KZBlog

The proposed law on religion in Kazakhstan has been declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Council, whose primary function is to rule on the constitutionality of draft laws. The President sent the controversial law to the council last month.

Interestingly, TOL reports that

On 11 February a deputy foreign minister told the Constitutional Council, a state body that ensures legislation is consistent with the constitution, that parts of the law would negatively affect Kazakhstan’s OSCE chairmanship next year, the Kazakhstan Today news service reported. The next day the council ruled that some of the provisions concerning freedom of worship and religious associations were unconstitutional.

Which indicates that the decision was based as much on political considerations as on actual constitutionality.

A bulletin released by the Kazakhstan Embassy to the US (Special Issue No. 5, On Rejected Amendments to Religious Law and Other Human Rights) , lists the following objections from the Constitutional Council:

• The amendments, in some parts, use the term “citizen” (meaning the citizens of Kazakhstan) thus restricting equal access to rights and freedoms by discriminating against legally operating foreigners and stateless persons and not allowing them to enjoy fully the privileges granted to all religious organizations
• The amendments did not provide clear definition of the term “religious freedom” but the underlying understanding of the term seemed to be inconsistent with the definition of the freedom of conscience enshrined in the Constitution of Kazakhstan. According to the Constitutional Council, the freedom of conscience includes the inalienable right to exercise freely one’s religion or do not exercise any religion at all. In this light, a part of the amendments saying that “…the right to exercise the freedom of religion can be limited by laws of the Republic of Kazakhstan…” was found to be unconstitutional.
• The amendments allowed the authorities to suspend the process of registration of religious groups “previously unknown in Kazakhstan”. The logic behind this regulation is clear – it would give the authorities additional time to gather more information about the groups in question and determine whether their activities are potentially dangerous and whether they have any links with extremist groups. Nevertheless, it was found to be violating the constitutional principle of universal equality before the law, since the same six month suspension period did not apply to other groups.
• Ambiguity of certain terms as well as differences between Kazakh and Russian texts of the draft created loopholes which could lead to violations of human rights and freedoms.

These objections do cover most of the criticisms of the new law indirectly. The primary criticism was that the law required a lengthy and intrusive registration process for religious groups in Kazakhstan, including a review by the government of a groups’ theological correctness. Secondarily, the law appeared to contain a number of loopholes that would allow the government to refuse, suspend or revoke registration for any reason, which could be abused by government officials.