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In July the "Report of the activity of the plenipotentiary for human rights in the Russian federation, O.O. Mironov" for 2002 was published, in which, in particular, questions of freedom of conscience in Russia were touched upon. The document notes that, in comparison with other years, in 2002 the instances of violation of human rights in the area of freedom of conscience and confession of faith increased in frequency.
Among the most freqnently encountered problems are questions of the return and construction of houses of worship and problems of consistency between legislative actions of component elements of the Russian federation and federal legislation on matters of freedom of conscience and the activity of religious associations.
Generalizing about the practice of the work of the plenipotentiary for human rights in this area, the report stresses the following: first, the necessity of generalizing about the practice of implementing legislation on freedom of conscience by the courts. As noted in the document, "the Supreme Court of the Russian federation can do this, which will permit exposing the most typical violations of these rights by both governmental agencies and religious associations themselves, and it will distinguish the most widespread judicial errors in review of corresponding cases."
Second, it is necessary to draw conclusions about the results of prosecutorial oversight of fulfilment of legislation on freedom of conscience and the activity of the Russian Ministry of Justice and its territorial offices for control over the fulfilment by religious associations of their charter purposes and process of activity. "Only on this basis is it possible to pose the question of introducing additions and amendments into existing legislation," the document says.
We are publishing a fragment of Mironov's report devoted to problems of freedom of conscience. It describes cases of infringement on this freedom as well as instances of intervention by the plenipotentiary, including the issue of nonconformity of regional laws to federal legislation. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2003)
FROM THE REPORT ON THE ACTIVITY OF PLENIPOTENTIARY ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Instances of violation of human rights in the area of freedom of conscience and religious confession increased in 2002. Dissension among representatives of various confessions and religious organizations have been observed in Russia. Cases of desecration of cemeteries and arson at synagogues, mosques, and houses of worship have been frequently noted.
The growth in the number of violations in this sphere raises the need for drawing general conclusions from the practice of the application of legislation on freedom of conscience by the courts. This can be done by the Supreme Court of the Russian federation, which will permit exposing the most typical violations of these rights by both governmental agencies and religious associations themselves and it also will distinguish the most widespread judicial errors in review of corresponding cases.
It is necessary to draw general conclusions about the results of prosecutorial oversight of fulfillment of legislation on freedom of conscience and the activity of the Russian Ministry of Justice and its territorial agencies for control over the fulfillment by religious associations of their charter purposes and process of activity. Only on this basis is it possible to pose the question of introducing additions and amendments into existing legislation.
In November 2002 the plenipotentiary issued a statement with respect to violations of the rights of citizens to freedom of religious confession on the territory of the republic of Tatarstan and it called the authorities to take measures for their elimination. The occasion for such a conclusion were frequent acts of vandalism with regard to Orthodox houses of worship that were being built in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny.
A telecommunications company in Kostroma relayed information about an attack by a group of young people on the local synagogue. The fence was covered with insulting inscriptions and the windows of the building were broken out, while a person inside the building barely escaped injury. Previously, inscriptions of an antisemitic nature had appeared on the walls of the synagogue and neighboring buildings and an attempt to set fire to the synagogue was made. The plenipotentiary sent a call to the prosecutor of Kostroma province to take measures immediately for finding the guilty and bring them to justice.
One of the acute questions in the sphere of freedom of conscience and religious confession is the return and construction of houses of worship. In January 2002 the office of the plenipotentiary for human rights in the Russian federation received an appeal from the Interregional Public Movement in Defense of Orthodox Morality. In it believers reported that over a long period of time in the republic of Adigei, the question of the return of a monastery complex, the St. Michael of Athos Trans-Kuban hermitage, to the Maikop diocese of the Russian Orthodox church had not been resolved. The citizens indicated that they had appealed frequently with collective declarations to the local and republican governmental agencies. However they had not responded to these declarations in the required manner. At the same time, a portion of the monastery complex had been leased to a joint stock society. Other buildings that were under the care of the authorities gradually fell into ruins. All of this forced believers to appeal to the plenipotentiary requesting help in the return of the Orthodox shrines to the Russian Orthodox church and believers. After the plenipotentiary appealed to the cabinet of ministers of the republic of Adigei, a number of actions were taken in accordance with which the monastery complex was returned to the Maikop diocese of the Russian Orthodox church.
