Kazakhstan does not give up attempts to adopt a new law ‘on religion’. Another draft law is promised to be put up for discussion this January. However, the society is not sure about the necessity of adopting a new law.
The fact that Kazakhstan’s society is becoming increasingly religious is evidenced by various studies.
According to the latest census for 2021, 69.3 per cent of the population identifying as religious are Muslims, most of whom adhere to the Hanafi madhhab of Sunnism. Christians make up 17.2 per cent of believers (the majority belong to the Russian Orthodox Church). Other religious groups account for less than 5 per cent (Jews, Buddhists, Krishnaites, other groups).
According to statistics from the Committee on Religious Affairs, as of the first nine months of 2024, 3,824 religious associations or their branches were registered in the country (compared to 3,818 in 2020).
Attempt Number…
Since Kazakhstan became an independent state, there have been several attempts to change the law on religion. The most recent was made by a group of parliamentary deputies last March.
In June 2024, Majilis (lower house) deputy Yermurat Bapi, a nationally known journalist and former editor of opposition publications, accidentally or not, voiced to a Zakon.kz news service correspondent on the sidelines the initiative of a group of seven deputies to adopt a new law regulating religious activity instead of the current one, partially updated with additions from the 2021 draft law.
Without revealing all the details, he focused on two novelties of the bill – a ban on ‘coming in religious clothes to school’ and a ban on ‘wearing religious clothes covering the face in public places.’ Yermurat Bapi had indicated his intention to introduce the bill in Parliament in October 2024, but there has been no news about it after that.
Speaking to CABAR.asia, Yermurat Bapi, said that in March 2024, the new bill was sent for approval to government and law enforcement agencies and primarily to the Religious Affairs Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Information.
‘Here it has been almost ten months now, however, this draft has not come back to us, to Parliament. I have recently enquired, and it seems to me that the government is wary of discussing this law in society. Because, as it seems to me, it may aggravate the issue of religion among the Muslim part of the population. Opponents of this bill in the person of Wahhabi adherents may raise a wave of criticism. So, the government is still studying the issue,’ Yermurat Bapi said.
He said that their initiative group will wait for an answer until 20 January and then raise the issue again at a plenary session in parliament so that ‘the government will give its opinion sooner and we can start discussing the bill in a working group.
It should be noted that this is not the first attempt to adopt new legislation regulating such a sensitive for the Kazakhstani authorities’ sphere of society as religion.
Yevgeny Zhovtis, a well-known Kazakhstani human rights activist, told CABAR.asia in an interview that the first law adopted in Kazakhstan in 1992, ‘On Freedom of Religion’, was timely given that religion was banned during the Soviet era. It was an attempt to protect the rights of believers. But then the authorities began to strengthen control over this sphere.
‘It is clear that there was a fight against proselytism to protect “traditional religions”. And this legislation began to tighten under the guise of fighting destructive ideologies, harmful radical religions and so on. The first attempt was in the 2000s to pass a toughening law, but it did not pass. There is a ruling of the Constitutional Council that recognized this law as unconstitutional. And then almost the same law was adopted in 2011, and it turned out to be one of the most repressive laws in the OSCE area. And now, under the guise of fighting extremism and radicalism, some other amendments are being proposed,’ Zhovtis said.
Repressive, even more repressive…..
The law ‘On Religious Activity and Religious Associations’ of 2011 is now in force in the country and has been amended several times.
Despite criticism from human rights defenders, the authorities have only increased control over this sensitive area for Kazakhstanis, explaining this by the need to combat the radicalisation of society.
In 2017, the initiative of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Civil Society on amendments and additions to legislative acts on religious activities and religious associations was presented to the public.
It already envisaged the introduction of bans on wearing religious clothing at school, clothing that ‘prevents facial recognition’ in public and demonstrating affiliation with “destructive religious movements”. In addition to ‘destructive currents’ with a rather loose interpretation, it also introduced the concept of ‘religious radicalism’, significantly changed the approach to receiving religious education abroad, and introduced the possibility of prosecution for ‘offence of feelings and dignity’ of both believers and non-believers.
A year later, the bill, despite criticism from human rights activists inside the country, as well as international human rights organizations from Western countries (primarily the US), received approval in both houses of parliament.
