SOURCE: KESTON INSTITUTE http://www.keston.org

re-registration?

KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________

KESTON NEWS SERVICE: 20.00, 28 May 2002 Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________

I. BELARUS: RELIGION LAW GOES TO PARLIAMENT THIS WEEK. Amendments to the Belarusian religion law will be discussed by the lower house of parliament on 31 May, a parliamentary official told Keston News Service on 28 May. Religious and human rights representatives have told Keston that the long-running process to amend the religion law for the third time has been conducted in some secrecy and confusion. "We get the impression that the religious affairs committee and the parliamentary apparatus want to limit access as far as possible to the current draft of the text," said a representative of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.

II. BELARUS: RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP, COMPULSORY RE- REGISTRATION UNDER RESTRICTIVE NEW LAW? Unregistered religious activity will be banned, foreigners will be prevented from leading religious organisations, religious literature will be subjected to prior compulsory censorship and religious groups with fewer than 20 adult citizen members in any one location will be denied the possibility of registering, if new proposals to amend the religion law which begin their passage through parliament this week go through unchanged. Members of several faiths in Belarus, as well as local human rights activists, have told Keston News Service of their concerns. "If it is adopted there will be serious problems," one Baptist said.

I. BELARUS: RELIGION LAW GOES TO PARLIAMENT THIS WEEK

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

"Amendments to Belarus' law on freedom of conscience and religious organisations will be discussed by the Chamber of Representatives on 31 May," an official of the human rights commission of the Chamber (the lower house of the Belarusian parliament) told Keston News Service from Minsk on 28 May. "The first reading will cover the concept behind the law - that all religions are equal - while the second reading will cover the individual amendments." Leonid Zemlyakov, deputy head of the Chamber's secretariat, told Keston on 27 May that no date had been set then, but expected it to be soon. "The draft law is on the agenda for the fourth session, and this finishes at the end of June." He declined to make a copy of the latest draft available to Keston, saying that the text was still being worked on (though the website http://www.ncpi.gov.by has what officials have told Keston is the version the government sent to parliament earlier this year). The long-running process to amend the religion law for a third time - it was originally adopted in December 1992 and amended in 1995 and 1999 - has been conducted in some secrecy and some confusion, religious and human rights representatives have told Keston. "We get the impression that the religious affairs committee and the parliamentary apparatus want to limit access as far as possible to the current draft of the text," Oleg Gulak of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee in Minsk told Keston on 22 May.

The draft law was due to have been considered in parliament on 3 April, but was withdrawn from the agenda, apparently as a group of deputies wanted to change the text of the draft. A government roundtable discussion on the draft due to have been held in May did not take place.

A separate roundtable organised by the Council of Europe in Minsk on 29 April - which discussed international norms on religious freedom but inevitably touched on the draft law - was boycotted by government agencies, although some judges and parliamentary deputies took part. "The seminar showed the gulf that exists between local bureaucrats and European standards," declared Gulak, who attended the event. "Europeans base themselves on the individual right to confess any faith or none, while our bureaucrats base themselves on securing state interests - which are interpreted very widely." Malcolm Evans, professor of international law at Bristol University in England, who was one of the two Council of Europe experts at the seminar, told Keston on 27 May that participants in the seminar were "pessimistic" about the draft. "They believed it was a done deal which could be put through parliament very quickly. They felt very vulnerable."

Government officials have hinted that they wish to stem the rise in the number of registered religious organisations. The Minsk paper Naviny noted on 21 May that official figures put the number of registered organisations in the country at more than 2,500. "The proportion of Orthodox communities fell from 52 per cent in 1988 to 44 per cent in 2001, while the Catholics fell from 15.7 per cent to 15.5 per cent," it reported. "Yet the proportion of Protestant communities grew from 29 to 36 per cent. The president of Belarus maintains that in numerical terms 80 per cent of believers are Orthodox."

Asked why a new religion law was necessary, Stanislav Buko, the chairman of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, appeared unable to give a definitive answer. "The old law was adopted in 1992 and life has moved on," he told Keston by telephone on 22 May. "There have been significant changes in social and religious life." However, he was unable to say why such changes necessitated a new law. Asked who or which agency had initiated the process of changing the law, he likewise was unable to say, although he denied that the impetus had come from President Aleksandr Lukashenko. "The president doesn't concern himself with these issues," he declared. But he insisted the new draft had been drawn up "in a democratic framework". "Our democratic principles are unchanged." The parliamentary human rights commission official, who declined to give his name, told Keston the Council of Ministers had initiated the process.

