3 February 2009
KAZAKHSTAN: "A HIGHLY DANGEROUS PRECEDENT"
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1248
Kazakhstan has resumed jailing Baptists, Forum 18 News Service has learnt.
Yuri Rudenko from Almaty Region was the third unregistered Baptist pastor
to be jailed for three days for refusing to pay fines for unregistered
worship. Baptists point out that this breaks Kazakhstan's Constitution, but
officials have refused to discuss this with Forum 18. The jailing took
place as Elizaveta Drenicheva, a Russian working as a missionary for the
Unification Church (commonly known as the Moonies), was jailed for two
years for sharing her beliefs. Other religious believers who strongly
disagree with her beliefs, as well as human rights defenders, are alarmed
by the jail sentence. "This is a highly dangerous precedent," one
Protestant who preferred not to be identified told Forum 18. "It seems to
me that any believer who preaches about sin and how to be saved from it
could be convicted in the same way." Baptist churches in Akmola region have
also been raided and their members questioned, and another Baptist pastor
is facing the threat of jail tomorrow (4 February).
4 February 2009
KAZAKHSTAN: OSCE LEGAL OPINION SERIOUSLY CRITICISES DRAFT LAW
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1249
Four weeks after Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council began reviewing a
highly restrictive Law amending various laws covering religion, the
Constitutional Council has told Forum 18 News Service that it has not
finished its review. Human rights defenders and religious communities
remain highly concerned about the Law, which has been seriously criticised
in a Legal Opinion from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) made public today (4 February). The OSCE's Legal Opinion
notes that "many serious issues remain with respect to the Proposed
Religion Law's compliance with international human rights standards,
including in particular OSCE commitments." Kazakhstan is due to chair the
OSCE in 2010, and the OSCE Legal Opinion finds that there are serious
problems with the Law, when it is compared against the country's OSCE
commitments and international problems. Kazakhstan - also in breach of its
OSCE commitments - continues to routinely incite intolerance of religious
minorities.
5 February 2009
KAZAKHSTAN: MEDIA INTOLERANCE "HAS ONE SOURCE: THE KNB SECRET POLICE"
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1250
Human rights defenders and religious minorities have complained to Forum
18 News Service of a "wave" of hostile media coverage of religious
communities. They think this is part of a government-sponsored campaign to
gain greater public acceptance of a new Law restricting freedom of thought,
conscience and belief. "All these articles have one source: the KNB secret
police," Ninel Fokina, head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee, told Forum
18. Told that journalists and editors had denied this to Forum 18, she
responded: "Who's going to admit such coverage is ordered?" Protestants
such as Seventh-day Adventists, Baptists and Pentecostals have faced media
attacks along with Ahmadi Muslims, the Hare Krishna community and Jehovah's
Witnesses. One of many examples of media intolerance is four separate
newspapers publishing an identical article attacking the Jehovah's
Witnesses. One of the newspapers credited the article to a named former
Jehovah's Witness, one credited a different author, and two of the
newspapers credited KNB secret police offices in different Kazakh regions.
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1249
Four weeks after Kazakhstan's Constitutional Council began reviewing a
highly restrictive Law amending various laws covering religion, a senior
official at the Constitutional Council has told Forum 18 News Service that
final discussions on what their review will say have not yet taken place.
"We have to finish the process of evaluation before 10 February," Mirambai
Kemalov, Head of the Analytical Department, told Forum 18 from the capital
Astana on 4 February.
Human rights defenders and religious communities remain highly concerned
that the Constitutional Council will approve and President Nursultan
Nazarbaev will sign the controversial Law (see F18News 9 January 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1238>). Many provisions of
the Law have been seriously criticised in a Legal Opinion from the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) made public
today (4 February).
