DUMA GIVES PRELIMINARY APPROVAL TO LAW SHRINKING RIGHTS OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
by Lawrence A. Uzzell, Keston News Service
The Duma took another small but significant step on 10 July toward whittling away the rights of freedom of conscience recognised by Russia's landmark 1990 law on freedom of conscience. By a lopsided vote of 346 in favour to just three opposed, the deputies gave preliminary approval to a compromise bill which would shrink the rights of religious minorities but would fall short of the even more restrictive changes sought by the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow. (See earlier Keston report on this.)
Under the Russian parliament's rules, this preliminary approval or 'first reading' merely puts the Duma on record as supporting the general concept of a proposed piece of legislation. The key decisions still lie ahead, when the Duma takes up the bill for its 'second reading' in which deputies are allowed to offer and vote on amendments.
In its current form, the compromise bill is supported by all the members of the Duma's committee on religion, from human-rights advocate VALERI BORSHCHOV to the committee's Communist chairman VIKTOR ZORKALTSEV. Key Protestant, Roman Catholic and other religious leaders are also backing it in the hope that it will forestall demands for more restrictive laws of the kind favoured by the Moscow Patriarchate-- for example, banning all independent religious activity by foreign residents or visitors (see Keston News Service, April 1996). But human-rights activists such as former deputy FR GLEB YAKUNIN have warned that during the 'second reading' stage the bill could be made much harsher through the addition of new amendments.
One such amendment was already added on 16 May, when the Duma's committee on religion formally approved the bill drafted by a broad-based task force which included key officials of the executive branch as well as representatives of both the Moscow Patriarchate and minority religious groups. This amendment removed from the earlier draft a provision which specified that a religious organisation as a whole could not be held responsible for criminal behaviour by its individual members.
The task force's bill which has now passed the Duma's 'first reading' would also outlaw religious groups which engage in various undefined activities such as 'violating public morality' or promoting 'the stirring up of religious
dissension' or 'a decline in psychological health' (see 'Church and State Leaders Split on New Law Regulating Religion', Keston News Service, May 1996). Last year human-rights defenders felt confident that PRESIDENT YELTSIN would veto any version of the bill which went significantly further in restricting freedom of conscience, but powerful new appointee ALEKSANDR LEBED's recent attacks on foreign religious groups as threats to Russia's national security have now undermined that confidence.
VLADIMIR KULCHITSKY, chief of staff of the religion committee, told Keston News Service on 11 July that the crucial 'second reading' will take place only in the autumn, and probably not until October or even November. What this means, he said, is that deputies will have plenty of time to formulate and discuss amendments such as those being pursued by the Moscow Patriarchate.
The Patriarchate has made its continuing interest unmistakably clear. Under the Duma's rules its sessions can be addressed by non-deputies, and one of the guests who took the floor on 10 July was the influential METROPOLITAN KIRILL OF SMOLENSK, head of the Patriarchate's Department of External Church Relations. He said that the bill would be a step in the right direction but did not go far enough. (END)