In February 2002 the president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of Russia, P. Konovalchik, and Senior Presbyter Yu. Podosenov sent a request to the plenipotentiary to provide aid in the return of the "Gospel House" [Dom Evangeliia] Evangelical Christian-Baptist church in St. Petersburg. From materials presented by the administration of St. Petersburg it became clear that this building had been erected in 1910 by money and efforts of believers. In 1930 the religious society lost its registration by administrative action. The building was closed and turned over to the "Elektroapparat" factory. At the beginning of the 1990s believers sent a request to the administration of St. Petersburg for the return of the building that previously had belonged to them. For almost ten years, despite decisions by judicial instances and decisions by the Committee on Control of Property of the city administration in favor of the petitioners, "Dom Evangeliia" remained in the possession of the factory. Believers were not assigned any other building for worship and the position of the local authorities who had not fulfilled their own decisions on the return of the house of worship to them was not explained. After an appeal from the plenipotentiary to the mayor of St. Petersburg, believers were assigned another building to be equipped for worship purposes.
News media published information about the stopping of the construction of a house of worship for the "Kovcheg" church of Evangelical Christians-Baptists on the initiative of local governmental authorities in the city of Balashikh, Moscow province, and the conflict situation that arose in connection with this between believers and local administration offices. The plenipotentiary sent an inquiry to the head of the district requesting information about the reasons and circumstances of the decision that had been made. Employees of the office of the plenipotentiary discovered on the site that the district administration had stopped construction of the house of worship on the basis of letters from residents of the district that were sent to it. Members of the congregation, more than 100 persons, were forced to meet on the first floor of an unfinished two-story building that did not even have a roof. After reviewing the appeal of the plenipotentiary, the administration rescinded its order for stopping construction and permitted the believers to finish construction of the building.
One other direction of the activity of the plenipotentiary for human rights in the Russian federation is examination of the correspondence of legislative acts of component elements of the Russian federation to federal legislation on questions of freedom of conscience and the activity of religious associations.
In November 2001 the plenipotentiary received a number of appeals of the West Russian Union of Churches of Seventh-Day Adventist Christians and the Seventh-Day Adventist religious group of the city of Rzhev that reported instances of violation of the rights of believers on the territory of Tver province. In particular, evangelistic, preaching, and other public religious activity by representatives of religious associations that had not been registered through established procedure was prohibited, the territorial sphere for the activity of the religious organizations was restricted, and believers were prohibited from equipping buildings for conducting prayer meetings. The basis for these prohibitions, the citizens maintained, was an order by the Legislative Assembly of Tver province "On regulation of evangelistic and preaching activity on the territory of Tver province." The plenipotentiary sent an appeal to the department of the Ministry of Justice of Russia for Tver province requesting that a judicial expert analysis of the order be conducted. It was established that in a number of its provisions it did not conform to the requirements of existing legislation, in particular articles 14 and 28 of the constitution of the Russian federation. In its turn the federal law "On freedom of conscience and religious associations" did not establish any restrictions on dissemination of faith dependant upon the fact of state registration. Also there is no restriction on activity of religious associations connected with the purposes of their creation by separate territories. It was suggested to the Legislative Assembly of Tver province to rescind the order. On 24 April 2002 this was done.