Other commentators have told Keston that the State Committee under its previous chairman, Aleksandr Bilyk, was the initiator of the new law, hoping thereby to increase its power within the bureaucracy. "The State Committee has taken the most active part in the process," Gulak told Keston.

Marina Shirokova of the department of state legislation of the National Centre for Draft Legislative Activity attached to the President said that her centre had drawn up the text but had handed it over to the Council of Ministers last September. "The Council of Ministers then worked on the text and brought in specialists from the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs," she told Keston by telephone from Minsk on 27 May.

Zemlyakov and Buko reported that the draft text was sent last December to the 26 registered religious denominations in Belarus for their comments. Zemlyakov said they had provided 150 suggestions and recommendations. Asked how the various denominations had responded to the proposed new law, Buko would say only that "no- one was against the draft," although he said several had suggestions over individual provisions.

However, Vassily Kislyak, secretary of the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly, told Keston from Minsk on 27 May that his denomination had written to the government and parliament on 15 February to point out its objections to the draft law. "There is no feedback from the government to our remarks on the bill," he complained, adding that local authorities already ban many Baha'i local activities.

Gulak of the Helsinki Committee told Keston that he had seen an analysis of the suggestions made by religious denominations about the draft. "Only some remarks by the Orthodox Church were incorporated," he told Keston. "No suggestions by any of the other faiths were included."

Poor relations between the Belarusian government and international bodies - such as the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe - have meant that the government has failed to take up offers of assistance in helping the proposed new law meet international standards. "I haven't seen any comments on the draft from international bodies," the human rights commission official told Keston. "But our experts say the draft meets international norms." (END)

II. BELARUS: RELIGIOUS CENSORSHIP, COMPULSORY RE- REGISTRATION UNDER RESTRICTIVE NEW LAW?

by Felix Corley, Keston News Service

Unregistered religious activity will be banned, foreigners will be prevented from leading religious organisations, religious literature will be subjected to prior compulsory censorship and religious groups with fewer than 20 adult citizen members in any one location will be denied the possibility of registering, if new proposals to amend the religion law which begin their passage through parliament this week go through unchanged. Members of several faiths in Belarus, as well as local human rights activists, have told Keston News Service of their concerns over the proposed amendments. "All religious groups are watching and waiting for this religious law," Aleksandr Velichko of the Baptist Union told Keston from Minsk on 27 May. "If it is adopted there will be serious problems." Although the text of the latest version of the draft has not been made public (see separate KNS article), it seems likely that when it reaches the lower house of parliament further restrictions will have been introduced.

The Russian-language text of the draft sent by the government to parliament earlier this year, which has been placed on the website of the government's National Centre for Legal Information (http://www.ncpi.gov.by), contains provisions to introduce compulsory advance religious censorship, a ban on unregistered religious activity, a raising of the threshold from 10 to 20 members for a local religious community to be able to operate and territorial restrictions on the functioning of religious groups. Once adopted, the law will require compulsory re-registration over the following two years, the third round of re-registration since Belarus became independent.

In what is the most serious violation of international religious liberty norms, Article 17 of the draft declares: "Religious organisations are subject to compulsory state registration." The 1992 religion law laid down no requirement that religious organisations must register in order to be allowed to function, and of the other former Soviet republics only Uzbekistan specifically bans unregistered religious activity. However, in recent years the tighter controls over religious activity in Belarus have come close to introducing compulsory registration by the back door.

"If this provision is introduced it will mean the return of persecution - our believers will go to prison again for their faith. People are prepared for this," declared Klaus Karsten, director of the German- based Friedensstimme mission, which maintains close ties with congregations in Belarus of the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, which reject registration on principle. He told Keston on 28 May that earlier in May the chairman of the local administration in the village of Rogozna, 40 kilometres (25 miles)

south of Brest close to the border with Poland, had summoned the entire church to question why they refused to register. "The whole church rejected registration," Karsten reported. "It is the unanimous understanding of all our believers throughout the former Soviet republics that we do not want registration." Two religious liberty specialists from Moscow, Anatoly Pchelintsev and Vladimir Ryakhovsky from the Institute for Religion and Law, agreed. "Given the low level of legal and religious cultural knowledge of officials in the whole post-Soviet territory, such a provision could provoke mass violations of the rights of believers," they wrote last November in an analysis of an earlier draft containing the same provision. They pointed out that such a provision violated international commitments that religious communities have the right to select their own leadership freely.

