Subject: Russia: Religious Registration Deadline Not Extended
From: Center for Civil Society International (ccsi@u.washington.edu)
Date: Thu Dec 16 1999 - 15:19:33 EST
The following information is excerpted from a recent e-mail from
Lauren Homer, an attorney active on religious freedom issues in
Russia.
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December 16, 1999
Dear Friends:
The Russian Duma recessed for the election without acting on the
proposed law extending the registration deadline for religious
organizations for one year, despite the fact that the Yeltsin
Administration and the Duma Committee on Public and Religious
Organizations and even the Moscow Patriarchate were firmly behind it.
The 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations
provides that after December 31, 1999, "religious organizations which
have not completed re-registration may be liquidated by court order
upon the appeal of the of the body which conducts state registration
of religious organizations." (Art. 27.4). The most conservative
estimate that I have seen states that 50 percent of all religious
organizations registered prior to 1997, some 9,000, have not yet been
re-registered.
The federal Ministry of Justice hopes that the regional authorities
will not take action to liquidate organizations that failed to
re-register. It expects that the new Duma will act on the extension
in the new year. However, there is no certainty about the fate of
the thousands of local religious organizations, churches, and other
religious communities which will fail to meet the December 31, 1999
deadline. It is possible that the new Duma will not act on the
extension or attempt even graver restraints on religious freedom than
existed in the 1997 law...
Lauren Homer
+++++++++++
Lauren B. Homer, Esq.
Of Counsel
Pranschke & Holderle, L.C.
1610 Des Peres Road, Suite 300
St. Louis, MO 63131 U.S.A.
Tel: 314-965-6455
Fax: 314-966-2144
Email: lhomer@phlclaw.com
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