KZBlog

As Parliament debates a new law “On Religion”, Forum 18 reports on religious leaders’ complaints. Most religious leaders were hesitant to speak publicly, in itself a sign that the atmosphere in Kazakhstan is not as tolerant as the government often claims. However, Lutheran Bishop Yuri Novgorodov, whose church has 52 congregations in Kazakhstan characterized the law as “a Law on Non-Freedom of Conscience.”

Among its controversial articles, the law currently in the drafting stage, would require all religious organizations to reregister meaning that even religious organizations fully registered at this time and in full compliance of all laws would have to go back through the registration process. It would mean that 1) all religious organizations would become illegal until they reregister and it would also allow the law to have retroactive force. In other words, a religious organizatio fully established in Kazakhstan which didn’t meet new requirements would have to pack up and leave.

The draft law would allow registration for religious groups which “conduct divine services, religious rituals and preaching and other religious ceremonies”, meaning that the government is defining what is legitimate religion and what it not . Religious leaders have taken offense to this provision of the law. Some have pointed out that Buddhists, who do not necessarily meet this description, could have issues in registering. Any religion or sect that spurns religious ritual or preaching or collective services in favor of individual meditation will likely have issues registering.

Religious organizations will also be required to submit a description of:

“basics of their faith”, the history of the faith as a whole and the particular community, as well as their attitude to marriage, the family, education, the health of their adherents and their attitude to their adherents’ civil obligations. It remains unclear why this information is needed, how much information is required on each point or who will decide whether information supplied is acceptable or not.

For many this requirement is highly intrusive. It can also lead to an ungainly registration process as Muslims, Christians and Jews may need several hundred pages to fully explain the history of their faith, let along the fundamentals.

Furthermore the law allows the state to conduct expert evaluations of religious groups. The experts may be state officials, lawyers, or members of other religious groups. Religious groups can be denied registration or have their registration cancelled on the basis of these inspections.

These requirements appear to be put in place to weed out groups with anti-social beliefs such as sects that believe in violent overthrow of the government, or isolation from society, polygamy, child marriage. However the registration requirements are formulated in such a way that the burden of proof seems to fall on the religious organizations–all religions are guilty until proven innocent.

Further provisions of the law severely restrict the rights of religious organizations to collect donations, print or distribute literature, proselytize, or even organize centrally. The latter issue is likely to create problems for main stream Christian churches which are traditionally organized on the basis of local parishes or dioceses which in turn are part of larger regional dioceses.

The new law, which amends the current law “On Religion” was approved as open for consideration in Parliament on 2 April. Prime Minister Karim Massimov has given his approval to the Draft Law.

The current law is unpopular for its ban on unregistered religious activity, a provision that led to the fining and expulsion of a Norwegian and a Japanese missionary from the Christian Brothers Church this week. No other criminal charges or complaints were laid against the two missionaries. The Baptist Church has also been long entrenched in court cases with the Kazakhstan government due to the Church’s belief that registration with government organizations is “absolute intrusion into the inner life of believers”, in the words of one believer. The draft law does nothing to amend the registration requirement.