Since 2011, religious associations in Kazakhstan have been forced to choose: either register or stop existing. Representatives of the authorities believe that registration will stop radical ideas from spreading. But human rights defenders see it as an excessive control by the state over law-abiding citizens.
The constitution of Kazakhstan guarantees: “Everyone shall have the right to freedom of conscience.” It means that every person can choose religion, manifest it on one’s own or with fellow followers.
But in fact the state restricts the right “to practice religion together”: religious associations in Kazakhstan need to be registered. This is the duty of citizens prescribed by law “On religious activity.”
In fact, the registration requirement appeared in 2005, but it had an exception: small religious groups were exempt from the bureaucratic procedure. In this form, the law existed until 2011, when registration became obligatory for all religious associations. If the association operates without the official approval of the authorities, participants of these groups shall be subject to criminal prosecution – fines up to 3.7 thousand dollars and even six years of imprisonment.
New requirements led to the fact that representatives of more than a half of religions that had existed before 2011 failed to register their associations – and now Kazakhstan has officially 18 registered religions instead of 40.
For example, representatives of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community were left behind. They failed to get re-registered under the new law: they were officially denied registration due to errors in their documents. According to the leader of the Ahmadiyya Muslims of Kazakhstan, Nurym Taibek, they tried to defend their rights in court, but failed.
“The requirement of obligatory registration is against the law and allows to infringe, discriminate, persecute peaceful, law-abiding religious minorities like our community,” Taibek said.
According to Beimbet Manetov, chief of the Office for law enforcement practice in religious activity of the Committee for Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Information and Social Development, registration of religious associations means to protect peaceful religions operating lawfully. The procedure is mandatory for the religious group to be able to work just like any other entity – to have property, appear in court, conduct a dialogue and represent its interests before the state. Moreover, registered religious associations have tax reliefs.
He also said that registration of missionaries and religious associations is required to stop operations of followers of destructive and extremist religious movements, to minimise the risks of inciting interreligious hatred.
“It’s no secret that there are persons in many countries who use religion for their own gain. Many factors should be taken into account, including mentality, location of the country, culture, as well as the fact that our country is polyethnic and multireligious. There are no drawbacks in the obligatory state registration of religious associations,” Manetov said.
But according to Roman Podoprigora, judge of the Constitutional Court, expert in religion-state relationships, the excessive state regulation is the key issue in field of the freedom of religion.
“Until 2005, Kazakhstan did not have obligatory registration requirement, and nothing bad happened. But today everything is criminalised and all those who failed to register become criminals. According to my estimates, one third of religious associations in Kazakhstan are unregistered,” said Podoprigora (citations of experts taken from the report “Overview of the situation with religious freedom”, prepared by the Institute for War&Peace Reporting in Kazakhstan and public foundation “Legal Media Centre”, are used hereinafter).
He emphasised, “We need to understand that there are people whose beliefs we don’t like or seem strange to us, yet this is not the reason for involving the state machine.”
According to Evgeny Zhovtis, director of the Kazakhstan Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, registration is not required for religious associations.
“According to international standards, a person and a group of people must not ask for permission for their existence. Therefore, any registration, which is a licensing in fact, is the violation of international standards,” Zhovtis said.
The need to register, according to Zhovtis, does not affect the operations of extremist groups: they will never ask public authorities for a license. “They can’t even think of it,” the human rights defender said.
Aleksandr Klyushev, chief of the Association of Religious Associations of Kazakhstan, said that criminalisation of “unapproved religions” should not be justified by the fight against destructive ideas.
“International law does not have the concept that national security interferes with the freedom of religion and opinion (and can suffer from the freedom of religions - Editor). Freedom of religion and opinion must strengthen national security in implementing this law, and non-implementation of this law […] poses risks,” Klyushev said.
He also said that “suppression” of rights and freedoms indicates the weakness of the state itself.
Both supporters and opponents of registration substantiate their views with references to global experience and legislation.
“All civilised democratic states do not have and have never had any registration requirement,” said Evgeny Zhovtis.
Nurym Taibek, representative of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, said that mandatory registration requirement “contradicts all global, traditional religions that declare the absolute freedom of religion.”
“The UN, OSCE and various (if not all) branches of government of the United States, United Kingdom of Great Britain, European Union, other European countries have admitted the fact of discrimination against the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Kazakhstan and have sent many letters in support and protection of our community’s rights and freedoms,” said Nurym Taibek referring to the opinion of foreigners.
Beimbet Manetov of the Committee for Religious Affairs also indicated foreign experience, “.The current law “On religious activity” takes into account international experience and meets basic standards of human rights.”
Who’s right?
According to Roman Podoprigora, not every country has mandatory registration of religious associations, despite its prevalence.
“As a result of our research held in 165 countries, we found out that regulations on mandatory state registration of all or particular religious organisations are available in approximately 50 states, while in other countries it is up to citizens or religious entities whether to register or not, and in some countries there is no registration at all,” according to Podoprigora’s article.
In the United States, registration of religious groups cannot be mandatory: it can be required only to confer legal personality (this status is required, e.g., to file a lawsuit), but must not be compulsory in order to practice religion. Besides, the state cannot impose sanctions on religious groups that choose not to register. In Ireland, religious groups or communities can take the form of voluntary associations, in which case they do not have rights of legal entities.
The Guidelines of the Venice Commission that provides legal aid to states also contain recommendations that registration of religious organisations should not be mandatory. If legal personality is desired, high minimum membership requirements should not be allowed.
Experts of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting in Kazakhstan and public foundation “Legal Media Centre”, who prepared the review of the situation with the freedom of religion, suggest excluding the norm related to mandatory registration of religious organisations as it does not meet the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Main photo: Freepik