GOVERNMENT PROPOSES TO STRENGTHEN MONITORING OF FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC ACTIVITY OF RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS (DRAFT LAW)
Religiia i pravo, 30 April 2015
The government of the Russian federation introduced for review by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian federation a draft of a federal law "On introducing changes into the federal law 'On freedom of conscience and religious associations' and other legislative acts of the Russian federation," in order to strengthen monitoring of the financial and economic activity of religious associations.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
The draft of the federal law "On introducing changes into the federal law 'On freedom of conscience and religious associations' and other legislative acts of the Russian federation" (hereinafter "draft law") was developed in order to fulfill the order of the president of the Russian federation of 22 May 2014 about developing a special mechanism for monitoring of the financial and economic activity of religious organizations and for permitting the timely discovery of and response to incidents of the participation of religious organizations in extremist and terrorist activity, as well as other violations by religious organizations of the legislation of the Russian federation.
In preparing the draft law in principle, forms and methods of monitoring activity of noncommercial organizations have been taken into account, although the object of monitoring has been adjusted in accordance to the instruction of the president of the Russian federation.
The draft law proposes to differentiate the subject of inspections of the activity of religious organization on the basis of their receipt of foreign financing and to strengthen the right of the Russian Ministry of Justice and its territorial agencies to conduct inspections of the financial and economic activity of religious organizations where there are in the activity of religious organizations signs of extremism (terrorism) or other violations of the legislation of the Russian federation.
The draft law proposes to establish that planned inspections of the activity of religious organizations will be conducted for the purpose of monitoring their compliance with the legislation of the Russian federation, including their charters regarding the goals and procedure of their activity. At the same time, if a religious organization receives foreign financing or it is necessary to establish the presence or absence of signs of extremism (terrorism) and other violations of the legislation of the Russian federation in the activity of a religious organization, the financial and economic activity of a religious organization also will be subject to inspection.
In addition, religious organizations that have income of financial resources and other property from foreign and international organizations, foreign citizens or persons without citizenship will present to the Russian Ministry of Justice and its territorial agencies formalized information about their activity, the personal composition of administrative bodies, and information about foreign financing. Other religious organizations are exempted from the requirement of presentation.
The draft law reduces the number of grounds for conducting unannounced inspections from five to three. It is proposed to conduct unannounced inspections of religious organizations in the event that:
the time for eliminating previously discovered violations reflected in a pertinent warning has expired;
an authorized agency of government agencies or agencies of local self-administration has received information about the presence of signs of extremism or terrorism in the activity of a religious organization;
the president of the Russian federation or the government of the Russian federation has ordered it, as well as on the basis of a request of a prosecutor's office.
The draft law also provides for introducing corresponding changes in the federal laws of 12 January 1996, "On noncommercial organizations," and of 26 December 2008, "On protecting rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs in the conduct of government monitoring (inspection) and municipal monitoring."
FEDERAL LAW
On introducing changes into federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" and other legislative acts of the Russian federation
Article 1
To introduce into the federal law of 26 September 1997, "On freedom of conscience and religious associations," the following changes:
1) to add a paragraph to point 2 of article 14, reading as follows:
"frequent failure of a religious organization to present to a federal agency of state registration or its territorial agency within the established deadline documents specified by point 2 of article 251 of the present federal law, when there are other violations of the legislation of the Russian federation in the activity of the religious organization";
2) in article 25:
a) point 2 to read as follows:
"2. The federal agency of state registration or its territorial agency conducts monitoring of the compliance by religious organizations with the legislation of the Russian federation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religious confessions, and religious associations, and also the goals and procedure of the activity specified by their charters, while conducting federal government oversight of the activity of religious organizations.";
b) to add points 3 through 6, reading as follows:
"3. The provisions of the federal law of 26 December 2008, "On protection of rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs during conduct of government monitoring (oversight) and municipal monitoring," are applied to relations connected with the protection of rights of religious organizations during the conducting of federal government oversight of the activity of religious organizations, taking into account the specifics established by the present article.