Highly sceptical of the authorities' intentions is Ninel Fokina, head of
the Almaty Helsinki Committee, who has long opposed the new Law. "The
Constitutional Council will do what it is told," she told Forum 18. "But
what it is being told is unknown." She said she hopes the Constitutional
Council will reject the Law as unconstitutional, but believes that even if
it does so a similar Law will be proposed very quickly as the authorities
are intent on increasing their control over religious activity still
further. "The state's policy towards religion is part of its general policy
towards civil society - including political parties, the media and
non-governmental organisations," she told Forum 18. "This policy is to
strengthen and harshen control." She predicted that arrests, raids and
fines on religious communities would continue, whether or not the new Law
is adopted.
The OSCE Legal Opinion - prepared by the OSCE/ODIHR Advisory Council on
Freedom of Religion or Belief - highlights many provisions of the proposed
Law which severely restrict freedom of religion and belief (see
<http://www.legislationline.org/download/action/download/id/2659/file/Kazakstan%20FINAL%20Approved%2009.doc>).
As the OSCE Legal Opinion notes, at the start of its detailed analysis of
the Law's non-compliance with international standards (which begins at
paragraph 27): "many serious issues remain with respect to the Proposed
Religion Law's compliance with international human rights standards,
including in particular OSCE commitments."
The adoption of the new Law by Parliament in 2008 was surrounded by a
campaign of intolerance against religious minorities from officials and the
media, a campaign that has continued since the Law was sent to President
Nazarbaev in late December (see F18News 5 February 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1250>).
Kazakhstan is due to chair the OSCE in 2010, and the OSCE Legal Opinion
finds that there are serious problems with the Law, when it is compared
against the country's OSCE commitments and international problems. Among
the many problems identified in the OSCE Legal Opinion, the Executive
Summary at paragraph 21 notes:
- a general pattern of structuring provisions in ways that impose
impermissible limitations on manifestations of religion, in violation of
applicable limitation clauses of international instruments;
- failure to fully respect the right of religious communities to acquire
legal entity status;
- lack of clear standards for ascribing liability for wrongdoing of
particular individuals to religious organizations;
- vague provisions which fail to comply with fundamental rule of law
constraints because they are insufficiently precise and fail to give fair
notice of what the law requires;
- inappropriate constraints on rights to express and disseminate
religious beliefs;
- risks of non-neutral evaluation of the substantive content of religious
beliefs;
- proscription of religious activities carried out by unregistered groups
and on some of the religious activities of groups that have only "record
registration";
- the requirement of an excessive number of members in order to obtain
legal entity status (50 for each local religious organization);
- inadequate protection of the right of religious communities to autonomy
in structuring their own affairs;
- parental consent provisions that are overly rigid and could deprive
mature minors of religious freedom rights and could impose liability on
religious groups for unpredictable teenage behavior despite good faith
efforts to respect parental wishes regarding involvement of their children
in religious activities;
- excessive penalties for non-compliance with registration rules;
- transition provisions that fail to adequately protect vested rights of
existing religious organizations.
Paragraph 21 also notes that "in many key respects, their [smaller
religious groups] rights to engage in the full range of religious
activities are subjected to inappropriate limitations or restrictions."
The OSCE Legal Opinion notes in paragraph 22 that "rather than
facilitating religious freedom, the Proposed Religion Law's registration
provisions create potential obstacles to the rights of many groups to
acquire legal entity status. The Proposed Religion Law is structured to
make it difficult for smaller groups to carry out the full range of
religious activities in which such groups would reasonably be expected to
engage. Religious groups and local religious organizations and groups are
not authorized to establish religious educational organizations. Rights to
engage in missionary work, while less restricted than in an earlier draft
of the legislation, are still constrained. Re-registration of all religious
groups is required, putting at risk existing organizations and vested
property rights in the event re-registration is denied."
The "Law on Amendments and Additions to Several Legislative Acts on
Questions of Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" amends
numerous articles of the current Religion Law, the Code of Administrative
Offences and several other laws (see F18News 9 January 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1238>). The Law flagrantly
ignores the suggestions contained in the OSCE / Venice Commission
Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or Belief (see
<http://www.osce.org/odihr/item_11_13600.html>).
