Briefing - 07.19.2000

 

Religious Liberty Report Released

At a Capitol Hill briefing, the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) formally released the May 2000 report, Religious Liberty: The Legal Framework in Selected OSCE Countries. The study is an extensive report on the laws and constitutional provisions concerning religious liberty in 12 participating states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), capping two years of research involving the Law Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, and Helsinki Commission staff. Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) the Helsinki Commission Chairman, introduced six speakers who reviewed the report’s findings.  They included David Sale, Director of Legal Research, Law Library of Congress; Peter Roudick, Nicole Atwill, and Karel Wennink of the Law Library of Congress; David Ackerman, Legislative Attorney, Congressional Research Service; and Wayne Merry, Senior Associate, American Foreign Policy Council. Representative Joseph Pitts (R-PA) also participated in the briefing.

Peter Roudick discussed the findings on Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.  All three states provide for the freedom of religion in their post-Soviet constitutions but still lack complete religious liberty in practice.  Mr. Roudick described Uzbekistan as being the most multicultural state in the former Soviet Union (FSU).  In comparison to its past, Uzbekistan today is probably at its most liberal in terms of religious liberty, yet there are “massive numbers of human and religious rights violations.” Many of the religious restrictions stem from the 1998 Law on Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations.

In Ukraine, legislation protects religious freedom, yet there have been generally restrictive attitudes concerning non-traditional religions.  In 1999, President Leonid Kuchma issued a statement condemning the past policy of force and committing to redress present shortfalls in religious liberty. According to Mr. Roudick, due to the instabilities of Ukraine, it is impossible to predict whether the situation will indeed see improvement.

Regarding Russia, Mr. Roudick noted the abundance of religious organizations and congregations. In 1999, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation reviewed the 1997 Law on Freedom of Religion and Religious Organizations, upholding the requirement for a religious organization to have been in existence for 15 years in order to receive registration.  This law remains a center of controversy but is not consistently enforced throughout the country.  Problems with the Russian Orthodox Church’s interference in the political sphere have also prompted church-state concerns. There are negative sentiments in the mass media toward religion, and freedom of religion remains an unresolved problem.

Other countries highlighted at the briefing were France, the Netherlands, and the United States.  The primary issues in these countries involved the issue of separation of church and state and the state’s treatment of individual religious liberties. Wayne Merry of the American Foreign Policy Council stated that religious tolerance is not simply a product of the separation of religious activity and the state.  He also argued that most states do not attempt to attack individual religious liberty but instead attack the religious organizations and institutions that represent these individuals.  Therefore, the degree of religious liberty violations is demonstrated by the government’s treatment of religious organizations.

In response to questions posed by Representative Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Mr. Merry stated that the government of Uzbekistan and others have used the threat from fundamentalism and extremism as an excuse to regulate religious organizations.  He conjectured that extremism is much more likely a product of the restrictions than vice-versa. Mr. Roudick, analyzing the role of legislation verses the role of executive initiative, said that many successor governments still arbitrarily control religious organizations and, in violation of their constitutions, limit religious liberties.

- Reported by Dan Elsen, NCSJ Intern