Bermudians Against the Draft (B.A.D.) was a joint action group established in the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda to challenge the legality of conscription based on principles of natural justice and judicial review.
B.A.D. was formed in 2006 in response to mounting evidence that military officials in the Bermuda Defence Department and the Bermuda Regiment systematically abused their statutory powers of recruitment, mobilization and enforcement of its internal security obligations to the British Crown.
B.A.D. has defined a unique moment in the global conscientious objector movement by enabling philosophical or political dissent to the draft to become a sufficient grounds for deferral of military service.
This civil disobedience strategy was driven by the 2% doctrine [1] espoused by renowned pacifist, Albert Einstein, who claimed that:
'In countries where conscription exists, the true pacifist must refuse military duty. In countries where compulsory military service does not exist, true pacifists must publicly declare that they will not take up arms in any circumstances... The timid may say, "What's the use? We'll be sent to prison." To them I say: even if only two per cent announced their refusal to fight, governments would be powerless – they would not dare send such a huge number to prison.'
— Albert Einstein, 1930
In accordance with this concept, B.A.D. has effectively organised some 14 complainants out of a total battalion of approximately 530 infantry conscripts to be deferred from military service, pending the outcome of a civil case questioning the legitimacy of conscription within the only land force under the British Crown to continue the draft.
B.A.D. gained support from British Member of Parliament Andrew MacKinlay [2] for Thurrock who, in his capacity as a government backbencher sitting on the Foreign Affairs Committee, challenged the British government to justify its support for Bermuda's conscription regime.
The Supreme Court case that would adjudicate the legality of conscription was scheduled to commence on February 25, 2008 and would herald an unprecedented investigation of the traditionally conservative relationship between the United Kingdom and Bermuda, its oldest and most populated remaining colony.[ citation needed ]
In 2010 a ruling by the Privy Council in the UK went against the case of B.A.D. and upheld the laws of conscription in Bermuda. [3]
In 2018, conscription was finally ended through the Defence Amendment Act. [4] [5]
Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, approximately 1,035 km (643 mi) to the west-northwest.
Conscription is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day under various names. The modern system of near-universal national conscription for young men dates to the French Revolution in the 1790s, where it became the basis of a very large and powerful military. Most European nations later copied the system in peacetime, so that men at a certain age would serve 1–8 years on active duty and then transfer to the reserve force.
This is a demography of the population of Bermuda including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population, including changes in the demographic make-up of Bermuda over the centuries of its permanent settlement.
While the defence of Bermuda remains the responsibility of the government of the United Kingdom, rather than of the local Bermudian Government, the island still maintains a militia for the purpose of defence.
The Royal Bermuda Regiment (RBR), formerly the Bermuda Regiment, is the home defence unit of the British Overseas Territory of Bermuda. It is a single territorial infantry battalion that was formed on the amalgamation in 1965 of two originally voluntary units, the mostly black Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) and the almost entirely white Bermuda Rifles, and the only remaining component of the Bermuda Garrison since the 1957 withdrawal of regular units and detachments from Bermuda.
Sir Richard Christopher Sharples, was a British politician and Governor of Bermuda who was shot dead by assassins linked to a small militant Bermudian Black Power group called the Black Beret Cadre. The former army major, who had been a Cabinet Minister, resigned his seat to take up the position of Governor of Bermuda in late 1972. His murder resulted in the last executions conducted under British rule.
The Governor of Bermuda is the representative of the British monarch in the British overseas territory of Bermuda.
Major General Glyn Charles Anglim Gilbert CB MC was a 20th-century British military officer who saw active service during the Second World War. In 1970 he became the highest ranking Bermudian military officer when he was promoted to the rank of major general in the British Army.
The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) was created in 1894 as a reserve for the Regular Army infantry component of the Bermuda Garrison. Renamed the Bermuda Rifles in 1951, it was amalgamated into the Bermuda Regiment in 1965.
The Royal Lincolnshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army raised on 20 June 1685 as the Earl of Bath's Regiment for its first Colonel, John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath. In 1751, it was numbered like most other Army regiments and named the 10th Regiment of Foot. After the Childers Reforms of 1881, it became the Lincolnshire Regiment after the county where it had been recruiting since 1781.
The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part-time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda. Militia Artillery units of the United Kingdom and Colonies were intended to man coastal batteries in times of war, which were manned by under-strength numbers of regular army gunners in peace time. The unit was embodied during both world wars, fulfilling its role within the garrison, and also sending contingents overseas to more active theatres of the wars.
The Caribbean Regiment was a regiment of the British Army during the Second World War. The regiment went overseas in July 1944 and saw service in the Italy, Egypt and Palestine.
In the United Kingdom, military conscription has existed for two periods in modern times. The first was from 1916 to 1920, and the second from 1939 to 1960. The last conscripted soldiers left the service in 1963.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT persons. Homosexuality is legal in Bermuda, but the territory has long held a reputation for being homophobic and intolerant. Since 2013, the Human Rights Act has prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British Army and its local militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The garrison evolved from an independent company, to a company of Royal Garrison Battalion during the American War of Independence, and a steadily growing and diversifying force of artillery and infantry with various supporting corps from the French Revolution onwards. During the American War of Independence, the garrison in Bermuda fell under the military Commander-in-Chief of America. Subsequently, it was part of the Nova Scotia Command until 1868, and was an independent Bermuda Command from then until its closure in 1957.
The Bermuda Base Command was a command of the United States Army, established to defend the British Colony of Bermuda, located 640 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was created in April 1941 when United States Army troops were sent to the island.
The Militia of the British Dominions, Self-Governing Colonies, and Crown Colonies were the principal military forces of the Dominions, Self-governing colonies and Crown Colonies of the British Empire.
The Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in 1939 as a part-time reserve of the British Army's Bermuda Garrison.
Carlyle McNeil Eugene Crockwell MBE was a FIFA-certified Bermudian football referee.
Same-sex marriage is currently not recognised nor performed in Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, but it was legal between 2017 and 2022. However, marriages performed during that period remain valid.