The first draft is planned for January 2023Riga.
September 6. INTERFAX/BNS - The Government of Latvia at a meeting on Tuesday heard an information report and supported the introduction of the State Defense Service (SDF) in the country, the BNS agency reports.
The Cabinet of Ministers supported the introduction of CDF for men aged 18 to 27 years and for women voluntarily from 2028.
The phased introduction of the CDF proposed in the report from 2023 to 2027 with the first call in January 2023 was also approved.
It is planned that by the end of September, the Minister of Defense will submit to the Cabinet of Ministers draft regulations necessary for the creation of the service.
The bill provides that the term of the CDF is 11 months of service in the regular troops of the National Armed Forces (NAF) or Zemessardze (National Guard - IF), or at least 5 years in Zemessardze as a whole, subject to 21 individual trainings and participation in at least seven collective trainings per year.
Also, the training of chaplains, the development of a course of military medicine in medical universities and colleges will be counted in the CDF.
Active military service can be replaced by State civil service, which is regulated by the law on State civil service, if people cannot perform military service according to their beliefs or their health condition does not correspond to the CDF, but corresponds to the state civil service.
The responsible structural unit of the Ministry of Defense will be provided with free online access to the register of individuals, the register of punishments, the information system on disability, the State Information System of Education and the e-health system to obtain data on education, occupation of conscripts, family composition, criminal record and health status.
The assessment of the health status of conscripts for the CDF will be carried out by family doctors. Professional psychological testing of conscripts will be carried out by the responsible structural unit of the Ministry of Defense. It will also re-evaluate the suitability of the state of health for service in cases of recognition of a conscript unfit for health reasons.
The decision not to call for military service can be made in relation to nine categories of citizens - these are citizens whose health condition does not meet the requirements of the CDF; students of state secondary educational and vocational educational institutions; serving sentences for a serious or especially serious criminal offense, regardless of the repayment or removal of a criminal record, as well as suspects or accused in criminal proceedings.
Also, persons are not subject to conscription if they are the only parent of the child; citizens who have been replaced by the state civil service; citizens who have the citizenship of another state and have served in a foreign country or have passed the state civil service. Military personnel of the professional service who have continuously served in the professional service for at least three years, as well as graduates of the Oscar Kalpaks Professional High School, will not be called up for service.
