SOURCE: KESTON INSTITUTE http://www.keston.org

KESTON INSTITUTE, OXFORD, UK ______________________________________

KESTON NEWS SERVICE: 20.00, 3 April 2002. Reporting on violations of religious liberty and on religion in communist and post-communist lands. ______________________________________

I. RUSSIA: SECOND DRAFT LAW ON RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM. A draft law outlawing “propaganda of religious extremism” has been drawn up by the chairman of the Russian parliament’s Committee for Religious and Social Organisations, Communist Party deputy Viktor Zorkaltsev. Its six articles consist mainly of definitions of general extremist activity. While affirming the right to freedom of conscience and creed, the draft seeks to provide “spiritual security” for the state and prevent “the dissemination of ideas of religious extremism in any form”.

II. RUSSIA: THREE DRAFT LAWS AFFECTING RELIGIOUS LIFE YET TO REACH PARLIAMENT. “To lose the battle for hearts and minds in the modern world is a defeat far more serious than a military or strategic loss,” the author of the draft law outlawing “propaganda of religious extremism” remarked recently. Representatives of the security organs and the interior ministry will be asked to advise on whether this draft should be put before parliament, or the Criminal Code amended instead, Keston News Service has learned. The vice chairman of the Russian government’s Commission for Religious Associations, asked for his view on the draft, commented that religious extremism should not be treated differently in law from other forms of extremism. Another draft law against extremist activity in general, drawn up by the Ministry of Justice, is “still at the drafting stage”. The controversial draft law “On Traditional Religious Organisations” is likely to be submitted to parliament in May.

I. RUSSIA: SECOND DRAFT LAW ON RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM

by Geraldine Fagan, Keston News Service

A draft law specifically dealing with “propaganda of religious extremism” has been drawn up by the chairman of the Russian parliament’s Committee for Religious and Social Organisations, Communist Party deputy Viktor Zorkaltsev. It was published on an internet site maintained by the Institute for State-Confessional Relations and Law (ISCRL) in cooperation with the religious faculty of the Russian Academy for State Service (RASS) and the Moscow City Department of Justice (http://www.state- religion.ru) on 14 February.

Zorkaltsev’s draft states as its motivation “affirmation of the right of each to freedom of conscience and creed, consideration of the necessary provision of the spiritual security of the state, [and] recognition of the inadmissibility of dissemination of ideas of religious extremism in any form.” Consisting of just six articles, it is for the most part taken up by definitions of general extremist activity. According to Article 1, this consists of “calls for and actions aimed at” the following: (Note that wording NOT already contained in Article 14 of Russia’s 1997 law on religion is here cited in block capitals):

“The undermining of social order and security or threats to the security of the state. Actions aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order or destroying the unity of the Russian Federation. CHANGE TO THE SECULAR CHARACTER OF THE STATE, THE SYSTEM OF GENERAL STATE SECULAR EDUCATION OR THE REPLACEMENT OF THE LEGISLATIVE NORMS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION BY THE NORMS OF RELIGIOUS LAW. The creation of armed units. Propaganda of war, the incitement of social, racial, national or religious dissension OR INTOLERANCE or hatred between people. PROPAGANDA OF INEQUALITY OR DISCRIMINATION OF CITIZENS DUE TO THEIR RACE, NATIONALITY, RELIGION OR SEX. Forcing a family to disintegrate, VIOLATION OF THE RIGHTS OF THE FAMILY AND ITS MEMBERS. The infringement of the person, the rights and freedom of a citizen. The infliction of damage established in accordance with the law on the morality or health of citizens, including the use in connection with their religious activities of STIMULANTS, narcotic or psychoactive substances, hypnosis TECHNIQUES, THE ILLEGAL USE OF MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL PREPARATIONS, the performing of depraved or other disorderly actions. KNOWINGLY PROVIDING FALSE INFORMATION WITH THE AIM OF ATTRACTING NEW MEMBERS TO THE GIVEN ORGANISATION OR RESTRAINING A PERSON WHO WISHES TO LEAVE THE GIVEN ORGANISATION. Encouraging DEPRAVED ACTIONS, HARM TO ITS MEMBERS, suicide or the refusal on religious grounds of medical help to persons in life-endangering or health-endangering conditions. Hindering the receiving of compulsory SECULAR education. HINDERING THE LAWFUL ACTIVITY OF STATE ORGANS, PERSONS IN AUTHORITY OR STATE-RECOGNISED POLITICAL, SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS OR OTHER ORGANISATIONS OR CALLS FOR THE UNLAWFUL LIQUIDATION OF THE GIVEN ORGANISATIONS. Inciting citizens to refuse to fulfil their civic obligations established by law, or to perform other disorderly actions.”

If such activity is “based upon religious ideas, has religious motivation or utilises religious slogans and religious attributes,” continues the provision, it constitutes religious extremism.

According to Article 2 of the draft, the aim of the proposed law is “the prevention and curtailment of propaganda” specifically of religious extremism, which according to Article 1 consists of “public dissemination of extremist ideology or its justification either in organs of the mass media or by means of gatherings, demonstrations, marches, pickets, printed, graphic, audio-, video-, photo- or cine- material or in preaching.” Article 2 also maintains that religious convictions are not the object of the provisions, nor do they extend to “academic, literary, artistic or publicistic works and other material results of creative endeavour if they do not intend to propagandise religious extremism.”

