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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
========================================== =======
2 July 2009
ARMENIA: WILL CRITICAL REVIEW HALT RESTRICTIVE RELIGION LAW?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =1321
The Council of Europe and OSCE have given a highly critical review of
proposed amendments which have already been approved by Parliament in their
first reading. The amended Religion Law would ban the sharing of faith,
require 500 adult citizen members before a religious community could gain
legal status, ban non-Trinitarian Christian communities from gaining legal
status, give broad reasons for banning religious communities, and recognise
the "exclusive mission" of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The new Criminal
Code Article 162 would punish the sharing of beliefs. "The authorities have
to take the points of this review into account, though I don't know if they
will," Russian Orthodox priest Fr David Abrahamyan told Forum 18 News
Service. "If they adhered to European standards they wouldn't have adopted
these amendments in the first reading." The government's senior religious
affairs official, Vardan Astsatryan, told Forum 18 he had "no knowledge" of
the results of the review. But the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18
Astsatryan had told them in mid-June that the proposed amendments have been
suspended but not abandoned.
30 June 2009
AZERBAIJAN: PARLIAMENT APPROVES LATEST RELIGION LAW CHANGES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=1320
Azerbaijan's Parliament, the Milli Mejlis, today (30 June) adopted
controversial new amendments to the Religion Law, a month after the last
restrictive amendments to the same Law came into force. A parliamentary
official told Forum 18 News Service that they "will be sent on to the
Presidential Administration for final approval within days." The amendments
require all leaders of Muslim communities to be appointed by the state, and
state that "religious rituals of the Islamic faith can be carried out only
by citizens of Azerbaijan who have received their education in Azerbaijan."
Despite these restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, parliamentary
deputy Ali Huseynov, who heads the Legal Policy and State Building
Committee - which arranged the amendments' passage through Parliament -
stated they "do not at all restrict freedom of conscience". Forum 18 was
unable to find out from Huseynov why he thinks limiting the freedom of
communities to choose their own religious leaders does not limit freedom of
conscience.
* See full article below. *
30 June 2009
AZERBAIJAN: PARLIAMENT APPROVES LATEST RELIGION LAW CHANGES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1320
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Azerbaijan's Parliament, the Milli Mejlis, today (30 June) adopted
controversial new amendments to the Religion Law, a month after the
previous restrictive amendments to the same Law came into force. An
official of the Milli Mejlis Legal Policy and State Building Committee -
which had handled the Law - told Forum 18 News Service that the amendments
were approved with 95 deputies in favour and seven against. "Only one
reading was needed as they were merely amendments to an existing Law," the
official who asked not to be named told Forum 18 in the wake of the vote.
"The amendments will be sent on to the Presidential Administration for
final approval within days."
Azerbaijan's Constitution gives the President 56 days from the date of
receipt to sign or return a law to Parliament. The amendments were briefly
discussed in Parliament on 19 June, before being briefly postponed until
today's (30 June) session.
The amendments add two new restrictions which solely affect the Muslim
community. A new provision is added to Article 8: "The appointment of the
religious functionaries who lead Islamic places of prayer is by the
Caucasian Muslim Board in agreement with the relevant organ of executive
power." The other new provision is added to Article 21: "The performance of
religious rituals of the Islamic faith can be carried out only by citizens
of Azerbaijan who have received their education in Azerbaijan" (see F18News
18 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1314>). The Law
specifies that the amendments come into force on the date of their official
publication.
Despite these restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, Ali Huseynov,
a deputy and the head of the Legal Policy and State Building Committee, was
quoted by journalists as telling the Milli Mejlis that these amendments "do
not at all restrict freedom of conscience". Forum 18 was unable to reach
Huseynov in the wake of the vote to find out why he thinks limiting
Muslims' freedom to choose who should lead their communities and places of
worship does not limit their freedom of conscience.
Vigorously defending the amendments to Forum 18 has been Rabiyyat
Aslanova, a deputy of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party and
head of the Milli Mejlis Human Rights Committee.
But the amendments have provoked strong opposition from human rights
defenders, Muslims and opposition politicians. The first deputy chairman of
the Caucasian Muslim Board, Haji Salman Musaev, told Forum 18 on 22 June of
his personal opposition to the two new amendments (see F18News 25 June 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1318>).
Two opposition parliamentary deputies, Fazil Gazanfaroglu Mustafaev of the
Great Formation Party, and Iqbal Agazade of the Umid (Hope) Party, also
told Forum 18 separately that they would oppose these amendments. Human
rights defender Eldar Zeynalov and Muslim rights activist Ilgar Ibrahimoglu
Allahverdiev were also highly critical (see F18News 25 June 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1318>).