The president of the Directing Committee of the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia, V. Kalin, contacted the plenipotentiary. In his opinion, the law "On prohibition of extremist religious activity and administrative responsibility for violations connected with the conduct of religious activity" of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic contradicted a number of standards of federal legislation on freedom of conscience, and implementation could lead to problems in interconfessional relations in the republic. Employees of the office of the plenipotentiary discovered contradictions between this legal act and the constitution of the Russian federation and federal legislation. The law inserted additional conditions of administrative illegal actions for the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria and established responsibility for their violation. Thus, for example, article 16 of the law provided that any meeting of citizens of a religious nature without having informed an office of local administration in writing was subject to a fine. The law established responsibility for engaging in religious educational activity, including teaching the fundamentals of doctrine, by persons who did not have professional pedagogical and religious education. The plenipotentiary ordered the preparation of an appeal to the department for oversight of the fulfillment of laws and the legality of legal acts of the Prosecutor General's office in Russia requesting the adoption of measures for prosecutorial response. The prosecutor issued a protest against the law to the parliament of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, which decided that it was no longer in effect.
There were cases of incorrectly composed informational and procedural recommendations published by administrations of component elements of the Russian federation and federal ministries and departments. In recent years in many regions of Russia informational and procedural materials about religious associations functioning on their territories have been published. Administrations of component elements of the Russia federation that prepared such guides figured that they will provide direction for state servants in one or another complex situation that may arise. However practice has shown that often such resources have been produced at an inadequate scholarly level and are really a reprint of confessional materials that often provoke conflicts among religious associations and also between associations and governmental structures.
In December 2001 an appeal came to the plenipotentiary from leaders of the association of Jehovah's Witnesses regarding the publication by the administration of the city of Krasnoiarsk of a "Collection of recommendations for work with nontraditional religious organizations." The petitioners indicated that the collection used information that distorted the history and contemporary activity of separate religious associations and incorrect and offensive formulations with regard to believers and their associations. For example, Jehovah's Witnesses and Krishnaites were classified as "nontraditional religious organizations of a destructive character," "totalitarian sects," and "destructive cults." The leadership and members of these organizations were accused of various crimes. In the opinion of the writers of the collection, "nontraditional religiosity is destructive at its very base and it always and inevitably leads the individual and society to catastrophe and it is impossible to create a new culture on its basis." On instructions from the plenipotentiary, in a letter to the head of the administration of Krasnoiarsk it was suggested that the collection be removed from circulation. From the official answer received from the administration it appears that the edition was withdrawn and representatives of the government received instructions about dealing with religious associations in strict conformity with the constitution and existing legislation.
The plenipotentiary received appeals from a pastor of a church of Seventy-Day Adventist Christians from Kostroma and from adherents of protestant churches in St. Petersburg and Tver. They reported that representatives of a number of protestant religious associations faced baseless hindrances in their religious educational activity in institutions of the criminal correction system of the Russian Ministry of Justice. The petitioners indicated that the administrations of the correctional institutions cited "Recommendations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian federation on cooperation of correctional institutions with religious associations" and an appendix to it, "Classifications and general indicators of several totalitarian, destructive religious organizations," that had been sent to the institutions of the criminal correction system of the Ministry of Justice of Russia. Acquaintance with the documents requested by the plenipotentiary from the Ministry of Justice showed that they incorrectly used such terms as "destructive, totalitarian, nontraditional cults and sects;" they do not have a legal definition and they are not used in normative acts that regulate the activity of religious associations. A letter from the plenipotentiary to the Ministry of Justice noted that such a position could confuse workers in the educational services and encourage religious intolerance. The documents were recalled from the system of correctional institutions. Thereby the baseless hindrances of the activity of religious organizations that is permitted by law in correctional institutions of the Ministry of Justice were removed. (tr. by PDS, posted 5 August 2003)
from Rossiiskaia gazeta, 25, 30 July 2003, published on Religiia v svetskom obshchestve site, 5 August 2003
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The press service of the Ukrainian Orthodox church of the Moscow patriarchate received a phone call from a woman with the cry: "Help!" In the course of the conversation it became clear that an elementary teacher in one of Keiv's schools attends the track and field arena at Berezan market where a fugitive from Nigeria, Sandey Adelaja, regularly gives his "concerts," and then instead of the regular curriculum of the general education schools she "beats" into the children's heads all sorts of absurdity from the "lectures of the black pastor."
