RUSSIAN
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT CONFIRMS RIGHT OF RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS
TO CONDUCT
WORSHIP SERVICES IN ADMINISTRATIVE BUILDINGS
Religiia
i Pravo, 6
February 2020
The
Russian
Constitutional Court published a determination from 14 January
2020, no. 3-O,
on the basis of an appeal by the centralized religious
organization
"Religious Association of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints
in Russia" against the violation of its constitutional rights
and
liberties by part 1 of article 8.8 of the Code of the Russian
Federation of
Administrative Violations of Law, and by point 2 of article 7
and the paragraph
of the second article 42 of the Land Code of the Russian
Federation. The reason
for turning to the court was that the religious organization
conducts its
worship services in an administration building belonging to it
and also provides
it for conducting worship services of one of the local religious
organizations
that make up its structure.
In its
determination,
the court cites in detail an order of the Russian Constitutional
Court of 14
November 2019, no. 35-P, in which the court identified the right
of an owner of
a residential building to provide a religious organization the
possibility of
conducting in said residence worship services and other
religious rituals and
ceremonies, and also to use its address as the address of the
religious
organization.
The
interests of the
plaintiff in this case were represented by lawyers of the Slavic
Legal Center,
Vladimir Riakhovsky and Sergei Chugunov.
On the
basis of the
constitutional and legal meaning of the disputed norms that was
declared by the
Russian Constitutional Court, the court indicates that the
conclusions of the
court "mutatis mutandis also apply to the situation of the
holding to
administrative accountability of the owner of the land who
provided the use of
the land for other than its designated purpose in the form of
permitting its
use "for purposes of use of the administrative building and the
administrative building located on it, if such an owner has
provided for the
religious organization the possibility of conducting worship
services and other
religious rituals and ceremonies in the aforesaid building and
also of using
its address as the address of the religious organization."
Thereby
the Russian
Constitutional Court confirmed the right of religious
organizations to conduct
without hindrance worship services and religious rituals and
ceremonies in
administrative buildings, that is, buildings not having a
liturgical or
religious designation. At the same time, it does not matter
whether the given
building belongs to the religious organization itself or has
been provided to
it by its owner on other bases. (tr. by PDS, posted 6 February
2020)
Editorial disclaimer: RRN does
not intend to certify the accuracy of information
presented in articles. RRN simply intends to certify the
accuracy of the English translation of the contents of the
articles as they appeared in news media of countries of
the former USSR.
If material is quoted, please give credit to the
publication from which it came. It is not necessary to credit
this Web page. If material is transmitted electronically, please
include reference to the URL,
http://www.stetson.edu/~psteeves/relnews/.