JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES ORGANIZATION IN MOSCOW
REGISTERED AGAIN
SOVA Center
for News and Analysis, 3 June 2015
In Moscow, the local religious organization of
Jehovah's Witnesses, thousands of whose members had to fight for
decades for their rights, was registered again. The registration
of this organization was restored on 1 June by the directorate
of the Russian Ministry of Justice for Moscow.
How events transpired:
On 26 March 2004, the Golovin court of the city of
Moscow adopted a decision about the liquidation of the local
registered congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses and the
prohibition of its activity. On 16 June 2004, the Moscow city
court (appellate instance) left this decision in force. Both
ordinary people and specialists in the area of religion feared
that the unclear criteria on the basis of which the activity of
Jehovah's Witnesses was banned could just as easily be applied
to any religion, including the one that they themselves
confessed.
For that reason, more than 315,000 citizens
throughout Russia signed an appeal addressed to President
Vladimir Putin, expressing thereby their profound concern over
the banning of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian capital. The
majority of those who signed the appeal were not Jehovah's
Witnesses, but they were alarmed by the judicial precedent that
evoked concern—a peaceful religious group was declared to be
outside the law.
On 25 August 2004 two representatives of the
Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia gave to the presidential
administration 76 volumes of the appeal with citizens'
signatures. The appeal was also addressed to Russian Prosecutor
General Vladimir Ustinov and Supreme Court President Viacheslav
Lebedev, who received copies of the text of the appeal. The
signatures were collected in less than two months, in the period
from 10 May to 27 June 2004.
On 10 June 2010, the European Court for Human
Rights once again rose to the defense of the freedom of
religious confession in Russia. Seven judges unanimously found
the liquidation of the religious congregation of Jehovah's
Witnesses in the city of Moscow and the prohibition of its
activity to be illegal and in violation of basic human rights to
freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
Refuting all the arguments of the Russian side, the
European court emphasized that its order was subject to
obligatory fulfillment by the Russian federation, which was
supposed to take measures "for stopping the violations found by
the European court and for redressing as much as possible the
consequences of such a violation."
At the basis of the decision on the liquidation and
prohibition of the activity of the religious congregation lay an
assessment of the teachings of the Jehovah's Witnesses, while in
the course of the trial the prosecution side announced its final
goal—using the Moscow precedent to achieve the complete
prohibition of Jehovah's Witnesses throughout the country. As a
result, a widespread campaign was begun for the harassment of
believers. The number of incidents of crude treatment and
violation of the rights of Jehovah's Witnesses on the part of
representatives of government agencies and the populace steadily
grew: attacks on houses of worship, illegal detentions, arrests,
searches, confiscation of religious literature, and restrictions
of the possibility of renting and obtaining places for
conducting religious meetings. The ruling by the European Court
for Human Rights provided a basis for reviewing the decision on
the liquidation of the legal entity of Jehovah's Witnesses in
Moscow and the adoption of measures for securing the protection
of freedom of religion in the Russian federation.
On 9 September 2010, Russia officially appealed the
unanimous ruling of the European Court for Human Rights, which
had found the liquidation and prohibition of the activity of the
"Religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of
Moscow" to be illegal. The Russian side requested the transfer
of the case to the Grand Chamber of the European Court.
On 13 December 2010 it was reported that the panel
of the Grand Chamber of the European Court for Human Rights
refused Russia a review of the decision in the case of the
"Religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of
Moscow v. the Russian federation." At the point of the adoption
by the European court of the final decision, this case had
dragged on for about 15 years.
However, on 15 February 2011, the Golovin court of
Moscow refused to grant the petition of the congregation of
Jehovah's Witnesses for review of the decision of this court of
26 March 2004 on the liquidation of the congregation. Despite
the fact that the European Court for Human Rights had found this
decision to be illegal, the Golovin court refused to register
the congregation.
The Russian government was in no hurry to fulfill the decision of the European Court for Human Rights. And only on 1 June 2015 was the local religious organization of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow again registered. (tr. by PDS, posted 7 June 2015)
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