PrintA Kazakhstan parliamentary working group has proposed amendments to some of the more onerous sections of that country’s Religion Law. But the evolving draft law still contains numerous provisions that violate international human rights law, Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and United Nations standards, diplomatic critics say. The draft law still discriminates against minority religious groups, the critics say.
Kazakhstan’s religious fabric is rich and diverse. The country has a slight Islamic majority while serving as home to many other religious groups, including Pentecostals, Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baha’i, and Jews. Religious pluralism has long been an aspiration of the nation. But the draft law is making that goal hard to realize.
Leaders of many religious communities in Kazakhstan have expressed serious concerns to international religious news services. Lutheran Bishop Yuri Novgorodov complained that “If adopted, this would be a Law on Non-Freedom of Conscience.”
A report by Forum 18 News Service, which covers minority religious affairs, notes that religious communities and human rights activists are especially alarmed about:
restrictions on “missionary activity” by any individual; the necessity of a state review of religious beliefs of registered communities; a ban and increased penalties on unregistered activity;
compulsory re-registration of all communities; the impossibility of registering communities that only work in some of the nation’s many regions, such as the Russian Orthodox and Catholic dioceses;
severe restrictions on smaller religious groups; the requirement of state permission to build places of worship; strictures requiring children show written permission before taking part in any religious youth event; a requirement that sharing religious beliefs in public places will be illegal without the consent of all citizens present; and compulsory censorship of all imported religious literature.
In practice, the details will create many hardships. For example, the draft Religion Law will provide harsh penalties for unregistered religious activity. However, local religious communities will only be allowed to register if they include fifty adult citizen members. As such, local religious groups will be denied basic important rights that many religious communities require, including the right to engage in educational, publishing or missionary activity.
Such provisions designed to protect the big centralized and established groups ensure that dominant religious institutions prevail, but leaves no room for the breakaway and reform groups that true religious freedom envisions.
Restrictions on registration are particularly troubling. Territorial restrictions on the activity of religious organizations will remove the right of two of the country’s four Catholic dioceses to register as “centralized religious organizations.”
Centralized status conveys the exclusive right to conduct religious education and publishing. Article 7 of the draft law requires that centralized religious organizations exist for ten years and function in at least 5 of Kazakhstan’s 16 regions.
Without legal entity status, religious communities can only function on the most basic level. Religious communities will encounter discriminatory legal obstacles to acquiring or renting a place to worship, financially supporting clergy and other religious personnel, entering into ordinary contracts necessary to carry out religious activities, and protecting their rights in a legal forum.
The OSCE states in its report entitled Freedom of Religion or Belief: Laws Affecting the Structuring of Religious Communities: “History has provided all too many examples of States that have utilized registration laws to monitor and repress religious life. Both the mundane needs and the specter of more extreme abuses undersco
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