Jehovah’s Witnesses

For Immediate Release
October 1, 2009

Kazakhstan decides in favor of religious freedom

ASTANA, Kazakhstan—Kazakhstan has officially resolved a dispute concerning Jehovah’s Witnesses’ signature journals The Watchtower and Awake! This positive conclusion came after the facts were clearly presented in meetings with governmental officials and human rights organizations.

Earlier, local authorities in Taldykorgan, Almaty region, received a letter labeling the most widely translated and internationally distributed religious magazines in the world as dangerous and extreme, which would have banned their distribution in Kazakhstan. Polat Bekzhan, Chairman of the Religious Center of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic of Kazakhstan, reacted to the development in his statement at the OSCE HDIM meeting this year in Warsaw: “We are happy to report that the letter of the Committee of Religious Affairs making the unfounded claim that our magazines present a ‘potential threat for the security of the state’ has been cancelled. Believers can continue to receive our magazines without hindrance and may share and discuss the same religious information as the more than seven million other Jehovah’s Witnesses do worldwide.”

The corrective steps taken in this matter by officials in Kazakhstan protect fundamental rights of belief and worship. The steps are also in accord with the “National Human Rights Action Plan of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” an initiative Kazakhstan set out to implement in the years 2009-2012.

The Watchtower and Awake! magazines have a circulation of over 36,000,000 each month. Both are available to the public in print in 82 languages, many also online. The October 2009 issue of Awake! covers “Secrets of Family Success.”

Contacts:
Kazakhstan: Polat Bekzhan, Telephone: +7 727 232 36 62

USA: J.R. Brown, telephone +1 718 560 5600

Europe: European Association of Jehovah’s Christian Witnesses, telephone: +32 2 782 0015