CHURCH
WITHOUT WALLS
ECB
church of the
village of Verkhnebakanskii
Religiia
i pravo, 7
September 2020
In late
August 2020,
lawyers and experts visited Krasnodar territory, which is the
second region
within the context of the Svoboda28 project organized by the
Slavic Legal
Center along with the Institute of the Rule of Law, with
informational support
of the publication Religiia i Pravo and the SPEKTR News Bureau.
For the
past few
years, a religious group of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
(EKhB) of the
village of Verknebakinskii of Krasnodar territory have
confronted difficulties
in exercising their constitutional right to freedom of religious
confession.
Before the summer of last year, the congregation conducted
worship services on
Sundays in a private home that was owned by the leadership of
the religious
group. In July 2019, court bailiffs sealed the living room of
the residential
building where the church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists
conducted the
worship services. By a court decision, a prohibition was placed
on the use of
the plot of land and the residence located on it for religious
purposes by the
owner and other persons. However, from the time of its
construction and use to
the present, the building has retained the characteristics of a
residence and
it has been used by the owner and persons living in it in
accordance with its
specific intent—as a residence. Experts of the Svoboda28 project
were persuaded
of this when they visited the aforementioned house.
"The
bailiffs'
interpretation of the court's decision, which forbade the use of
the
residential building for religious purposes, was surprising. But
the spacious
living room was sealed by the bailiffs, which the citizens also
used as their
residence. Therefore there was here not only a violation of the
right to
freedom of religious confession but also an unjustified
restriction of the
right of ownership guaranteed by article 35 of the constitution
of the Russian
Federation," the attorney Sergei Chugunov commented on the
bailiffs'
action.
On 26
March 2020, the
administration of the municipality of the city of Novorossisk
filed a lawsuit
in the Primorsky district court of the city of Novorossiisk in
the name of an
unspecified circle of persons against the owner of the residence
requesting the
demolition of the residence that was being used for other than
its intended
purpose, to wit, for conducting worship services, rituals, and
ceremonies.
The
position of the
administration of the municipality of the city of Novorossiisk
violates the
ruling of the Russian Constitutional Court of 14 November 2019,
No. 35-P, in
which the Constitutional Court entirely reasonably indicated
that
"according to point 2 of article 16 of the federal law 'On
freedom of
conscience and religious association,' worship services and
other religious
rituals and ceremonies are conducted without hindrance not only
in liturgical
premises, buildings, and structures, but also in other places,
particularly in
premises owned by religious organizations, or provided to them
on another
basis, for conducting their charter activity, including
residential premises.
The confirmation of such a possibility is consistent with the
purpose of
residential premises, which are intended to satisfy not only the
physical needs
of citizens, but also their spiritual interests as an intrinsic
element of the
development and improvement of personality, including the
spiritual needs of
believers that are exercised on the basis of freedom of
religious confession,
provided that the use of the residence takes into account the
rights and legal
interests of persons living within it and of neighbors, the
requirements of
fire safety, sanitation and hygienic, ecological, and other
requirements, and
also in compliance with rules of the use of residential remises.
. . . The
provision to a religious organization by citizens who own the
residential
premises of the opportunity to conduct worship services and
other religious
rituals and ceremonies and also the use of the address of the
residence as the
address of the religious organization are not violations of law.
. . ."
Such
actions have led
to the emergence of tension on the part of the public and also
to distress for
believers. And as a consequence, other difficulties have arisen
for the joint
profession of religious convictions, such as in the spring of
2019, when a
group of representatives of city government, police, personnel
of security
agencies, and cossacks burst into the celebration of a worship
service of the
Baptist church in the village of Verkhnebakanskii. As
eyewitnesses explained,
the "sudden guests" prohibited filming, threatened the
parishioners,
and prevented the conduct of the service. At the same time, they
gave no
explanation of their actions.
As of
the present,
the believers have no place to meet for conducting joint worship
services,
since they had previously been refused rental of several
locations precisely because,
according to representatives of the congregation, of the
accumulation of
problems and the fears of owners to fall out of favor with the
powers that be.
The believers have been forced to gather in the woods for
worship services.
"This is
simply
unimaginable for modern Russia, where everybody is guaranteed,
individually and
collectively with others, the right to freedom of religious
confession. Only
during the times of persecution, during soviet times, were
believers forced to
conduct worship services in the woods. The logic of those who
essentially have
driven people out-of-doors is completely unclear. Why is this
being done? Will
the government really strengthen public safety by forcing dozens
of believers
to conduct their prayer meetings in the woods? The leader of the
congregation
has a large family of 6 children and his father and mother have
52
grandchildren; is it really impossible for them to gather
together in order to
pray and read sacred books in the home that belongs to them? In
my view this is
a short-sighted decision, since such actions will lead to
nothing besides
increasing tensions. To say nothing of the absence of legal
bases about which
the Russian Constitutional Court has said everything," explained
Vladimir
Riakhovsky, an attorney and member of the Council on Human
Rights.
"According
to
information of the 'Freedom of conscience, thought, and religion
in 2020'
(article28.ru) project, Krasnodar territory is among the regions
in which, if
trends are maintained, violations of the right to freedom of
religious
confession may, within the course of one or two months, acquire
a systematic
character. As far as possible, we are trying to monitor the
situation in this
region and respond promptly to reports of violations, providing
along with
partnering lawyers and attorneys qualified legal aid and legal
recommendations," attorney Stanislav Kulov commented.
The
congregation of
Evangelical Christians-Baptists was visited by Vladimir
Riakhovsky, an attorney
and managing partner of the Slavic Legal Center and member of
the Council on the
Development of Civil Society and Human Rights under the
president of the R.F.;
Stanislav Kulov, an attorney, director of the Institute of the
Rule of Law, and
editor-in-chief of the internet publication Religiia i pravo;
and Sergei
Chugunov, an attorney and chairman of the board of the Institute
of the Rule of
Law.
The
Svoboda28 project
is an attempt to call attention of both the expert and religious
communities
and the bodies of government to problems in the religious
sphere. It is
necessary to conclude that, with the exception of a few
high-profile cases,
systematic violations of law in several regions remain outside
the field of
vision of the expert and religious communities. By uniting
efforts, civil
rights advocates and experts hope to change the developing
situation, providing
the necessary legal and informational support to work out
mechanisms to
counteract the sometimes openly illegal application of the law.
(tr. by PDS,
posted 14 September 2020)
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