‘Parliament considered the bill, which exerts additional pressure and restrictions on religious dress, symbols, education and literature, as well as proselytizing, membership and participation in religious communities; civil society representatives and religious experts said they feared further infringement of religious freedom. Government representatives justified the bill by the need to address security concerns caused by ‘religious extremism.’ Among the government’s justifications was that people arrested for religious activity without government authorization are a ‘risk group’,’ as was written in the report ’Kazakhstan 2018. International Religious Freedom’ by the U.S. State Department.
And then, without any explanation, the government withdrew the bill; government officials said at the time that the external factor had nothing to do with it.
Later, some clauses of this bill were still included as additions to the current law ‘On Religious Activities’, as well as to the law ‘On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Visual Information and Religious Activities’, which came into force on 29 December 2021.
By the way, the adopted amendments and additions provided some relief for the registration and activities of religious communities. At that time, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in an official commentary noted that ‘the bill demonstrates Kazakhstan’s progressive efforts to achieve real progress in this area. It is hoped that constructive dialogue will continue within the framework of the Kazakh-American expert working group on religious issues’.
Still, several Kazakhstani human rights organizations insist that liberalization is more than conditional.
‘Their introduction [of the amendments. Author’s note] is presented as a liberalization of existing legislation, mainly because the permissive nature for holding religious events outside religious buildings has been replaced by a notification procedure. At the same time, the notification procedure that a religious association planning to hold such an event must go through is actually not such a procedure but contains many conditions. The event may even be refused. A similar situation is observed in the matter of ordinary peaceful assemblies of a non-religious nature,’ the Kazakhstan NGO Coalition for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) said.
In early 2025, Kazakhstan will report on the whole range of human rights covered by the UPR to the UN Human Rights Council.
Who needs a new law and why?
The need to adopt a fundamentally new law regulating the life of believers was again recalled in October 2023, officially following a petition by a group of deputies concerned about the growing “spread of non-traditional religious movements”.
The Norwegian human rights organisation Forum 18 reported that around that time, Yermek Sagimbayev, chairman of the National Security Committee, said the following in Parliament: ‘The initiative regarding the need to tighten legislation in the field of regulating religious activity has been considered more than once at the government level.’
The latest U.S. State Department report, Kazakhstan: International Religious Freedom Report 2023, reported that in November 2023, the country’s prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, told parliament that in November 2023, among other provisions, the law planned to introduce the concept of ‘destructive religious current’, to deal with the rehabilitation of ‘adherents of destructive religious currents’, and to develop a list of organizations entitled to distribute religious literature.
‘Until the end of the year, relevant legislation was not submitted by the government,’ this report states.
Therefore, it can be considered that the decision on a new law on religion is being made at the very top. The difficulties lie in its promotion and the constant changes in this area. But the adoption of a new law is only a matter of time.
Events are changing so rapidly that we must navigate literally on the fly.
Here are just a few new moments related to religion, which manifested themselves in 2024 and may require additional changes to the already prepared draft law:
In Almaty on 6 December, Muslim believers blocked a road because they were performing Friday namaz. It was suspected that the challenge was picked up in the city of Atyrau.
Also, in the appeal instance of Almaty court left in force the decision of November 2023 that since everyone in the Christian community ‘Jehovah’s Witnesses’ is a pastor, respectively, young men of conscription age have the same rights not to undergo military service as status clergymen of other denominations.
In August, again in Almaty at a press conference, Neotengrians made themselves known, demanding that they be recognized as an official religion in Kazakhstan.
It should be noted that even though Tengriism belongs to the original spiritual and cultural values and traditions of nomadic peoples, which include Kazakhs, representatives of Islam have met their activity with a certain degree of rejection, and the state authorities treat them with caution, prosecuting some of them administratively and criminally on charges of ‘inciting religious discord’.
Other developments in this area are also a reflection of changes throughout society, which the government seems to be noticing.
Previously, YouTube audiences for preachers could number in the hundreds, at best a thousand or two viewers. Those who made reposts of radical spiritual teachers were added to the colonies. The likes and reposts of radical views on the Internet are punishable by up to 12 years in prison under Article 256 of the Criminal Code as propaganda of terrorism and public calls for terrorism. Internal chat rooms of adherents of one religious direction involved several dozens of participants, often including agents of special services. So, discussing a ‘slippery’ topic among their own could also land them in jail.
