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  • F18News: Nagorno-Karabakh - Repressive new Religion Law signed

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ========================================== ======
    Monday 5 January 2009
    NAGORNO-KARABAKH: REPRESSIVE NEW RELIGION LAW SIGNED

    The President of the internationally unrecognised entity of
    Nagorno-Karabakh, Bako Sahakyan, has signed a repressive new Religion Law,
    Forum 18 News Service has learnt. It comes into force ten days after its
    official publication, which is expected to be after the current Christmas
    holidays. No officials were available to discuss the new Law, because of
    public holidays for Christmas which the Armenian Apostolic Church
    celebrates on 6 January 2009. The main restrictions in the new Law are: an
    apparent ban on unregistered religious activity; highly restrictive
    requirements to gain legal recognition; state censorship of religious
    literature; an undefined "monopoly" given to the Armenian Apostolic Church
    over preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to
    similarly undefined "rallying their own faithful". Many articles of the Law
    are formulated in a way that lacks clarity, making the intended
    implementation of the Law uncertain. The Law also does not resolve the
    issue of conscientious objection to military service.

    NAGORNO-KARABAKH: REPRESSIVE NEW RELIGION LAW SIGNED

    By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>

    The repressive new Religion Law in the internationally unrecognised
    Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh was signed by the entity's President Bako
    Sahakyan, on 24 December 2008, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The new
    Law - which will shortly come into force - imposes a range of restrictions
    on freedom of thought, conscience and belief. "All this reflects the
    intention of the authorities to introduce harsh control on the activities
    of religious minorities," civil society activist Albert Voskanyan told
    Forum 18 from the South Caucasus entity's capital Stepanakert on 3 January
    2009, "and to strengthen the exclusive role of the Armenian Apostolic
    Church already proclaimed in Nagorno-Karabakh's Constitution."

    The main restrictions in Karabakh's new Law are: an apparent ban on
    unregistered religious activity; state censorship of religious literature;
    the requirement for 100 adult citizens to register a religious community;
    an undefined "monopoly" given to the Armenian Apostolic Church over
    preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to
    similarly undefined "rallying their own faithful"; and the vague
    formulation of restrictions, making the intended implementation of many
    articles uncertain (see F18News 4 December 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1225>).

    The new Law - which replaces Karabakh's 1996 Religion Law - was approved
    by Parliament on 26 November and was then sent to President Sahakyan for
    signature. It comes into force ten days after its official publication,
    which is expected after the 2008/9 Christmas holidays. Much, but not all,
    of the new Law is copied word-for-word from Armenia's Religion Law as
    adopted in 1991 and amended in 1997 and 2001 (see F18News 4 December 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1225>).

    No officials were available to discuss the new Religion Law with Forum 18
    because of public holidays for Christmas (which the Armenian Apostolic
    Church celebrates on 6 January 2009).

    Voskanyan, who heads the Stepanakert-based Centre for Civilian
    Initiatives, welcomes the fact that "after many years" the new Law allows
    religious communities to gain legal status for the first time. "This in
    effect gives them the right to life," he told Forum 18 from the capital
    Stepanakert on 3 January 2009.

    However, Voskanyan believes provisions of the Law create artificial
    difficulties to the registration of many religious communities,
    particularly Protestants and Jehovah's Witnesses. "Some won't be able to
    get registration at all because their documents won't be in line with the
    Law," he maintained. He pointed out that many will not be able to find the
    necessary 100 adult citizen members required to seek legal status.

    "Those without registration will then be told they are functioning
    illegally." Voskanyan told Forum 18 he believes the police and secret
    police will start to punish those who conduct unregistered religious
    activity.

    "It is my view that some Protestant organisations won't want to present
    full lists of their believers (first names, surnames, home address and
    other information), fearing persecution of their flocks from the state
    authorities," Voskanyan added. "People would have a real fear for their
    jobs." He said officials are likely to check through the lists of names on
    applications, approaching individuals in a way they might find
    intimidating.

    Voskanyan pointed out that one religious community, the Jehovah's
    Witnesses, has been unable to find anywhere to meet for religious worship.
    "Wherever they turn, once the owners find out about their religious
    affiliation they become afraid and refuse," he explained. "And the
    authorities won't provide them with a plot to build a prayer house. This
    too could prevent them gaining registration as they won't have an address
    to use."

