Will UN decision help religious communities?

[Guest guest]

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=682

 

4 November 2005

 

Will UN decision help religious communities?

 

By Geraldine Fagan

 

Belarus has yet to meet a 12 November deadline, set by a UN committee,

for confirming the correction of a religious freedom violation against

Hare Krishna devotees, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. In a decision

with implications for other religious communities (such as the New

Life charismatic church), the UN Human Rights Committee found that

Belarus had violated citizens' rights under the International Covenant

for Civil and Political Rights by refusing to register a nation-wide

Hare Krishna association. Two devotees, Sergei Malakhovsky and

Aleksandr Pikul, complained to the Committee, which set a 90 day

deadline from 23 August for correcting the violation. Aleksandr

Kalinov, of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs,

initially claimed to Forum 18 that all Krishna communities had

registration, but then, questioned about the nation-wide association,

claimed it did not have the right to register. Sergei Malakhovsky told

Forum 18 that Krishna devotees had taken the UN Committee's decision

to the State Committee and other government departments, "but they

just shrugged their shoulders and said nothing."

 

 

Belarus has not yet formally responded to a 12 November deadline, set

by a UN committee, for confirming that the country has corrected a

religious freedom violation against Hare Krishna devotees, Forum 18

News Service has learnt.

 

In a decision with clear implications for other religious communities,

the UN Human Rights Committee established under article 28 of the

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), found

that Belarus had violated the religious freedom guarantees of Article

18 of the ICCPR. The 23 August resolution (Communication 1207/2003)

came in response to a formal complaint by two Krishna devotees, Sergei

Malakhovsky and Aleksandr Pikul, and the Committee found that their

rights had been violated by Belarus' refusal to their republic-wide

Hare Krishna association. The UN Committee examines alleged violations

of the Covenant, which entered force for Belarus in 1976.

 

The ninety-day period in which the UN Human Rights Committee specified

that it should receive confirmation from the Belarusian state that it

has taken measures to correct the violation expires on 12 November.

(The 90 days deadline is set from the date of the resolution - 23

August - and not the date of the meeting on 26 July.) On 3 November,

however, UN Committee media liaison officer David Chikvaidze told

Forum 18 from Geneva that it had not yet received a response from the

Belarusian state.

 

Also asked on 3 November about the state's reaction to the UN

Committee resolution, Aleksandr Kalinov of the State Committee for

Religious and Ethnic Affairs initially maintained to Forum 18 that all

Krishna Consciousness communities in Belarus held registration. Asked

specifically about the republic-wide association, he said that it did

not have the right to register under the 2002 religion law. When Forum

18 pointed out that its registration application was submitted prior

to that law's adoption, he remarked "we are currently examining these

issues." On 28 October Sergei Malakhovsky told Forum 18 that Krishna

devotees had tried taking the UN Committee's resolution to the State

Committee and other government departments, "but they just shrugged

their shoulders and said nothing."

 

In their complaint to the UN Committee (see F18News 27 January 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=236), Malakhovsky and

Pikul argued that, by refusing to register the Belarus-wide Krishna

Consciousness Society at the building used as a temple by the

500-strong Minsk community since 1992, the state authorities had

denied them "certain activities which are essential to the practice of

their religion," such as establishing monasteries, missions and

educational institutions, and inviting foreign clerics to Belarus to

preach or conduct other religious activity, "resulting in a decline of

spiritual standards due to their inability to associate with more

spiritually advanced believers."

 

Under the 2002 Belarusian religion law, these rights are not enjoyed

by individual religious communities, only republic-wide associations

with a minimum of ten affiliate communities in at least four out of

six regions, of which one must have conducted its activity for no less

than 20 years. The country's Krishna devotees are unable to meet these

criteria.

 

Malakhovsky and Pikul submitted their association's registration

application on 10 May 2001 – well before the 2002 religion law came

into effect. They finally received a refusal on 2 August 2002,

however, on the grounds that the temple building was unsuitable for

use as a legal address. Appeals against this refusal were rejected at

all levels of the Belarusian court system (see F18News 27 January 2005

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=500). Like the

charismatic New Life Church in Minsk (see most recently F18News 25

October 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=676), the

Minsk Krishna Consciousness Society does not have the state approval

required by the 2002 religion law to use its own premises for worship,

and was refused re-registration as a result.

 

In its 2004 submissions to the UN Committee, Belarus insisted that

Malakhovsky and Pikul "are able to practise their religion

unobstructed both personally and in association with others," and that

the authorities' refusal to register their association at the

requested address was justified, since inspection of the premises

revealed violations of sanitary conditions and fire safety. The state

also claimed that the 2002 law's provisions "are not discriminatory in

nature."