4. In dealing with a religious organization, the federal agency of government registration or its territorial agency and its official personnel, in accordance with the procedure established by legislation of the Russian federation, have the right:
to request of administrative bodies of a religious organization documents about the activity of the religious organization, with the exception of documents containing information about the financial and economic activity of the religious organization which can be obtained in accordance with paragraphs three and four of the present point;
to request of administrative bodies of a religious organization documents containing information about its financial and economic activity, in the event that the religious organization had receipts of financial resources and other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship, and/or in the event that information about a violation by the religious organization of legislation of the Russian federation in the sphere of its activity and/or about the presence of signs of extremism (terrorism) in its activity has been received from government agencies or agencies of local self-administration;
to request and to receive information about financial and economic activity of religious organizations from agencies of state statistics, a federal agency of executive power, an authorized person for monitoring and supervision in the area of taxation and fees of a federal agency of executive power, an authorized person for performing functions of combating legalization (laundering) of income received by criminal means and financing terrorism and other agencies of government oversight and monitoring, as well as from credit and other financing organizations;
to send their representatives for attending public events conducted by a religious organization upon invitation by administrative bodies of a religious organization;
to conduct verification of the compliance of the activity of a religious organization with legislation of the Russian federation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religious confession, and religious associations, as well as the goals and procedure of the activity specified in its charter. A federal agency of government registration or its territorial agency and its official personnel has the right to conduct an inspection of the financial and economic activity of a religious organization, including its receipt and/or disbursement of charitable contributions and other financial resources and use of other property in the event that a religious organization received financial resources and other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, and persons without citizenship, and/or in the event that information about the violation by a religious organization of legislation of the Russian federation in the sphere of its activity and/or about the presence of signs of extremism (terrorism) in its activity is received from government agencies or agencies of local self-administration;
in the event of the discovery of violation of legislation of the Russian federation on freedom of conscience, freedom of religious confession, and religious associations, or the commission by a religious organization of actions not in accordance with goals specified by its charter, to issue to it a written warning pointing out the violation committed and the deadline for its elimination consisting of no less than one month. A warning issued to a religious organization may be appealed in accordance with legislation of the Russian federation.
5. Grounds for conducting an unannounced inspection of a religious organization are:
the time for eliminating violations contained in a warning previously issued to the religious organization by a federal agency of state registration or it territorial agency has expired;
a federal agency of government registration or its territorial agency has received information from government agencies or agencies of local self-administration about a violation by a religious organization of legislation of the Russian federation in the sphere of its activity and/or about the presence of signs of extremism (terrorism) in its activity;
the existence of an order (decree) by a director of a federal agency of government registration or its territorial agency, issued in accordance with an instruction from the president of the Russian federation or the government of the Russian federation or on the basis of a request by a prosecutor's office about conducting an unannounced inspection within the framework of monitoring the fulfillment of laws on the basis of materials and reports received by agencies of the prosecutor's office.
6. Prior notification of a religious organization about the conduct of an unannounced inspection in connection with the presence of signs of extremism (terrorism) is not permitted.";
3) to add article 25, reading as follows:
"Article 25: Reporting by a religious organization that has received financial resources or other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship
1. Religious organizations that have received financial resources and other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship submit a separate account of income (disbursements) received (conducted) within the proceeds from indicated sources and income (disbursements) received (conducted) within other proceeds.
2. Religious organizations that have received within the course of a year financial resources and other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship are required to present to a federal organ of government registration or its territorial agency an account of their activity, personal membership of administrative bodies, purposes of the disbursal of financial resources and use of other property, including what was received from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship, regarding their actual disbursement (use).
3. Religious organizations that have received financial resources and other property from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens, or persons without citizenship are required to post annually on the "Internet" information and telecommunications network, or to present to news media for publication, an accounting of the amount of information presented to a federal agency of government registration or its territorial agency, in accordance with point 2 of the present article.
4. Forms and deadlines for presenting the accounting indicated in point 2 of the present article as well as the procedure and deadlines of its posting on the "Internet" information and telecommunications network in accordance with point 3 of the present article are determined by the federal agency of government registration.".
Article 2
To eliminate the words "paragraph of the third point of article 1" from point 4 of article 1 of the federal law of 12 January 1996 "On noncommercial organizations."
Article 3
To add to part 4 of article 1 of the federal law of 26 December 2008, "On protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs during conduct of government monitoring (oversight) and municipal monitoring," point 36 reading as follows:
"36) federal state oversight (monitoring) of the activity of religious organizations".
President of Russian federation,
(tr. by PDS, posted 2 May 2015)
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[Translator's note: The document as it appears here (an accurate
translation of the news source) contains what seems to be a direct
contradiction or conflict. The document actually provides two
different texts of what purports to be "article 25." That is, of
course, not reasonable. It seems that the number "25" in part 3 of
article 1 of the draft law, proposing an entirely new article for
the freedom of conscience law, should be something different. I
have not yet been able to find an alternate source for the text of
the draft to see if there is an easy resolution of this
contradiction. No substantive matters are affected by this
problem.]
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