Great concern has also been caused by the authorities' closure of mosques,
their barring of children from Jehovah's Witness and Protestant worship,
and the recent harshening of Azerbaijan's strict censorship regime (see
F18News 26 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1319>).
Muslims in the village of Nardaran near Baku, who are known to be
particularly devout Shia Muslims, also spoke out against the latest
amendments. The local Turan news agency reported on 24 June that village
elder Natig Kerimov described the amendments as "unacceptable and
illogical". "It is not clear why Azerbaijanis studying abroad are suspected
of disloyalty to the Motherland," he was quoted as saying.
However, the Legal Policy and State Building Committee official defended
the new restrictions. "The objections raised by some deputies today mostly
concerned the restrictions on those who have studied abroad," the official
told Forum 18. "But such limitations are justified by the reality of
today's Azerbaijan. Many people come back from studies abroad bringing back
the religious policy of those countries." He declined to explain what
problems he believes this causes.
Asked whether the amendments - if approved by President Ilham Aliev - will
ban anyone who has gained an education abroad from leading prayers, the
official insisted to Forum 18 that the ban relates only to those who have
studied Islam abroad. Asked why the text of the amendments did not say
this, the official responded: "The text can't include every little detail."
NGO Law amended
Also adopted in the Milli Mejlis on 30 June was a package of controversial
amendments to a number of other Laws, including the NGO Law. These had come
in for particularly heavy criticism by local NGOs and foreign human rights
groups, as well as by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE). However, unlike the Religion Law amendments, these
amendments were modified by the Milli Mejlis before being adopted, with
some of the most restrictive provisions being removed.
Any NGO working on issues such as religious freedom, or which is
religiously-affiliated, would suffer the same new restrictions as any other
NGO.
Human Rights Ombudsperson Elmira Suleymanova met NGO representatives who
were unhappy with the amendments to the NGO Law. She then wrote to Milli
Mejlis Speaker Oktai Asadov to urge deputies to defer consideration of the
amendments until the autumn to allow more time, her spokesperson Zemfira
Maharramli told Forum 18 on 30 June. However, Maharramli said Suleymanova
had made no mention in her letter of the Religion Law amendments. She said
the Ombudsperson was away in Russia and unavailable for comment.
No international review
The Azerbaijani authorities sent neither the May 2009 amendments to the
Religion Law nor the latest amendments for legal review by experts from the
Council of Europe or the OSCE.
Azerbaijan is a member of both organisations, and both laws break
international standards on freedom of religion or belief which the country
has agreed to, as outlined in the OSCE / Council of Europe Venice
Commission Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or
Belief (see <http://www.osce.org/odihr/item_11_13600.html&g t;). The OSCE's
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) told Forum 18
that "in line with its mandate, ODIHR stands ready to provide expertise in
the field of freedom of religion or belief at the request of participating
States" (see F18News 6 May 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1291>).
On 24 June the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe's
Parliamentary Assembly expressed concern about the amendments to the NGO
and other Laws, as well as over the already adopted May 2009 amendments to
the Religion Law.
Under the May 2009 amendments, all religious communities will have to
re-register with the State Committee by 1 January 2010, a process many
communities fear will be difficult. In previous re-registration rounds,
many communities that applied for re-registration failed to get it (see
F18News 25 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1318>).
Andres Herkel, an Estonian parliamentary deputy who is one of the two
rapporteurs on Azerbaijan for the Monitoring Committee of the Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly, says he is concerned about legislative
developments in Azerbaijan. "If the Milli Mejlis has adopted controversial
changes again to the Religion Law and the NGO Law without discussion and
consultation with the rapporteurs and with the Venice Commission, that
would be disappointing," he told Forum 18 on 30 June. "It's better to
consult in advance on controversial points to help make such Laws better."
Azerbaijani Deputy Mustafaev of the Great Formation Party has similarly
suggested that consulting international experts would be helpful in
ensuring that laws do not violate human rights standards (see F18News 3
June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1305>). Herkel
said the Monitoring Committee had hoped that consideration of these
amendments would have been postponed again. (END)
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan,
see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 482>.
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1192>.
More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan
is at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=& religion=all&country=23>.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;.
(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/
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
========================================== =======
2 July 2009
ARMENIA: WILL CRITICAL REVIEW HALT RESTRICTIVE RELIGION LAW?
