PRESIDENT OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION BORIS YELTSIN REJECTS FEDERAL LAW ON FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND ON RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS PASSED BY STATE DUMA AND APPROVED BY FEDERATION COUNCIL (TWO PARTS)

MOSCOW, JULY 23 /RIA NOVOSTI/ -- Russian President Boris Yeltsin has sent letters to State Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov and Federation Council speaker Yegor Stroyev, informing them of turning down the federal law on the freedom of conscience and on religious associations, passed by the State Duma on June 23, 1997 and approved by the Federation Council on July 4, 1997.

As is said in a news release from the presidential press service, received by RIA Novosti, the letters in particular say that the Law on the Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations contradicts the fundamentals of the constitutional system of the Russian Federation and other provisions of the constitution of the Russian Federation, universally recognised principles and norms of international law, specifically Articles 2, 6, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 28, 29, 30, 54, 55, 59 and 62 of the constitution of the Russian Federation, Articles 18 and 19 of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights, Articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, and Articles 9 and 10 of the Convention of the Council of Europe on the protection of the rights and fundamental liberties.

In the President's view, it is not accidental that contrary to part 4 of Article 15 of the constitution the text of the law does not mention acts of international law as an inalienable part of the Russian Federation's legislation on freedom of conscience, but only contains a reference to the auxiliary use of provisions of international treaties in order to interpret the Russian Federation's legislation on freedom of conscience.

The President holds the view that the law contradicts a number of other Russian laws, causing additional disbalance in the system of Russian legislation, which has anyway been badly shaken by ill-considered and chaotic law-making.

The law, on the one hand following the constitution, characterises the Russian Federation as a secular state, and, on the other, under the pretext of restricting the activities of pseudo-religious organisations, introduces discriminatory rules of registration and re-registration of religious organisations of the confessions rooted in Russia.

It goes without saying that the state can and must restrict the activities of pseudo-religious organisations doing harm to morals and health of the population, but this does not mean that the state can in so doing infringe on the fundamental human rights.

The President has strong objections to provisions of the law knowingly aimed at restricting the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation, mostly residing outside of Russia and also of persons who are not its citizens.

These norms also contradict the above-listed articles of the Russian Federation's constitution and acts of international law.

A serious anti-constitutional provision of the law, according to the President, is its departure from the principle of equality of religious associations before the law, as laid down by articles of the constitution, and also by appropriate articles of acts of international law, which contain the provision that everyone has the right freely to obtain and distribute information (including religious information) without interference by state organs and regardless of state frontiers.

In addition, point 2 of Article 13 of the law stipulates that missions of foreign religious organisations may be opened only at Russian religious organisations and with their consent.

This norm, first, makes a mission of foreign religious organisations directly dependent on the attitude to them by Russian religious organisations and, second, imposes on Russian religious organisations the functions of organs of state authority.

This violates the principle of separation of religious associations from the state, as recorded in Article 15 of the constitution.

(TO BE CONCLUDED)

Legal equality shall be guaranteed to all individual worshippers and religious communities, the President repeatedly stressed--in particular, in 1993, when he twice refused to sign an act approved by Parliament to amend and supplement the federal law, "On Freedom of Religious Confessions", which clashed with the federal Constitution and international legal norms. After the State Duma passed this particular bill in its first reading, the President addressed the lower parliamentary house with conceptual remarks and proposals, which the parliamentarians blatantly ignored.

The Preamble of the new law stipulates religious inequality by qualifying only Christian Orthodoxy as part and parcel of the entire Russia's spiritual, historical and cultural heritage. It recognises Islam on a par with Christian Orthodoxy, but does not point it out as part of national heritage, while Buddhism, Judaism and other established religions are defined as "respected". These fundamental principles do not concern any other religions and denominations.

More than that, Clause 3, Item 3 of the law clashes with its Preamble by prohibiting privileges, limitations and/or other forms of discrimination on the basis of personal stances in the respect of religion. The President emphasises this inner contradiction of the new legal act, and constitutional non-compliance of a hierarchical arrangement of religions and denominations as stipulated in the Preamble.

Clause 4, Item 3 obliges the State to render material, financial and other assistance to religious organisations in teaching general educational disciplines in educational establishments set up by these organisations. Above all, this norm clashes with the federal Constitution, Clause 19, by entitling to privileges persons who corporately witness and preach their spiritual convictions in the status of a religious organisation, as compared to other tax-payers who witness and preach respective convictions individually or as a religious group, or united in other--cultural, athletic, etc. --public organisations. This norm also contradicts the federal act, "On Education", Clause 41, Item 7, which grants the right of government and/or municipal financing to non-governmental general educational establishments since the instant of their government accreditation in case they implement basic general educational curricula.

The presidential messages go on to say: "With a view to guaranteeing full-fledged participation of the Russian Federation in integration processes in Europe and the whole world, and with due consideration for the polyconfessional population of the Russian Federation, actual guarantees of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen in the field of freedom of confession, of choice and promotion of religious convictions, and equality of religious communities are of extreme importance. In order to avoid international isolation of traditional Russian confessions and religion-bred conflicts within the country; to avoid accusations of the Russian Federation of persecutions on ideational grounds, and in connection with the necessity to bring the Law 'On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations' into compliance with the Constitution and other laws of the Russian Federation, and international legal norms, and to eliminate the numerous contradictions within the Law, I propose as head of state and guarantor of t

he Constitution of the Russian Federation and rights and freedoms of man and citizen to subject the Law to essential amendment. I call the attention of members of the State Duma and the Federation Council to direct operation and supreme legal force of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. In particular, the norms of constitutional Clause 15, Item 4, incorporate in the legal system of the Russian Federation, among others, universally recognised norms and principles of the international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation on issues pertaining to freedom of conscience, and guarantee their priority to federal laws.

"In compliance with the above-listed premises of the federal Constitution, I warn that, in case this federal Law is approved by the houses of the Federal Assembly in its previous redaction during a reconsideration thereof, I, as guarantor of the Constitution, shall simultaneously with the signing and publishing of this federal Law make public a written message in which I shall point out such of its norms as shall not operate as contradicting the Constitution and international treaties of the Russian Federation."

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Johnson's Russia List

#1079

24 July 1997

djohnson@cdi.org