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- 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."