GOVERNMENT
SUBMITS TO
STATE DUMA AMENDMENTS TO LAW "ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND
RELIGIOUS
ASSOCIATIONS"
SOVA Center
for News
and Analysis, 22 July 2020
A draft
bill of the
Ministry of Justice was introduced to the State Duma; in the
event of its
adoption, religious groups will have to submit notifications
more often and
clergy studying abroad will have to undergo certification in
Russia.
On 21
July 2020, the
government of Russia sent to the State Duma a draft law on
introducing changes
into the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious
associations."
It is
proposed to
make the following amendments to the law:
To
indicate that the
state does not interfere in the activity of religious
associations "if it
does not violate the legislation of the Russian Federation" (the
current
version states if "it does not violate the present federal
law").
To
indicate that the
following cannot be a leader and participant of a religious
group:
--a
foreign citizen
or a person without citizenship, regarding whom a decision has
been made about
the undesirability of staying in the RF;
--a
person who is
included in the Rosfinmonitoring list of extremists and
terrorists;
--a
person regarding
whom a decision of a court has taken legal effect establishing
that his actions
contain evidence of extremist activity;
--a
natural person
whose accounts have been frozen by the Inter-agency Commission
on Combating
Financing of Terrorism.
Thereby
it is
suggested to apply already existing requirements on
noncommercial
organizations, including religious ones, to leaders and members
of religious
groups.
To
establish annual
periodic notifications about continuance of the activity of a
religious group
(at present it is every third year) and also to require in these
notifications
to provide information similar to information about the
beginning of the
activity of the group. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice
will be
required within five days to notify the applicant in writing
about receipt and
registration of notification about the creation or proposed
activity of a
group.
To
indicate that
religious organizations may join, leave, and be removed from a
centralized
organization if this is consistent with its internal
requirements, but a ban on
their leaving may be established.
To
permit legal
entities [juridical persons] created by religious organizations
to use in their
name information about the religious confession and to forbid
its use by all
other legal entities.
To
determine that in
the event of a religious organization's affiliation with a
foreign religious
organization, its name must be indicated in the charter.
To
simplify
registration of religious organizations: not to require
information about the
address of the permanent governing body of the organization and
also to require
agencies of the Ministry of Justice to independently request a
copy of the
charter from the founder of the organization, if it is not
submitted by the
applicant.
To
establish that
clergy who receive religious education abroad will undergo
certification within
a Russian religious organization and before beginning work in
Russia will
receive additional professional education.
To
replace throughout
the law the term "member" with "participant," and
"forms of activity" (which are indicated in charters of
religious
organizations) with "kinds of activity."
That the
Ministry of
Justice was preparing such amendments was learned back in 2018.
At the time,
the change of the word "member" to "participant" evoked
concern among a number of believers and lawyers: for Christians
the concept "member
of the church" is significant. In addition, adoption of the
draft bill may
create additional bureaucratic difficulties for religious groups
(for them the
procedure for submitting notifications is complicated) and
religious
organizations (many of them will have to reregister their
charter to comply
with the new version of the law).
Finally,
the ban on
participation in religious groups, including for persons on the
Rosfinmonitoring list, is problematic, if not in direct
contradiction with the
constitutional right of professing a religion jointly with
others. Such a
restriction of freedom of conscience can hardly be seen as
justified,
especially in view of the fact that religious groups do not have
their own
property and consequently their leaders and participants cannot
use it for
purposes of financing terrorist or extremist activity. Besides,
the
Rosfinmonitoring list includes not only convicts but also
defendants and even
suspects on the basis of terrorism and extremism articles. (tr.
by PDS, posted
27 August 2020)
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