Norman Kember addresses the International Conscientious Objector’s Day Ceremony at Tavistock Square, London


International Conscientious Objectors' Day started in the early 1980s and in 1987 the United Nations Commission on Human Rights recognized "the right of everyone to have conscientious objection to military service as a legitimate exercise of the right of freedom, thought, and religion". However in many countries around the world this right is still denied. The annual London event is held at the north end of the gardens in Tavistock Square, around the large gray rough-hewn boulder of Cumbrian slate unveiled in 1994 as a memorial to conscientious objectors by composer Sir Michael Tippett, himself a conscientious objector.


Size: 5040px × 3347px
Location: Tavistock Square, London, England, UK
Photo credit: © Peter Marshall / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: carnations, ceremony, conscientious, day, international, iraq, kember, kidnapped, london, memorial, norman, objectors, square, tavistock, white