Russia—Jehovah's Witnesses Test Religious Freedom
A Moscow civil case involving Jehovah's Witnesses—a worldwide Christian religion with more than six million members—has become a test case for a new law designed to ban various religions in Russia.
Human rights leaders and high-ranking officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, have expressed deep concern for the potential for religious discrimination and human rights violations in Russia if cases like this continue.
Religious freedom is guaranteed by the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, to which Russia officially subscribes. On March 11, 1999, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on Russian officials to protect freedom of religion.
Media interest in the case and in other human rights violations against Jehovah's Witnesses remains high. The Moscow case has been suspended since March 12, 1999. An appeal was denied, and harassment of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and elsewhere continues.
Despite ongoing litigation in the Moscow courts, the Russian Federation reregistered Jehovah's Witnesses as a religious organization under existing law on April 29, 1999.
History of Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia
Jehovah's Witnesses have been present in Russia for more than a century. In 1929, they began to publish Bible literature.
During World War II, many Russians came to know Jehovah's Witnesses as fellow prisoners in German concentration camps. Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany and throughout Europe refused to support Hitler's regime and were imprisoned by the thousands, and many were executed.
By 1946, in spite of persecution, more than 8,600 regularly attended the religious services of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Soviet Union.
In 1949, Jehovah's Witnesses petitioned the Ministry of the Interior and the vice-chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the U.S.S.R for legal recognition.
From 1949 to 1951, the Soviet government exiled thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses to Siberia and the Far East. According to the book Religion in the Soviet Union, "the Soviet Government could have done nothing better for the dissemination of their faith. Out of their village isolation the 'Witnesses' were brought into a wider world, even if this was only the terrible world of the concentration and slave labour camps." After 1951, Jehovah's Witnesses could be found throughout western and eastern Russia.
From June 1956 to February 1957, petitions adopted by 462,936 Jehovah's Witnesses around the world were submitted to Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin. The petitions requested legal recognition of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and permission to publish and import Bible literature.
Religious freedom at last
During the 1980's, the Soviet government began to relent in its persecution of religious minorities. In 1989 and 1990, Jehovah's Witnesses were permitted to attend Bible-education conventions in Poland.
Jehovah's Witnesses received legal registration in Russia on March 27, 1991. That summer, Jehovah's Witnesses held a series of conventions throughout Russia and neighboring territories, with more than 74,000 in attendance.
In January 1997, Jehovah's Witnesses announced the republication of a historic translation of the Old Testament in Russian, the Makarios Bible. Two prominent members of the Russian Orthodox Church, who were also language scholars, translated this Bible during the early part of the 19th century. Their work was published in installments from 1860 to 1867 and remained in obscurity until 1993, when it was discovered in the rare-books section of the Russian National Library.
Jehovah's Witnesses arranged for an initial printing of 300,000 copies, pairing the Makarios Old Testament with the Orthodox Church-approved synodal translation of the New Testament. The Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda called the Makarios Bible a "monument of literature."
On June 21, 1997, Jehovah's Witnesses held a grand opening of their administrative center in Solnechnoye, near St. Petersburg. Journalists and officials were invited to tour the facility.
Religious intolerance returns
The Soviet Union strengthened guarantees for freedom of religion with passage of a new law on religion in 1990. Russia's 1993 Constitution also contains strong provisions protecting freedom of religion.
But on September 26, 1997, President Yeltsin signed the Russian federal law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations," which included strong restrictions on religious freedom. Only registered religions would be permitted to own or rent property (even as places of worship), print or distribute literature, make pastoral visits to hospitals or prisons; invite missionaries into Russia, and the like. The requirements for registration are strict, and registration can be easily revoked.
The media campaign of intolerance that spurred this legislation and surrounded its passage inspired action against Jehovah's Witnesses. In September 1997, a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses in Nalchik in the Caucasus was canceled after a terrorist threat. Those attending the convention were forcibly dispersed by the police. Also in September 1997, five incidents of physical violence against Jehovah's Witnesses were reported.
Recent harassment
On June 25, 1999, when Jehovah's Witnesses gathered in St. Petersburg for their annual convention, they faced a mob that included Russian Orthodox clergy. A priest shouted curses into a megaphone. The crowd shouted insults and carried icons and placards with death threats and slurs against Jews and Jehovah's Witnesses.