 

However the UN Committee noted in response to these claims that

Article 18 of the Covenant does not permit any limitation whatsoever

to freedom of conscience, but that the right to manifest this freedom

may be subject to limitations "necessary to protect public safety,

order, health or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of

others. directly related to and proportionate to the specific need on

which they are predicated."

 

Inviting foreign clerics and establishing monasteries and educational

institutions form part of the Krishna devotees' right to manifest

their beliefs, the UN Committee affirmed. While the requirement for

premises adhering to relevant public health and safety standards is a

reasonable limitation of the right of a religious association to carry

out its religious activities, it agreed, there is no reason for such

premises to be required for the act of registering such an association

at a legal address: "Appropriate premises for such use could be

obtained subsequent to registration."

 

Concluding that the registration refusal thus amounts to a

disproportionate limitation of the Krishna devotees' right to manifest

their religion under the ICCPR, the UN Committee considers that

Malakhovsky and Pikul "are entitled to an appropriate remedy,

including a reconsideration of the authors' application in accordance

with the principles, rules and practices in force at the time of the

authors' request" - that is, prior to the adoption of the 2002 law.

 

In an individual opinion, committee member Ruth Wedgwood, Burling

professor of international law and diplomacy at Johns Hopkins

University, stated that the issues that the Hare Krishna devotees'

complaint specified were not the only serious problems in the 2002

religion law. She observed that "the right of a religious community to

establish monasteries, educational institutions, or missions, and to

invite foreign religious figures to speak, has been sharply restricted

by the government of Belarus. Only those groups officially registered

with the state as 'religious associations' can enjoy these aspects of

the free practice of religion."

 

Professor Wedgwood noted, for example, the 20 year registration delay

imposed by the 2002 law and the law's barring of newer faiths from

engaging in religious education. She commented that "it is well to

remember that the Covenant recognizes and guarantees the freedom of

every person 'either individually or in community with others and in

public or private to manifest his religion or belief in worship,

observance, practice and teaching.' See Article 18(1). This right is

not limited to old and established religions, or to large

congregations, and it is fundamental to the freedom of religious

conscience."

 

The Minsk Krishna community was also refused compulsory

re-registration following the 2002 law's 16 November 2004 deadline

(see 10 November 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=450 and 25 November 2004

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=463), as were for

example autonomous Orthodox communities. The Minsk Krishna community

has since continued to seek re-registration as well as to register a

new local organisation in the city, Malakhovsky told Forum 18. While

the community's charter (which is essential for registering) for the

latter was "practically dictated" by state officials, he continued, it

too was rejected by Minsk City Executive Committee on 4 October 2005.

A copy of the decision, received by Forum 18, lists the charter's

alleged faults, including "numerous contradictions connected with

outlining the competency of administrative bodies of the community"

and "other shortcomings."

 

Malakhovsky also told Forum 18 that the original Minsk community is

still unable to re-register for want of a suitable legal address:

"Whatever state officials suggest is OK for commercial organisations,

but we can't afford it." The community likewise sought re-registration

at its temple building, in which, according to Malakhovsky, it has

invested tens of thousands of dollars worth of renovation. He added,

however, that there has been no move by the state to liquidate either

the Minsk community or that similarly refused re-registration in

Bobruisk [babruysk] in Mogilev [Mahilyow] region (see F18News 27

January 2005 http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=500).

"Everything is up in the air, and this suits the authorities, I think

– on the one hand we exist, on the other we have no rights."

 

Aleksandr Kalinov of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic

Affairs told Forum 18 that the executive committees in Minsk and

Mogilev region were currently dealing with the relevant

re-registration applications.

 

Religious organisations registered prior to the 2002 law's adoption

are now able to function only to the extent that their charters

conform to its provisions. For fear of heavy fines (which have been

imposed in the similar case of the Minsk New Life Church), the Minsk

Society for Krishna Consciousness is consequently unable to meet for

worship at its temple building (see F18News 11 May 2005

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=558). An 8 October 1997

analysis by experts attached to the State Committee for Religious and

Ethnic Affairs declared the organisation a "destructive totalitarian

sect" and recommended its closure.

 

Besides New Life Church and the Hare Krishna devotees, other religious

organisations (such as a Baptist church) – particularly in Minsk – are

also unable to worship legally on the grounds that they do not have

suitable premises (see F18News 12 May 2005

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=560 and 28 July 2005

http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=619). (END)