Russian government tries to prohibit free religious activity

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I would ask that you pray that the following proposed changes to the law governing freedom of religion in Russia does not pass.  Our church planting ministry operates under the laws defining a "Religious Group".  If the changes are put into law "Religious Groups" are removed from the law and our church planting activities and worship would be illegal.  Please pass on and pray.

RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF JUSTICE HAS PRODUCED DRAFT LAW SUBSTANTIALLY RESTRICTING RIGHTS OF UNREGISTERED RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS

Portal-credo.ru, 7 October 2011

Soon in Russia only officially registered religious associations will be able to teach religious doctrines to their adherents. And only a religious organization that is a member of a centralized religious association will be able to publish books and teach children in Sunday schools. As "Gazeta.ru" reports, such amendments to the law on freedom of conscience of 1997 have been proposed by the Ministry of Justice of RF and have been found to be discriminatory by Russian rights advocates and competent international organizations (several provisions of this law have been eliminated by the Constitutional Court of the Russian federation).

The text of the draft law was published by the Ministry of Justice on 6 October. It specifically contains a prohibition of religious associations that have not been registered with a territorial office of the Ministry of Justice (in existing law they are called "religious groups") for engagement in religious activity and conduct of services.

According to the amendments, citizens who have decided to form a religious group will have to inform the Ministry of Justice in writing even if they do not intend in the future (after 15 years as existing law provides) to register and to acquire the status of legal entity (juridical person). The only religious group that will be able to be registered is one with no fewer than ten persons and that has submitted a charter and passed a state religious studies expert analysis. At the same time the state retains the right to refuse registration of such an association on the basis of a whole series of instances—in particular, if its "goals and activity" violate the constitution and Russian legislation generally, and "if the organization is not recognized as religious in accordance with established procedure."

The draft law eliminates the fifteen-year period that is required for registration of newly created religious organizations that are not members of centralized religious organizations.

Existing law divides religious associations into organizations and groups. Religious groups may operate without registration and they have the right to worship in private apartments and teach religion to their members. The document proposed by the Ministry of Justice effectively eliminates the very concept of a religious group operating without governmental registration.

As the expert from the Institute of Human Rights, Lev Levinson, explained in a conversation with "Gazeta.ru," newly created religious structures will be required to be registered as local organizations, if they are not a part of centralized organizations like, for example, parishes of RPTsMP.  "At the same time, for a period of ten years they will not have the right to create educational institutions and Sunday schools, or to invite foreign citizens for professional purposes, or to open foreign representations, or to conduct religious ceremonies in hospitals, prisons, and boarding schools, or to publish and distribute religious literature or create news media," the rights advocate explained.  All these things will be able to be done only by those religious organizations that are members of a centralized structure. In Levinson's opinion, this will make any alternative religious movement impossible:  "It turns out that religious and spiritual development will be banned."

Levinson thinks that the draft law effectively protects large church structures from schisms and it is they who will primarily be pleased with the law.  "I would not rule out that this draft law was made with the participation or with lobbying of religious confessions who are trying thereby to resolve their own internal problems or conflicts," an "Agora" analyst, Ramil Akhmettaliev, concurs with Levinson. "So far as I understand it, this is also pleasing to the state. This makes it convenient for it to communicate with religious persons. Through the center. This is the vertical of power, transferred to religious organizations."

In Akhmettaliev's opinion, the draft law proposes to restrict the right of freedom of religious confession. In addition, thanks to it centralized religious organizations, such as for example RPTsMP, will be able to establish control over regional religious organizations.

"This will create barriers for the existence of local organizations that do not agree with the policies of the large centralized associations. This applies to all confessions. Such a trend was evident long ago. This position of the Ministry of Justice has already been existing in practice. We have received complaints from local organizations who wanted to exit from large organizations and have tried to register, and everything came down to the fact that either you remain under the roof of the centralized organization or we will refuse you," the rights advocate explained. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 October 2011)

"CONSCIENCE IS FREED FROM ASSOCIATIONS. MINISTRY OF JUSTICE PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO LAW TOUGHENING REQUIREMENTS ON RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS"

by Andrei Melnikov

Nezavisimaia gazeta, 7 October 2011

The Russian Ministry of Justice published a draft of amendments to the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations." The draft is available for study on the Web site of the ministry. Until 10 October citizens will be able to discuss the document. Experts have noted a trend toward greater regulation of religious associations and restriction of free confession of faith.

An analysis of the proposed amendments reveals several substantive innovations. The concept of a religious group has been eliminated, that is, an association of people on the basis of a single religious confession; groups have not been required to have governmental registration. Thus the principle of the functioning of religious associations will change from an informational basis to one of strict authorization. At the same time, the list of reasons for which an organization can be denied registration has been expanded. According to existing law, groups of three to ten persons may assemble for confession, preaching, and worship without applying for registration but merely informing a state office of their existence.

The requirements for centralization of associations have been further intensified. Local religious organizations that have not established the fact of their membership in centralized organizations are restricted in their rights, including the right of creating educational institutions. In addition, the requirement of a state religious studies expert analysis has been instituted. Finally, the role of registration agencies has been strengthened.  Apparently it is being proposed that decisions with regard to the activity of one or another association will be made not on the basis of governmental action but as administrative actions of the Ministry of Justice, which makes the decision regarding registration, and of the taxation service, which maintains the register of legal entities. However there are no precise formulations in the document and one can only guess what the authors of the amendments have in mind on this particular point.

Mikhail Odintsov, the head of the Department for Protection of Freedom of Conscience of the apparatus of the Plenipotentiary for Human Rights of RF, identified in the proposals of the Ministry of Justice several changes that refine the wording. Although regarding the rest the expert had several comments. In his opinion, the law should reflect current practice of legal relations, but these additions eliminate from the legal field religious groups, which today constitute 20 to 30% of religious associations. Odintsov recalled that even soviet legislation contained the provision for religious groups, although it required their compulsory registration. In addition, the expert noted, the standard for conducting a state religious studies expert analysis is not prescribed sufficiently clearly. "Who will conduct the expert analysis? How? Within what period of time?"—such questions remained with the expert after he studied the document. "The word 'association' should be removed from the title of this law and be replaced by the word 'organization,' Odintsov added.

"The essence of the draft law is to create new impediments for the activity of associations of 'nontraditional' religions," thinks State Councilor First Class Andrei Sebentsov. "Elimination of religious groups from the law effectively creates a situation of a ban on religious activity without registration, and the remaining proposals violate so much the spirit of decisions of the European Court for Human Rights that it is simply amazing how much we (in the person of the Ministry of Justice) are managing to create precedents for worsening the problems in the guise of solving them," the expert concluded.

It is interesting that almost immediately after the publication of the draft law there appeared the news that the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of the European Part of Russia (Moscow muftiat) filed suit in the Abitration Court of the capital for finding the registration of the Ecclesiastical Board of Muslims of Moscow and the Central Region of Russia (Moscow muftiate) to be illegal. In the opinion of the former board, the borrowing of a part of the title is a violation of the law and is not in accord with the requirements of the law on the procedure for registration of centralized religious organizations.

(tr. by PDS, posted 7 October 2011)

Russian original posted on site of Interfax-Religiia, 7 October 2011