(Forum 18) – Kazakhstan ‘s parliament will possibly tomorrow (May 4) consider sweeping new restrictions on religious freedom, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. Concurrently, a Baptist leader has been given a heavy fine for leading an unregistered religious community, and his church’s activities have been banned. Law Professor Roman Podoprigora commented to Forum 18 that “the religion law does not require registration. This unjust demand is not in any law.” Public Prosecutor Galim Kojekenov claimed to Forum 18 that “this is not persecution – we have freedom of conscience here.”
Planned restrictions on freedom include criminalizing unregistered religious activity, banning unapproved “missionary” activity, requiring state approval for religious literature and dress, and widening officials’ powers to ban religious communities. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has commented that this will “result in non-compliance with a wide range of OSCE commitments regarding human rights, democracy and the rule of law,” and raise “serious concerns, particularly with regard to freedom of association, freedom of religion or belief, as well as freedom of opinion and expression.”