It is remarkable that the children have said nothing about this to their parents. The woman herself learned about it by accident when she found a school notebook in the bedstand of her eight-year-old daughter during house cleaning. According to the upset mother it is difficult to say precisely what the teacher deals with in the classes with the children, since every time she insists that the children "say nothing to mama and papa." The eight-year-old children have suddenly changed: they have stopped listening to their parents, they are rude, and they dissimulate. Many do not come home for a long time and when they do they behave like some kind of zombies with a "special program" in their skulls.
Seeing such changes in their children, some parents have begun to sound the alarm and to seek help from Orthodox priests. But when attending churches it has been discovered that many children are not able to endure even a half hour of service. Some lose consciousness and some begin to run around the church screaming. Even school psychologists are not able to help in this situation, so serious have been the consequences of the "nonstandard" school lessons. The shocked mother asked that her name not be published. But the time has come to say by whom and where their innocent souls are being "corrupted" by the "Christian" ideas of a man who has nothing at all to do with the faith, the church, and religion, instead of giving the children an education. This has happened in middle school No. 181 in the class of a certain Liudmila Ivanovna Melnik. The woman who called the press service of UPTsMP is not alone in her attempts to put Sandey Adelaja in jail. Recently there was formed in Kiev a whole "party" of mothers whose young children have suffered from the "criminal" activity of the "ambassador of God," "Pravoslavie v Ukraine" reports. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 August 2003)
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The Department of Evangelism and Catechesis of the Ekaterinburg diocese, with the blessing of the director of the department, Fr Vladimir Zaitsev, has issued a call for those wishing to work as Orthodox educators in extended day groups for young school children. Such groups have already been created and are functioning in the Ordzhonikidze (Uralmash, Elmash) and Kirov (ZhBI microdistrict and Pioneer settlement) districts of Ekaterinburg. They were created by the joint initiative of parents of the pupils and the diocesan catechesis department. According to an employee of the department, Natalia Vladimirovna Nechaeva, many parents have been found who want to train their children in the spirit of Orthodoxy and protect them from the harmful influence of the street.
Extended day groups are attended by pupils of grades one through three. In addition to playing and doing homework, the children are taught the basics of the Law of God and do art and music with Orthodox educators. The children begin each new day in such a group with prayer.
Parents say that after they begin attending the classes of the group the children change for the better before their very eyes. Now even parents who had been far from Orthodoxy are trying to enroll their children. They see how children blossom in the atmosphere of the Orthodox collective, where nobody abuses anybody and everyone feels the friendly support of comrades. The classes here are not simply lessons which in time become a burden to the children but are an interesting, attractive journey into the world of Orthodoxy. The main goal of organizers of the groups is to get children into the church and it very often happens that parents go along the road to the church behind their children.
Beginning with the new school year, at the request of parents, the catechesis department of the Ekaterinburg diocese is planning to add to the existing four extended day Orthodox groups in various districts of our city. Thus everybody who is interested in the churching of children and who loves and is able to work with children is invited to call the supervisor of this work, Natalia Vladimirovna Nechaeva, at telephone number 63-05-91after 6:00 p.m. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 August 2003)
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On 2 August the text of an agreement for cooperation between the administration of Maritime (Primorie) territory, the Maritime Institute of Retraining and Continuing Education of Education Workers, and the Vladivostok diocese of RPTs in the area of education was published; it was signed on 22 May 2003. The agreement is a document that provides for effecting the Program of Cooperation that was worked out earlier, and it will operate for one year.
It includes questions of training of teaching personnel for educational institutions of the territory in the subject "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture, financial and material provisions for the course, and development of academic methodological literature. One's attention is drawn to the fact that what is proposed is training of personnel not only for teaching Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture but also for "acquainting pupils with Orthodox culture within the framework of such academic subjects as literature, history, law, social studies, world artistic culture, and optional and elective courses." In addition, it is proposed to retrain teachers of elementary and secondary professional education on these matters. (tr. by PDS, posted 4 August 2003)
[Russian text of agreement at State and Religion in Russia site]
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