    The Jehovah's Witnesses report that when they met Ashot Sargsyan, the head
    of the government's Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs,
    in November 2008, he told them that as long as he is working for the
    government they will not get registration. "He said openly he's a member of
    the Armenian Church," they told Forum 18 (see F18News 4 December 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1225>).

    Asatur Nahapetyan, head of Armenia's Baptist Union, which includes six
    member congregations in Karabakh, is more optimistic. "We need to wait and
    see how the Law will be implemented, but we see no reason why these
    congregations won't get registration," he told Forum 18 from the Armenian
    capital Yerevan on 5 January.

    Article 5 of the new Law requires 100 adult citizens for a community to
    apply for legal status. As in Armenia, religions must be based on "a
    historic holy book", must be "part of the worldwide system of the
    contemporary religious community" and "directed to spiritual values". The
    government's Department for Ethnic Minority and Religious Affairs has to
    give its expert conclusion on a community before registration can be
    approved. The Department can also go to court to have an organisation
    liquidated, if it violates the Law.

    Although the Law does not specifically ban unregistered religious
    activity, Article 25 requires all religious organisations to register or
    re-register within six months of the new Law coming into force.

    In a potentially significant change from the parallel article in Armenia's
    Law, the Karabakh Law removes the specific recognition that registered
    religious organisations can hold services "in homes and residences of
    citizens" from the list of suitable places as given in Armenia's Law.

    Article 17 - like the corresponding article in the Armenian Law -
    specifically gives the Armenian Apostolic Church a "monopoly" of preaching
    its faith, building new churches, contributing to the "spiritual
    edification of the people" including by teaching in state-run educational
    institutions, conducting charitable activity and maintaining permanent
    religious representatives in institutions such as hospitals, old people's
    homes, military units and prisons.

    One controversial provision in Article 8 - copied from Armenia's Law -
    bans "soul-hunting", a derogatory term in Armenian for seeking converts.

    While the extensive rights of the Armenian Church are set out in Article
    17, the rights of religious organisations set out in Article 7 are all
    inward-looking, with the first right specified as "rallying their own
    faithful around them". The article also allows them to train their leaders,
    conduct services in their own premises and in state institutions at the
    request of residents who belong to the religious community.

    In clear contradiction to Article 17's granting of a "monopoly" to the
    Armenian Church, Article 7 allows all of them to conduct charitable
    activity.

    Karabakh's new Law gives a place of primacy to the Armenian Church in
    Article 6, and only this Church is mentioned in relation to the restitution
    of religious property. This is despite the fact that several mosques still
    stand - even if badly damaged during fighting in the early 1990s over
    Karabakh and in subsequent reprisal attacks - in areas controlled by the
    Karabakh authorities. The mosques have been abandoned since the Azeri and
    Kurdish populations were driven out during the war.

    Another controversial provision comes in Article 22, which is not present
    in Armenia's Religion Law. This Article hands the state "control" over the
    production, distribution and import of religious literature and objects.
    The Article does not clarify the exact nature of such "control".

    A member of the Brotherhood, an evangelical grouping within the Armenian
    Apostolic Church which has about a dozen groups in Karabakh, told Forum 18
    in December that he expects the government to try to ban any Jehovah's
    Witness, Baha'i, Hare Krishna or Muslim literature. Jehovah's Witnesses
    pointed out to Forum 18 that they have already had problems over religious
    literature controls, with literature confiscated from their members in July
    2008 as they returned from Armenia (see F18News 4 December 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1225>).

    The new Religion Law does not resolve the issue of an alternative to
    Karabakh's compulsory military service for all young men. One Jehovah's
    Witness, Areg Hovhanesyan, is nearing the end of a four-year sentence
    imposed by a court in Stepanakert in February 2005 for refusing military
    service on grounds of religious conscience (see F18News 27 March 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1105>).

    Members of religious communities have expressed strong concerns to Forum
    18 about the Law. One member of the Armenian Apostolic Church rhetorically
    asked Forum 18: "Where's the freedom?" Another described the Law as "like
    rubber," noting that "you can't see exactly how it's going to be put into
    practice" (see F18News 4 December 2008
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1225>). (END)

    Further coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in
    Nagorno-Karabakh is at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=22>.

    A printer-friendly map of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is
    available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;
    within the map titled 'Azerbaijan'.
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/
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