venice Commission found that states have some leeway during a general mobilisation, but that "the very nature of conscientious objection implies that it cannot be fully excluded in times of war".^[1]

ECRI then encourages the authorities "to hold meaningful and regular consultations with Jehovah’s Witnesses and any other relevant religious communities to address their concerns about conscientious objection and to make available non-military alternative service through which these communities can support Ukraine in times of war".^[1]

In the same paragraph it "welcomes the authorities’ commitment to develop and adopt a law to ensure the right to perform alternative service during martial law". The footnote ties that commitment to point 3.3 of Ukraine's Roadmap on the Rule of Law, adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in May 2025 as part of its talks on joining the EU.^[1]

Where this sits among ECRI's priorities

ECRI words paragraph 100 as encouragement rather than as one of its formal recommendations. It is not in the report's list of fifteen numbered recommendations.^[1]

Nor is it one of the two recommendations ECRI singles out for interim follow-up, a check on progress that ECRI will carry out no later than two years after publication. Those two are a nationwide awareness campaign against hate speech (paragraph 46), aimed at groups of concern to ECRI and naming "in particular LGBTI persons and Roma", and a task force to help Roma who lack identity documents (paragraph 77). The hate-speech recommendation directly follows the paragraph on Witnesses, but its text does not mention them.^[1]

Ukraine's reply

The government's appendix opens by thanking ECRI and its delegation for travelling to a country at war. It says Ukraine continues to meet its international obligations and protect human rights despite the extraordinary pressure the war places on state institutions. On the Witness material, it makes four points.^[1]

The abuse figure. On the more than 150 cases in paragraph 95, Ukraine says it is necessary "to distinguish between reports or allegations of possible violations and facts established by the competent authorities". It adds: "The report does not contain information on the outcome of the official examination of each such report." The figure, it says, should be understood as "the number of reports of possible violations, rather than as the number of established violations".^[1]

The wording "ruled out". Ukraine says the phrase in paragraph 97 "does not fully reflect the applicable legal framework". Its explanation reads:

It describes mobilisation as "required for the defence of the State and the exercise of Ukraine’s inherent right of self-defence". It then adds: "Ukraine is working on the legislative regulation of alternative (non-military) service under martial law. Relevant legislative proposals are currently being prepared by the Ministry of Economy and Environment of Ukraine."^[1]

The prosecution figures. Ukraine asks that the figures not be presented twice. In particular, it says the statement that seven cases had been sent to court "should not be repeated where the same information is provided in the immediately following sentence". The published paragraph 98 still mentions seven cases sent to court twice, in consecutive sentences.^[1]

The summary's wording. In an earlier note on the report's summary, which refers to the "negative impact of military service obligations on certain religious minorities", Ukraine asks that it be made clear that the concerns "relate specifically to military service obligations during mobilisation".^[1]

The appendix closes with Ukraine asking that its clarifications be read "alongside ECRI’s findings and recommendations", and saying it remains ready to continue working with ECRI.^[1]

Coverage

The Ukrainian outlet ZMINA reported on the document on 30 October 2026 under the headline "Council of Europe calls on Ukraine to allow alternative service for believers during war".^[2]

ECRI's own text, current to 19 March 2026, records the alternative-service law as a commitment. The government's appendix describes the relevant legislative proposals as "currently being prepared" and gives no date for them.^[1]