On August 19, 1999, Jehovah's Witnesses faced the near cancellation of their Moscow convention because of pressure from Moscow officials. The convention began as scheduled on Friday, August 20, 1999, and continued through Sunday, August 22, 1999.
Trial of Jehovah's Witnesses In Moscow
Spurred by a complaint from a Moscow group, the Committee for the Salvation of Youth, in June 1996 the Savyolov Interregional prosecutor's office of Moscow opened an investigation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Four separate criminal investigations spanning nearly two years revealed no evidence supporting the Committee's charges, which were based entirely on religious differences and were not related to any criminal acts.
On April 13, 1998, the fourth investigation was closed in a way that completely exonerated Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow and would allow no further investigation of a criminal charge.
One week later, on April 20, 1998, the Prosecutor of the Northern Administrative Circuit of the City of Moscow filed a civil complaint to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow. The prosecutor cited the new law on religion as a basis for the complaint but used the same allegations as the previous complaint. If the prosecutor is successful, the religious activity of Jehovah's Witnesses would be banned in Moscow.
The first court hearings were held on September 29 and 30, 1998, at the Golovinskiy People's Court in Moscow. Hearings were adjourned until November 17, in response to a defense motion to add the Department of Justice as a party to the trial. The Department of Justice is the agency that had granted registration to the Moscow Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses on December 30, 1993, and it would be the agency responsible for imposing the ban. The Department of Justice's position needed to be made clear.
On November 18, after two days of hearings, the judge adjourned the trial. Because the prosecutor lacked any evidence for the charges, she was given an additional three months to prepare. Hearings resumed on February 9, 1999.
Throughout the trial it became apparent that evidence of any civil offense on the part of Jehovah's Witnesses was distinctly lacking. When Judge Yelena Prokhorycheva asked for proof to support a key accusation in the trial, Prosecutor T. I. Kondratyeva could only answer that Russian minds are unprepared for the religious literature of Jehovah's Witnesses.
The trial was suspended on March 12 to allow an "expert panel" to prepare a study of the doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses as presented in their literature.
Moscow courts ignore European Convention
On January 25, 1999, the European Court of Human Rights reinforced an earlier judgment in which it had determined that freedom of religion does not allow any State to determine the legitimacy of religious beliefs and their expression. (See court decisions Tsavachidis v. Greece, Kokkinakis v. Greece, and Manoussakis and Others v. Greece.) With its ratification on May 5, 1998, of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Russia became subject to the rulings of this court.
On these grounds an appeal was filed, charging that the prosecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow violates freedom of religion. Moscow City Court denied the appeal on June 28, 1999. Ironically, the very same issues to be examined by the panel appointed by the judge in the Moscow trial had already been examined by an expert panel for the federal government. This examination resulted in the reregistration of Jehovah's Witnesses under the 1997 law.
International interest grows
Because this trial is seen as a major test of freedom of religion, speech, and association in Russia, it has attracted considerable attention from the international media, Western governments, and international human rights organizations. Fifteen camera crews from the Russian and the international media covered the resumption of the trial on February 9. Representatives of at least six governments attended as observers, as did a number from human rights organizations.
The case continues to be a matter of international concern. For example, on March 11, 1999, the European Parliament passed a resolution on respect for human rights in Europe, encouraging Russia to call "on those in power at central and local level to guarantee freedom of religion" and to insist "that racism, anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance directed against minority groups . . . be combated."
Reregistraton of Jehovah's Witnesses Under the 1997 Religion Law
On April 29, 1999, the Russian Ministry of Justice reregistered the Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as a centralized religious organization. Under the 1997 law, after registration of three local organizations, a religious group was permitted to apply for registration as a "centralized religious organization." Currently registered religious organizations were required to apply for reregistration. Jehovah's Witnesses were among those in this class.
Only religions that could provide proof of their presence in Russia for more than 15 years would be permitted to register. This provision was seen by some as particularly discriminatory because 15 years ago, the Soviet government prohibited religious activity. Additionally, only religions that could show that they had a presence in Russia for more than 50 years would be permitted to use "Russia" in the name of their organization.