Article 14 of the draft increases the minimum number of founders of a "religious community" (a local religious organisation) from the current 10 to 20 Belarusian adult citizens, and requires the 20 to come from one town or "a few neighbouring settlements". The Baptists and the Baha'is have already expressed their concern about the raising of the threshold, which Velichko warns will make illegal many smaller religious groups based in small villages, especially given the new ban on unregistered religious activity. Karsten pointed out that this would prevent any new religious community from emerging. "All new churches begin small." The Baha'is are also concerned that only citizens will be allowed to found such religious groups, a concern shared by the lawyers Sergei and Dina Shavtsov of the Minsk law firm Imperative, who have represented the Full Gospel Pentecostal Church.

The draft identifies a separate, higher level of religious organisation, a "religious association", which may function on a national level. Under Article 15, an association will require no fewer than ten religious communities "of the same religious confession" which have been functioning in Belarus for at least fifteen years (i.e. since 1987, just before tight Soviet controls on religion began to be lifted). This will bar many religious faiths which had only a limited number of registered communities during the late Soviet period from forming religious associations. Article 15 also distinguishes between "republican" religious associations - which need to have functioning communities in the "majority" of the country's regions (presumably at least four of the seven regions) - and "local" religious associations that cannot meet that requirement.

Article 16 declares that "religious associations" have the right to create monastic communities, brotherhoods and sisterhoods, charitable organisations and educational establishments. Although this is not spelled out, it appears that "religious communities" will not have this right.

The Shavtsovs question provisions in the draft limiting religious organisations' activity to defined areas of the country. "This norm is not in accordance with provisions of civil law, which does not contain territorial limitations on the activity of juridical entities," they declared.

Article 13 of the draft requires the leaders of all religious organisations to be citizens of Belarus. This requirement has already been opposed by the Baha'is. It will also create problems for the Catholic Church, the second largest faith in Belarus with more than 430 parishes, most of whose 285 priests are foreign citizens. "It is difficult to conceive that such a provision could appear in the laws of any state with advanced democratic institutions," declared Pchelintsev and Ryakhovsky. "An analogous position would mean Orthodox priests would be forced to leave many states."

The new draft for the first time introduces tight controls over religious publications, including advance, compulsory censorship of religious literature. Article 27 declares: "Religious organisations may import or distribute religious literature, printed, audio and video materials only after the conducting of a religious expert assessment." Such an assessment would be carried out by the newly-created expert council attached to the State Committee. However, only religious organisations may found commercial entities to produce "divine service literature" and "items of cult significance", presumably a provision to protect Orthodox and Catholic manufacturers. Although commercial publishers unconnected to religious organisations do not appear to be deprived of the right to produce religious literature (provided it is not divine service literature), religious literature may only be distributed on premises legally used by religious organisations or "in places assigned for these purposes according to the established procedure by local executive and order-bringing (rasporyaditelnie)

organs". Presumably this provision prevents ordinary bookshops selling religious books.

The Shavtsovs question the requirement in Article 18 that religious groups new to Belarus must submit with their registration application information about "the foundations of their faith" and "their cult practice", including details of their history and attitude to the family and medical treatment. They fear that officials who may not like such groups will be able to find reasons not to register them.

Believers of a variety of faiths told Keston that they were concerned at the imprecise phraseology over who had the power to initiate a suit to liquidate a religious organisation through the courts, the wide powers granted to the expert council established by the State Committee and the complicated registration rules which, they believe, leave the way open for officials to deny registration to those they do not like. The Shavtsovs were concerned that there was no mechanism for religious groups to challenge assessments made by the expert council, even though they could lead to denial or removal of registration.

Rumours have circulated that the preamble of the law - which in the version produced by the government refers to the "influence" of religious organisations on the "formation of the spiritual, cultural and state traditions of the Belarusian nation" - has been or will be changed to refer specifically to Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Judaism and Lutheranism. Officials have so far denied this, but many Protestants have told Keston that the possibility worries them, especially as it would contradict Article 6 of the draft, which declares: "Religions and faiths are equal before the law." Despite this provision, the official of the human rights commission told Keston bluntly that the state "respects the historical faiths" and would do its utmost to protect them from "new destructive sects", among which he included the Hare Krishna community. "I believe - and this is my personal view - that at the current stage of Belarus' development it is justified to have such limitations on such groups," he declared. "The citizen has the right to choose a faith, but all these groups have been brought in by foreigners. They are not the desire of our citizens."

"The ban on unregistered religious activity, the requirement for 20 founding members of a religious organisation and the very difficult registration process, as well as many other provisions, clearly violate the constitution and international human rights standards," Oleg Gulak of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee told Keston from Minsk on 22 May. (END)

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