Keston News Service (13.12.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (17.12.2001) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - Pavel Leonov, leader of the Baptist church in the town of Ayaguz in Eastern Kazakhstan region has been fined for refusing to register his church with the authorities, Keston News Service learned from a 3 December statement from local Baptists.
Leonov's congregation, which belongs to the Council of Churches of Evangelical Christians/Baptists, believes that such registration is a sin. Neither Kazakhstan's constitution nor its religion law specifies any obligation for religious groups to register, but Article 375 of the administrative code allows the authorities to prosecute believers who refuse to register religious communities. The head of the Almaty Helsinki Committee told
Keston she believes the authorities' reliance on the article is unlawful.
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Jehovahs Witnesses: registration problems
JW Public Affairs Office (11.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (12.12.2001) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - In Kazakhstan, a number of religious communities of Jehovah's Witnesses are facing problems with state registration.
Nine congregations, which have submitted their constitutive documents for registration, have been experiencing difficulties over a long period of time. Below is a table showing the names of these congregations, their location, and a short description of the problems they face:
| No. |
Region, City/Village |
Name of the congregation |
Description of Problems |
| 1 |
Almaty |
South, Almaty |
The Department of Justice is intentionally delaying the process of registration for unfounded reasons. The documents were first submitted to the Department of Justice on September 4, 2000. The chairman of the community has made a number requests for information. The Department of Justice answered that the documents are undergoing a religious-studies expert study. |
| 2 |
Almaty Region, Village of Boralday |
Borolday and December 12th |
The Department of Justice is intentionally delaying the process of registration for unfounded reasons. The documents were first submitted to the Department of Justice on June 21, 2000. The chairman of the community has made a number of requests to find out the reasons for the delay. The Department of Justice answered that the documents are undergoing a religious-studies expert study. |
| 3 |
Almaty Region, Village of Balpyk bi, |
Balpyk bi |
The Department of Justice is intentionally delaying the process of registration for unfounded reasons. The documents were first submitted to the Department of Justice on June 7, 2000. |
| 4 |
Karagandin Region, Village of Osakarovka |
A group of about 15 believers |
Intentional delay of registration for unfounded reasons. In its orders to interrupt the registration term, the Department of Justice reported that the Russian translation of the charter supposedly does not correspond to the Kazakh translation of the charter, although these discrepancies do not involve thought-carrying words, they are interchangeable, synonyms. Also the charters of the communities of Jehovah's Witnesses are the same all over Kazakhstan and have already been registered in the Kazakh language by Departments of many regions. |
| 5 |
Kentau |
A group of believers |
The constitutive documents were submitted on July 16, 2001. An order was handed down to interrupt the registration term, which referred to requirements not based on the law. |
| 6 |
Khromtau |
A group of believers |
Documents were submitted to the Department of Justice on June 5, 2001. An order was received to interrupt the registration term, which contained requirements not based on the law. Representatives of this community have made a number of requests to the Department of Justice in order to receive an explanation, but the Department of Justice intentionally delays the registration by not answering for an extended period of time. |
| 7 |
Atyrau Region, Atyrau City |
A group of believers, total 10 persons |
Since May 20, 2001, the attempts of Jehovah's Witnesses in this region to register their religious association have been unsuccessful. Moreover the Prosecutor's Office of the Atyrau Region uses this to infringe on Jehovah's Witnesses right to freedom of conscience. In particular, two administrative cases were instigated for not having registration, but in both cases the court did not find a violation of law. |
| 8 |
Pavlodar Region, Kurchatov City |
A group of believers |
The documents were submitted to the Department of Justice on June 18, 2001, the registration term was interrupted because the documents were supposedly sent for an expert study. So far, the Department of Justice has not done anything to have this association registered, for example, there are still no results from the religious-studies expert study. |
| 9 |
Northern-Kazakhstan Region, Petropavlovsk City |
Petropavlovsk |
The registration process has been continuing for four years, beginning on December 29, 1997, when the documents were first submitted for registration to the Department of Justice. Afterwards, documents were submitted four times, the last time being in September 2000. In Petropavlovsk, Jehovah's Witnesses were even involved in a court case for evading registration. But in its judgment, the court established that Jehovah's Witnesses systematically and regularly apply to the Department of Justice for registration of the association. The actions of the director do not contain any infractions. |
As seen from the table, the Department of Justice operates similarly in various regions. First they accept the documents for state registration, then interrupt the registration term for unfounded reasons. When the local communities request for information, the Department of Justice answers very obscurely, for example, by saying that the documents are undergoing a religious-studies expert study, although, the Departments of Justice do not usually have such expert studies done. If such an expert study does exist, then the time in which it is conducted is extremely long, although they are not stipulated by law. But the law does state that an expert study should be conducted in special cases. Also, the reasons for the orders to deny state registration, or to interrupt its term because some of the charter points supposedly do not correspond to law, are very strange considering that approximately 60 identical charters of communities of Jehovah's Witnesses were declared legal and registered by the Department of Justice in 13 of the 16 regions of Kazakhstan.
Moreover, some of the congregations made changes and additions to the charter and submitted them for registration. But in a number of cases, the Department of Justice did not register these changes and additions within the legally-established time limit15 days or in special cases, one month.
As a result of this artificial delay of the registration term, only two congregations were registered in all of Kazakhstan in 2001. At the same time, approximately 11 administrative cases according to Article 375 of the Code of Administrative Violations were instigated against the representatives of the religious groups of Jehovah's Witnesses for evading registration, notwithstanding the numerous attempts to get registered.
High court upholds religious freedom in Kazakhstan
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (23.07.2001)/ HRWF International Secretariat (30.08.2001) Website http://www.hrwf.net - Email info@hrwf.net - The Zhambyl Regional Court of Taraz in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan dismissed a protest made by the Office of the Taraz City Prosecutor attempting to deregister the local religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses and to forbid their activities.
This action by the Zhambyl Region Court left intact the decision of the Taraz City Court, which had already established that the worship and activities of Jehovah's Witnesses should indeed remain legally recognized and protected.
What occurred was considered highly unusual. By mid-morning Monday, all the participants, including attorneys for Jehovah's Witnesses as well as representatives of the city and district prosecutor's office, were ready to start the hearing. But the start of the trial was being delayed. By noon, the presiding judge, E.A. Iovov, spoke on behalf of the three-judge panel in declaring that the case was dismissed.
The process initiated by the prosecutor's office began February 9, 2001. During the hearing in Taraz, 17 witnesses testified. More than half of them were called by the prosecutor. However, the lower court decision announced on May 29 refuted all of the prosecutor's claims. In particular, it stated that the charter of Jehovah's Witnesses contains "no norms that are in controversy with the Constitution or any other law of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The activity of the religious group does not limit the common human and the civil rights of its members before the state."
Many Kazakhstani and international human rights organizations closely followed the developments in this case. Several Kazakhstani human rights organizations prepared a letter to the Zhambyl Regional Court regarding the serious implications of the case.
Prior to the hearing, information about the forthcoming proceedings was also supplied to American, British and German Embassies in Almaty, as well as to the U.S. Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom, in Washington, D.C.
This legal precedent could have great importance for religious freedom not only in Taraz, but also throughout Kazakhstan and in other countries as well. There are over 13, 000 Jehovah's Witnesses in Kazakhstan.