The name under which Jehovah's Witnesses were registered, "Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia," acknowledges their presence in Russia for at least the 50-year minimum required by law.
Constitutional court case
Jehovah's Witnesses successfully challenged a clause in the 1997 law that required religions applying for registration to show documented proof of their presence in Russia for more than 15 years.
This challenge to the 1997 law was brought by the Yaroslavl Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Yaroslavl Congregation has been in existence since 1967 but was registered only in 1992. After passage of the 1997 law, the public prosecutor in Yaroslavl declared some of the congregation's activities illegal, primarily because the congregation did not have an official document confirming its existence in Yaroslavl for at least 15 years.
Russia's Constitutional Court released its decision upholding the clause in the 1997 law requiring religions applying for registration to show documented proof of their presence in Russia for more than 15 years.
However, the Court ruled that this clause would not apply to congregations that were registered before passage of the 1997 law or to congregations that are part of a registered "centralized religious organization." The Court stated that the 15-year clause must be taken in context with the rest of the law and not viewed in isolation alone.
This case did not address other controversial aspects of the 1997 law on religion, which include distinguishing between "religious organizations" and "religious groups," with denial of basic rights to the latter.
Judge V. Zorkin of the Constitutional Court affirmed Russia's commitment to standards of international law, which define religious freedom as an inalienable human right, and acknowledged the authority of the European Court of Human Rights on this issue.
Time Line
| 1887 |
Jehovah's Witnesses begin to worship in Russia |
| 1928 |
Jehovah's Witnesses first obtain permission to import religious literature |
| 1949 |
Jehovah's Witnesses petition Soviet officials for legal recognition |
| 1949-1951 |
Soviet government exiles thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses to Siberia and Far East |
| 1956-1957 |
Jehovah's Witnesses petition Soviet Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin for legal recognition and for permission to publish and import Bible literature |
| 1990 |
New Soviet law strengthens freedom of religion |
| March 27, 1991 |
Jehovah's Witnesses are registered as a religion by the Soviet Union |
| 1993 |
New Russian Constitution includes guarantees for freedom of religion |
| December 30, 1993 |
The Moscow Department of Justice registers the Moscow Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses |
| June 20, 1996 |
First of four criminal investigations into charges brought by Committee for the Salvation of Youth are begun by Moscow prosecutor's office |
| September 26, 1996 |
The European Court of Human Rights declares that a state cannot determine the legitimacy of religious doctrine without violating freedom of religion guaranteed by the European Convention |
| June 21, 1997 |
Jehovah's Witnesses hold grand opening of their administrative center in Solnechnoye, near St. Petersburg |
| April 13, 1998 |
Fourth criminal investigation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow by Moscow prosecutor's office is closed, completely exonerating Jehovah's Witnesses of all criminal accusations |
| April 20, 1998 |
Civil complaint filed by Moscow prosecutor's office against Jehovah's Witnesses in Moscow |
| May 5, 1998 |
Russia ratifies the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which commits Russia to support religious freedom and brings Russia under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights |
| January 21, 1999 |
European Court of Human Rights reinforces earlier decision that a state cannot determine legitimacy of religious doctrine |
| March 12, 1999 |
Civil trial of Jehovah's Witnesses suspended, pending review of their religious doctrine |
| April 29, 1999 |
Russian Ministry of Justice reregisters Administrative Center of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia as a centralized religious organization |
| June 28, 1999 |
Appeal by Jehovah's Witnesses to dismiss case against them in Moscow is denied |
| July 22, 1999 |
In the case Nikishina v. Russia, a chamber of the Russian Supreme Court annulled three lower court decisions that denied custody to a mother solely because she is one of Jehovah's Witnesses. The case has been sent back for a new hearing at the local court where the case began. |
| August 21, 1999 |
Religious convention that was almost canceled by local authorities is held in Moscow. More than 15,000 evacuated after a bomb threat. |
| November 23, 1999 |
Russia's Constitutional Court rules that the "15-year" clause of the 1997 law on religion does not apply to congregations that were registered before passage of the law or to congregations that are part of a registered "centralized religious organization." |
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