Support International Human Rights, NOW!

 Support International Human Rights, NOW!

Sign this Petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/4/support-human-rights-now/

• Target: President Medvedev
• Sponsored by: THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy

We, the undersigned, write to communicate our concerns regarding the escalating threats to religious freedom in Russia. We are writing to respectfully request that you both address these urgent issues and immediately begin to establish policies that uphold the Russian Constitution and international commitments.

Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees freedom of religion, including the right to profess either alone or in community with others any religion or to profess no religion at all, to freely choose, have and share religious and other beliefs and manifest them in practice.  Article 30 provides that everyone shall have the right to freedom of association.

Further, Russia has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Yet the use of the 2002 Extremism Law to combat "religious extremism" and, coming against an established pattern of local government obstruction of non-Russian Orthodox religious communities, this has led to a crackdown on religions that has been termed by Forum 18 News Service as the new "Inquisition."

RUSSIA: Setback for anti-missionary law

Ministry of Justice sacks people who conducted incompetent
anti-missionary policy against non-Orthodox

By Roman Lunkin

Portal-credo.ru (10.02.2010) / HRWF (17.02.2010) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - The uproar evoked by a series of initiatives of the Ministry of Justice of RF in the religious sphere roiled society and roused up against the ministry many believers and defenders of freedom of conscience in Russia and abroad. Since Alexander Konovalov's assumption of the post of minister in 2008, radical sect-fighters have been appointed the chief experts on religion in the Ministry of Justice, intimidating investigations of religious associations have begun, and in October 2009 the Ministry of Justice proposed a draft law harshly restricting missionary activity in Russia. All of this has sharply undermined the confidence of believers in the authorities in general, and they have begun talking about the onset of new persecution.

Meanwhile, when the situation had already flared up to the limit, at the beginning of 2010 it became known that key figures responsible for the incompetent policy with respect to believers had been dismissed from the Ministry of Justice. These were a deputy minister, Aleksei Velichko, and the head of the Department on Noncommercial Organizations, which includes work with religious associations, Sergei Milushkin. The press service of the Ministry of Justice confirmed that this is indeed so; the odious figures do not work in the Ministry of Justice any longer.

Instead of Velichko, on 14 January 2010 by order of Russian President D. Medvedev, Alexander Fedorov was named first deputy minister of justice; previously he had served as deputy head of the Federal Service for Drug Control of Russia.

From the moment of appointment (June 2008) Velichko was authorized from the very beginning to oversee noncommercial organizations, since they were moved out of the purview of the Federal Registration Service to be immediately under the Ministry of Justice. Previously he worked as deputy director of the administration of state registration of rights to immoveable property of the Federal Registration Service. And since 2006 he was the assistant of Alexander Konovalov, who then was the presidential envoy for the Volga federal district. Aleksei Velichko naturally complemented his director, Alexander Konovalov, since Velichko is the author of books about the symphony of authorities in Byzantium and Russia. Naturally, almost immediately after the "Byzantine party" arrived at the ministry, it began to construct the ideal of symphony of church and secular authorities in the way that it understands it.

RUSSIA The Russian government confirms condemnation of Jehovah's Witnesses

The Ministry of Justice confirmed Supreme Court decisions. Trials pending in several Russian cities to outlaw faithful branded as "religious extremists". New Year, Molotov cocktails against a Kingdom Hall near Volgograd.

AsiaNews (11.01.2009) / HRWF (20.01.2010) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net -  Among small legal victories, the Kremlin's indifference and attacks on their places of worship, the struggle of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia to see the respect of their human rights and religious freedom continues. There is a campaign of persecution, of physical and judicial attacks on the community in different areas of the Russian Federation. The latest episode is  the Ministry of Justice response to a letter sent in November by VM Kalin, chairman of the Steering Committee of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia,  to President Dmitry Medvedev. Theletter denounced "arbitrary" trials masked by accusations of "religious extremism" going on in different courts and a climate of "xenophobic hysteria" against the community, the Russian government responded succinctly: decisions taken by the Supreme Court will be fully implemented . Complete silence and indifference to the issues raised by Kalin. What does this mean?

Attacks and some judicial success

In September the Supreme Court outlawed the community of Jehovah's Witnesses in the city of Taganrog, Neklinov and Matveeva -Kurgan. Judges ruled the ban on their activities and the dissolution of groups. The Supreme Court has confirmed the conviction handed down by the Provincial Court of Rostov. Other trials are also pending that could lead to the dismantling of communities in different parts of the country: in Salsk (province of Rostov), Gorno-Altaisk (Altai Republic), Krasnodar (Krasnodar province), Vladikavkaz (Republic of 'North Ossetia-Alania), Lomonosov (province Arkangelsk) and Yekaterinburg (Sverdlovsk province). To defend themselves against accusations and avert the dissolution of the organization's community leaders in Russia, intend to appeal to European Court for Human Rights, they believe, in fact, that the charges raised against them contradict the principles upon which Russia's cooperation with countries like the United States and Germany in fighting religious extremism is based.

But it is not only defeats. In December, the Jehovah's Witnesses won a trial that saw them charged with "extremist activities and literature" in Orks (province of Orenburg) and Samara. In both cases the judges found no violation of federal law in the work of the community, as advocated instead by the prosecutors.

More attacks

Attacks on Jehovah's Witnesses are not, however, confined to the courtrooms. New Year's Eve, a few minutes after midnight, two Molotov cocktails were thrown against the Kingdom Hall (the place of worship in the community) of Volzhsky in the province of Volgograd. The attackers took advantage of the uproar caused by the fireworks to launch their attack; the flames have caused some damage to the building, but rescuers were able to extinguish it before the fire spread.

Probably Russia finds "fault" with the Jehovah's Witnesses in their practices: conscientious objection to military service, refusing to take up arms, refusing blood transfusions and the demand of total dedication of members to the life of the community.

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-Russian-government-confirms-condemnation-of-Jehovah's-Witnesses-17312.html