There is scant indication in the draft of the consequences for those found to have conducted propaganda of religious extremism. According to Article 3, “public actions aimed at propagandising religious extremism are prohibited,” and “persons responsible are punishable in accordance with civil and criminal legislation.” Article 5 states that “the activity of political, religious and social organisations found to have engaged in propaganda of religious extremism is to be curtailed or prohibited, while such activity performed by organs of the mass media is to be discontinued.”

Article 6, Part 2, however, provides for the future opportunity for related legislation. “The government of the Russian Federation is to adopt legislative acts necessary for the realisation of the current federal law,” it reads. (END)

II. RUSSIA: THREE DRAFT LAWS AFFECTING RELIGIOUS LIFE YET TO REACH PARLIAMENT

by Geraldine Fagan, Keston News Service

“On Counteracting Propaganda of Religious Extremism in the Russian Federation,” the draft law drawn up by the chairman of the Russian parliament’s Committee for Religious and Social Organisations (see separate KNS article) has yet to be put before parliament. Speaking to Keston on 2 April, adviser to the committee Stepan Medvedko said that in the coming weeks Communist Party deputy Viktor Zorkaltsev would seek the advice of representatives of the security organs and interior ministry on whether to submit his draft for consideration by the Duma (parliament)

at all or to suggest appropriate amendments to the Criminal Code instead.

Zorkaltsev’s draft has yet to be given a formal public presentation. Speaking at the Russian Orthodox Danilovsky Monastery on the second day of the Sixth International Russian People’s Council last December, Zorkaltsev described how “spiritual security” – one of his draft’s key terms – “opposes the appearance of extremism, vulgarity and depravity and is a key part of our national security.” Referring to the need for “defence against the ‘Fifth Column’,” Zorkaltsev explained that, although the number of Orthodox parishes had doubled over the past ten years, “the sects have increased tenfold – this is the most frightening basic danger which Russia faces.”

Speaking several weeks later at “The State and Traditional Religious Organisations,” a Moscow conference chaired by authorised presidential representative to the Central Federal Okrug, Georgi Poltavchenko, Zorkaltsev announced that his committee was already working on legislation which would “defend the spiritual security of Russia.” “To lose the battle for hearts and minds in the modern world,” he remarked, “is a defeat far more serious than a military or strategic loss.”

Asked for his view on Zorkaltsev’s draft law at a conference at the Russian Academy for State Service (RASS), entitled “Religion, Politics and Human Rights” on 19 March, vice chairman of the Russian government’s Commission for Religious Associations, Andrei Sebentsov, maintained that there should be no legal separation of religious from other forms of extremism. This was the case with the Ministry of Justice’s analogous measures (see KNS 5 February 2002), which related to extremism in general, he claimed.

As far as Stepan Medvedko is aware, the Ministry of Justice’s proposed measures are still with the government, as Keston last reported. While he expects them to be put before the Duma as the legislative initiative of President Vladimir Putin, Medvedko told Keston that the drafts “haven’t got to him yet” but would nevertheless have their fate decided “on Staraya Ploshchad” (Moscow’s Old Square, where the presidential administration buildings are situated).

Also speaking at the RASS conference, head of the department for re- registration of religious organisations at the Ministry of Justice, Viktor Korolyov, emphasised that the proposed legislation on extremism – which, he stipulated, was drawn up by the Ministry of Justice in co- operation with the presidential administration – was only at the drafting stage. While he and his colleagues at the Ministry were “not supporters” of religious extremism as a legal term, said Korolyov, it was nevertheless contained in Russia’s 10 January 2000 National Security Concept (which indeed mentions religious extremism twice), and so required a definition. “It is quite a harsh [draft] law, I know,” he remarked, “but the situation is tense, especially in the North Caucasus and Dagestan.” A separate law was required, he maintained because the 1997 law on religion “isn’t made out of rubber.”

Following Korolyov’s comments, Aleksandr Kudryavtsev, secretary of the presidential Council for Cooperation with Religious Organisations, pointed out that the Ministry of Justice’s proposals would in fact outlaw not religious or political extremism, but extremist activity. A noisy debate ensued once Igor Kanterov, vice chairman of the Ministry of Justice’s expert religious studies analysis committee, asked Korolyov what he thought the nearest Russian term for extremism (ekstremizm) was. “Violence,” replied Korolyov, at which RASS religious studies faculty lecturer Remir Lopatkin exclaimed: “No, extreme!” (krainy).

There was also lively debate at the same conference regarding Duma deputy Aleksandr Chuyev’s draft law “On Traditional Religious Organisations”. RASS professor Lev Mitrokhin cast doubt on the term “traditional” – “in one sense the only traditional religion is paganism,” while Andrei Sebentsov maintained that the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations had “greatly influenced” Chuyev’s draft. That department’s spokesman, Fr Vsevolod Chaplin, maintained that it had played “no part” in drawing up the draft, however. In Fr Chaplin’s view there was “nothing unnatural” about creating different categories for religious organisations, since “society has the right to demand support for one or other” and the state could legitimately respond to this demand in the same way that it might “give preferential support to Dinamo [Football Club] over Spartak.”

According to Stepan Medvedko, Aleksandr Chuyev was greatly encouraged by the response to his draft at a round table devoted to it at the Duma on 21 March. As a result, he said, Chuyev would probably submit the draft for consideration by the Russian parliament in May. (END)

Copyright (c) 2002 Keston Institute. All rights reserved.

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