However, online preachers now gather millions of views on the social network TikTok, and open polemics, often offensive, with thousands of participants in social networks are held without regard for possible consequences. In this respect, control over the audience is in principle impossible, except to block certain channels, but the authorities do not dare to shut down social networks and messengers.
Finally, it should be remembered, that according to various sources, adherents of radical religious groups contributed to the bloody events of January 2022.
All these points, apparently, should also be considered by the initiators of changes to the legislation regulating the religious sphere.
At the same time, the main traditional religious confessions of Kazakhstan do not openly express themselves in discussions on the need for such legislation. The Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kazakhstan, to which a request was sent to comment on the need for a new law, did not respond.
It seems that apart from deputies, government enforcers and officials, it is difficult to find supporters among those who may be affected by the new novelties of the proposed law.
Kairat Dautkulov, a philosopher-educator with Tengrian views, in a conversation with CABAR.asia suggests leaving everything as it is, focusing on the implementation of the current legislation.
‘In fact, the law is already in place, but we have a problem that applies not only to the religious sphere – but it is also the improper implementation of existing laws. Elementary on missionary work. There everything is clearly regulated in the law; the state bodies should monitor everything. And what do we see? In all social networks, wherever it is possible (and we have no idea whether this person belongs to religious organizations, whether he has the authority), but everyone talks about religion. Now in the state there is a kind of total throwing out of near-religious ideologies into the consciousness of the masses. And from this point of view, we need to tighten enforcement of the existing law,’ Dautkulov said.
Under current law, no advantages should be given to any religious organization, he said. But in practice, this is not the case.
‘In fact, we see that more sympathy goes to the Hanafi madhhab of Islam. This is felt everywhere and in everything. When ordinary citizens criticize Islam, they are brought to responsibility, but when a religious person criticizes some sacred traditions of the people, not just one person, but the whole nation, they do not take any measures. And here the Constitution itself is violated in terms of the right to freedom of speech’, Dautkulov said.
Galym Nurpeisov, a well-known lawyer who specializes in defending the rights of Muslim believers and opposition activists, is convinced that the Constitution’s guidance and enforcement are enough.
‘In our situation, what is needed here is not changes or amendments to the legislation on religious activity, but the full implementation of the Constitution’s norms. After all, if you just look at the practice, for certain words, cases are brought under Article 174 [incitement of religious hatred – author’s note]. After all, this is religious competition. And where is freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of belief? In our legal practice, people have been prosecuted for the word ‘Amen’! And where in our law is it written that they are obliged to fulfil the requirement of the rules of a certain religious group? There is no such thing. And there is also a moment in the Law on Religious Activity – there is prohibition to perform religious ceremonies in state authorities or in certain places. And for me this is also a violation of freedom of religious belief. In fact, the rights provided for by the Constitution are being levelled here,’ the expert said.
The current 2011 law, which was adopted in haste and without regard for comments, needs to be changed, Alexander Klyushev, chairman of the Association of Religious Associations of Kazakhstan, said.
‘And those norms that relate to the missionary character, related to the mandatory examination of materials with religious content – they are clearly discriminatory and clearly violate the right to freedom of religion and belief. Therefore, it is necessary to change, but not as they tried to change in 2017-18, there were attempts in words and in this [2024] year… And it is necessary to change in the direction of realizing the right to freedom of religion and belief, within the framework of the obligations assumed,’ Klyushev said.
Yevgeniy Zhovtis, on the other hand, believes that there is no need for a new law at all, just as there is no need for the current one.
‘In most countries of the world there are no special laws on religion at all, and there are civil laws, civil codes, or laws on public associations, on all, not only religious ones. And the state should not care at all about the purpose for which people unite. When legislation about religion appears, it is discriminatory in principle, because if you create a non-religious association, you are regulated in one way, and as soon as you create a religious association, for some reason it is regulated in another way. Repeatedly I tried to explain (but to no avail) that the law on religious activity is not a law for control. It is a law to enforce rights. Therefore, there is no sense in these amendments, in general this law is not necessary from my point of view,’ says the expert.
But since the legislation exists, it should at least be put to good use, Zhovtis said.
He has prepared a whole legislative block devoted to eliminating discriminatory norms. In this regard, he proposes to define religious discrimination as “any direct or indirect restriction or preference based on attitude or affiliation to religion, which puts a person, religious associations or other organizations in an unequal position compared to other persons”. And to supplement the law ‘On Religious Activity’ with the article ‘Protection from religious discrimination’.