As the OSCE Legal Opinion concludes at paragraph 104: "significant
outstanding issues remain if the law is to be brought into full compliance
with Kazakhstan's OSCE commitments and other international standards. In
many areas, the problems with the legislation reflect legitimate concerns
that appropriate legislation can address, but in a manner that addresses
problems with more narrowly tailored and sensitive provisions that can
solve actual problems without imposing excessive burdens on freedom of
religion or belief."
Kazakh officials repeatedly - and falsely - claimed that the OSCE blocked
publication of the OSCE Legal Opinion. Kazakhstan has also consistently
refused to make successive drafts and amendments of the Law available for
discussion, both within and outside the country. As Kazakh officials
continued to claim that publication of the Legal Opinion was being blocked
by the OSCE, the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
(ODIHR) told Forum 18 that it "has recommended to the Kazakh authorities
that the legal review be made public, as is normal practice" (see F18News
18 November 2008 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1218>).
Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, Director of the ODIHR, expressed disappointment
at the "hasty" passage of the Law through Parliament, and has called for it
to be changed to make it "fully reflecting OSCE commitments and other
international standards" (see F18News 26 November 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1222>).
Kazakhstan - also in breach of its OSCE commitments - routinely incites
intolerance of religious minorities. Kazakh Air Force personnel, for
example, have been shown a film by the Justice Ministry claiming that the
Hare Krishna faith incites devotees to murder people (see F18News 9 January
2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1238>).
Official incitement to intolerance has also been formalised in a "State
Programme of Patriotic Education," approved by a decree of President
Nazarbaev, and a Justice Ministry booklet "How not to fall under the
influence of religious sects" (see F18News 3 April 2007
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=939>). President Nazarbaev
has openly attacked the right to freedom of religion or belief in
Kazakhstan, despite the country being due to be Chairman-in-Office of the
OSCE in 2010 (see eg. F18News 5 February 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1081>).
Nurym Taibek of the Ahmadis pointed out that the Justice Ministry booklet
"How not to fall under the influence of religious sects" - which includes
the Ahmadis - was just a "small link in a chain" of measures against them
by government officials.
Intolerance of everyone's right to freedom of religion and belief has been
repeatedly incited through the mass media, which has been used by the state
to encourage support for both the Law (see eg. F18News 10 June 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1141>) and police raids on
religious communities (see eg. F18News 22 February 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1091>).
Religious communities in Kazakhstan have also been disturbed by increased
official demands that they and their leaders complete highly intrusive
questionnaires covering personal, political, religious and other matters,
including who the close friends of leaders are (see F18News 25 February
2008 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1092>).
Even the administration of legal rights supposedly guaranteed in
Kazakhstan is open to serious criticism. In a February 2007 report on trial
monitoring, the OSCE found that Kazakh court proceedings needed to offer
"the right of the public to attend court, equality between the parties and
the presumption of innocence" (see <http://www.osce.org/item/23396.html>).
In late January Kazakhstan banned a Hare Krishna devotee from visiting the
country, openly breaking its own laws and also citing as a reason a trial
which apparently never took place (see F18News 30 January 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1247>). Baptists and a
missionary for the Unification Church (commonly known as the Moonies) -
jailed after proceedings they strongly object to - are among the religious
minorities who complain of unfair trials (see F18News 3 February 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1248>)
Similarly, legal experts have told Forum 18 that terrorism charges brought
against 15 devout Muslims - which resulted in jail sentences of up to 19
and a half years - were not proven, and that at least fourteen of the
accused are completely innocent (see F18News 8 April 2008
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1110>). (END)
For a personal commentary on how attacking religious freedom damages
national security in Kazakhstan, see F18News
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=564>.
For more background, see Forum 18's Kazakhstan religious freedom survey at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=701>.
More reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Kazakhstan
can be found at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&religion=all&country=29>.
A survey of the religious freedom decline in the eastern part of the
Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) area is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=806> and a survey of
religious intolerance in Central Asia is at
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=815>.
© Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
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