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =1321
The Council of Europe and OSCE have given a highly critical review of
proposed amendments which have already been approved by Parliament in their
first reading. The amended Religion Law would ban the sharing of faith,
require 500 adult citizen members before a religious community could gain
legal status, ban non-Trinitarian Christian communities from gaining legal
status, give broad reasons for banning religious communities, and recognise
the "exclusive mission" of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The new Criminal
Code Article 162 would punish the sharing of beliefs. "The authorities have
to take the points of this review into account, though I don't know if they
will," Russian Orthodox priest Fr David Abrahamyan told Forum 18 News
Service. "If they adhered to European standards they wouldn't have adopted
these amendments in the first reading." The government's senior religious
affairs official, Vardan Astsatryan, told Forum 18 he had "no knowledge" of
the results of the review. But the Jehovah's Witnesses told Forum 18
Astsatryan had told them in mid-June that the proposed amendments have been
suspended but not abandoned.
30 June 2009
AZERBAIJAN: PARLIAMENT APPROVES LATEST RELIGION LAW CHANGES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=1320
Azerbaijan's Parliament, the Milli Mejlis, today (30 June) adopted
controversial new amendments to the Religion Law, a month after the last
restrictive amendments to the same Law came into force. A parliamentary
official told Forum 18 News Service that they "will be sent on to the
Presidential Administration for final approval within days." The amendments
require all leaders of Muslim communities to be appointed by the state, and
state that "religious rituals of the Islamic faith can be carried out only
by citizens of Azerbaijan who have received their education in Azerbaijan."
Despite these restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, parliamentary
deputy Ali Huseynov, who heads the Legal Policy and State Building
Committee - which arranged the amendments' passage through Parliament -
stated they "do not at all restrict freedom of conscience". Forum 18 was
unable to find out from Huseynov why he thinks limiting the freedom of
communities to choose their own religious leaders does not limit freedom of
conscience.
* See full article below. *
30 June 2009
AZERBAIJAN: PARLIAMENT APPROVES LATEST RELIGION LAW CHANGES
http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1320
By Felix Corley, Editor, Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>
Azerbaijan's Parliament, the Milli Mejlis, today (30 June) adopted
controversial new amendments to the Religion Law, a month after the
previous restrictive amendments to the same Law came into force. An
official of the Milli Mejlis Legal Policy and State Building Committee -
which had handled the Law - told Forum 18 News Service that the amendments
were approved with 95 deputies in favour and seven against. "Only one
reading was needed as they were merely amendments to an existing Law," the
official who asked not to be named told Forum 18 in the wake of the vote.
"The amendments will be sent on to the Presidential Administration for
final approval within days."
Azerbaijan's Constitution gives the President 56 days from the date of
receipt to sign or return a law to Parliament. The amendments were briefly
discussed in Parliament on 19 June, before being briefly postponed until
today's (30 June) session.
The amendments add two new restrictions which solely affect the Muslim
community. A new provision is added to Article 8: "The appointment of the
religious functionaries who lead Islamic places of prayer is by the
Caucasian Muslim Board in agreement with the relevant organ of executive
power." The other new provision is added to Article 21: "The performance of
religious rituals of the Islamic faith can be carried out only by citizens
of Azerbaijan who have received their education in Azerbaijan" (see F18News
18 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1314>). The Law
specifies that the amendments come into force on the date of their official
publication.
Despite these restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, Ali Huseynov,
a deputy and the head of the Legal Policy and State Building Committee, was
quoted by journalists as telling the Milli Mejlis that these amendments "do
not at all restrict freedom of conscience". Forum 18 was unable to reach
Huseynov in the wake of the vote to find out why he thinks limiting
Muslims' freedom to choose who should lead their communities and places of
worship does not limit their freedom of conscience.
Vigorously defending the amendments to Forum 18 has been Rabiyyat
Aslanova, a deputy of the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan (New Azerbaijan) Party and
head of the Milli Mejlis Human Rights Committee.
But the amendments have provoked strong opposition from human rights
defenders, Muslims and opposition politicians. The first deputy chairman of
the Caucasian Muslim Board, Haji Salman Musaev, told Forum 18 on 22 June of
his personal opposition to the two new amendments (see F18News 25 June 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1318>).
Two opposition parliamentary deputies, Fazil Gazanfaroglu Mustafaev of the
Great Formation Party, and Iqbal Agazade of the Umid (Hope) Party, also
told Forum 18 separately that they would oppose these amendments. Human
rights defender Eldar Zeynalov and Muslim rights activist Ilgar Ibrahimoglu
Allahverdiev were also highly critical (see F18News 25 June 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1318>).
