Human Rights Without Frontiers supports freedom of religion

at the OSCE/ODIHR in Warsaw 

HRWF (29.09.2009)

Email: info@hrwf.net

Website: http://www.hrwf.net

Today, Human Rights Without Frontiers made a statement about mass-scale violations of religious freedom in Central Asia and in Nagorno-Karabakh at the annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting of the OSCE/ ODIHR in Warsaw. Here is the text of the presentation.

Human Rights Without Frontiers is concerned about the situation of religious freedom in most of the countries of Central Asia and South Caucasus, and wants to address this issue at this meeting of the OSCE/ODIHR as there is no other appropriate regional mechanism to do it. Due to time constraints, we will focus on three countries: Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as a disputed territory, Nagorno-Karabakh.

Recommendations to the authorities of Kazakhstan

Considering that the new law on religion is too vague concerning the rights and obligations of the various religious organizations and missionary activities;

Considering that the grounds on which the charter of a religious organization applying for registration can be rejected by the authorities are not specified;

Considering that a charter rejection leads to the prohibition of any activity by the applicant group;

Considering that the authorities deny the freedom of assembly to any group of believers that has not been registered as a religious association;

Considering that a number of peaceful religious groups do not want to be registered on theological grounds or have been banned by a court decision just for failing to fulfil some administrative obligations;

Considering the repeated arrests and condemnations to exorbitant fines of ordinary members of Baptists congregations hosting informal religious meetings in their homes;

Human Rights Without Frontiers urges the authorities of Kazakhstan to follow the recommendations of the Kazakh Human Rights Ombudperson's Office, the OSCE Advisory Panel of Experts, the Kazakh Helsinki Committee and Kazakh religious leaders: 

·    by de-criminalizing the non-registration of religious groups;

·   by stopping judicial proceedings against non-registered religious communities, peaceful meetings of believers in private and in public, and missionary activity;

·    by using the revision of the Code of Administrative Offences to remove articles 374-1 and 375 of the current code which provide for fines amounting to 100 times and 50 times the minimum monthly wage, respectively for leading or participating in the activity of an unregistered religious groups.