Great concern has also been caused by the authorities' closure of mosques,
their barring of children from Jehovah's Witness and Protestant worship,
and the recent harshening of Azerbaijan's strict censorship regime (see
F18News 26 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1319>).
Muslims in the village of Nardaran near Baku, who are known to be
particularly devout Shia Muslims, also spoke out against the latest
amendments. The local Turan news agency reported on 24 June that village
elder Natig Kerimov described the amendments as "unacceptable and
illogical". "It is not clear why Azerbaijanis studying abroad are suspected
of disloyalty to the Motherland," he was quoted as saying.
However, the Legal Policy and State Building Committee official defended
the new restrictions. "The objections raised by some deputies today mostly
concerned the restrictions on those who have studied abroad," the official
told Forum 18. "But such limitations are justified by the reality of
today's Azerbaijan. Many people come back from studies abroad bringing back
the religious policy of those countries." He declined to explain what
problems he believes this causes.
Asked whether the amendments - if approved by President Ilham Aliev - will
ban anyone who has gained an education abroad from leading prayers, the
official insisted to Forum 18 that the ban relates only to those who have
studied Islam abroad. Asked why the text of the amendments did not say
this, the official responded: "The text can't include every little detail."
NGO Law amended
Also adopted in the Milli Mejlis on 30 June was a package of controversial
amendments to a number of other Laws, including the NGO Law. These had come
in for particularly heavy criticism by local NGOs and foreign human rights
groups, as well as by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE). However, unlike the Religion Law amendments, these
amendments were modified by the Milli Mejlis before being adopted, with
some of the most restrictive provisions being removed.
Any NGO working on issues such as religious freedom, or which is
religiously-affiliated, would suffer the same new restrictions as any other
NGO.
Human Rights Ombudsperson Elmira Suleymanova met NGO representatives who
were unhappy with the amendments to the NGO Law. She then wrote to Milli
Mejlis Speaker Oktai Asadov to urge deputies to defer consideration of the
amendments until the autumn to allow more time, her spokesperson Zemfira
Maharramli told Forum 18 on 30 June. However, Maharramli said Suleymanova
had made no mention in her letter of the Religion Law amendments. She said
the Ombudsperson was away in Russia and unavailable for comment.
No international review
The Azerbaijani authorities sent neither the May 2009 amendments to the
Religion Law nor the latest amendments for legal review by experts from the
Council of Europe or the OSCE.
Azerbaijan is a member of both organisations, and both laws break
international standards on freedom of religion or belief which the country
has agreed to, as outlined in the OSCE / Council of Europe Venice
Commission Guidelines for Review of Legislation Pertaining to Religion or
Belief (see <http://www.osce.org/odihr/item_11_13600.html&g t;). The OSCE's
Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) told Forum 18
that "in line with its mandate, ODIHR stands ready to provide expertise in
the field of freedom of religion or belief at the request of participating
States" (see F18News 6 May 2009
<http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=1291>).
On 24 June the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe's
Parliamentary Assembly expressed concern about the amendments to the NGO
and other Laws, as well as over the already adopted May 2009 amendments to
the Religion Law.
Under the May 2009 amendments, all religious communities will have to
re-register with the State Committee by 1 January 2010, a process many
communities fear will be difficult. In previous re-registration rounds,
many communities that applied for re-registration failed to get it (see
F18News 25 June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1318>).
Andres Herkel, an Estonian parliamentary deputy who is one of the two
rapporteurs on Azerbaijan for the Monitoring Committee of the Council of
Europe Parliamentary Assembly, says he is concerned about legislative
developments in Azerbaijan. "If the Milli Mejlis has adopted controversial
changes again to the Religion Law and the NGO Law without discussion and
consultation with the rapporteurs and with the Venice Commission, that
would be disappointing," he told Forum 18 on 30 June. "It's better to
consult in advance on controversial points to help make such Laws better."
Azerbaijani Deputy Mustafaev of the Great Formation Party has similarly
suggested that consulting international experts would be helpful in
ensuring that laws do not violate human rights standards (see F18News 3
June 2009 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1305>). Herkel
said the Monitoring Committee had hoped that consideration of these
amendments would have been postponed again. (END)
For a personal commentary, by an Azeri Protestant, on how the
international community can help establish religious freedom in Azerbaijan,
see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 482>.
For more background information see Forum 18's Azerbaijan religious
freedom survey at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 1192>.
More coverage of freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Azerbaijan
is at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=& religion=all&country=23>.
A printer-friendly map of Azerbaijan is available at
<http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba& gt;.
(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/