{"id":2873,"date":"2017-04-20T18:09:39","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T18:09:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2017\/04\/20\/human-rights-watch-russia-court-bans-jehovahs-witnesses\/"},"modified":"2021-08-18T10:25:30","modified_gmt":"2021-08-18T07:25:30","slug":"human-rights-watch-russia-court-bans-jehovahs-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/human-rights-watch-russia-court-bans-jehovahs-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Human Rights Watch Russia: Court Bans Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Moscow) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0Russia<\/span><\/font>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supreme Court ruled on April 20, 2017 that the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization should be closed down and no longer allowed to operate legally in Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling, which affects more than 100,000 Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witness worshippers across Russia, is a serious breach of Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obligations to respect and protect religious freedom.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Justice Ministry, which had petitioned the Supreme Court to close the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization, should withdraw the case and refrain from taking further measures that violate its obligations to respect the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to freedom of religion and to association. The Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization said it will appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Supreme Court\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ruling to shut down the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia is a terrible blow to freedom of religion and association in Russia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said\u00c2\u00a0Rachel Denber<\/span>, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses in Russia are now given the heartrending choice of either abandoning their faith or facing punishment for practicing it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/font><\/p>\n

The ruling declares the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses Administrative Center an extremist organization, closes the organization on those grounds, and bans all Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 activities. The Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses Administrative Center is the head office for 395 Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses branches throughout Russia.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n

If the ruling enters into force, people who continue to be involved with Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization or their activities in Russia could face criminal prosecution and punishment ranging from fines of 300,00 to 600,000 rubles (US$5,343 to $10,687) to a maximum of six to 10 years in prison. People found to be leading such activity would face a maximum 10 years. The organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s property will be confiscated. Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses will not be able to congregate for worship at their church or anywhere else.<\/font><\/p>\n

According to the\u00c2\u00a0Justice Ministry<\/span>, since 2007, local courts have banned at least eight local Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organizations, and 95 pieces of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 literature have been banned and placed on the federal registry of banned extremist materials. In most cases the ban was triggered by claims in the literature of the superiority over other religions of the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 interpretation of the Bible. Anyone found with large quantities of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 banned materials can be held responsible for the misdemeanor offense of distributing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d materials.<\/font><\/p>\n

The Justice Ministry case followed an unannounced inspection, started in February 2017, of the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses Administrative Center in St. Petersburg. The inspection found that the Administrative Center had continued to fund branches that had been closed after a court banned them for extremism. It also found the organization had taken no action to change \u00e2\u20ac\u0153extremist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d literature and had continued to distribute it. Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses have vigorously denied the latter allegation. The Justice Ministry suspended all Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 activities when the ministry filed its lawsuit on March 15.<\/font><\/p>\n

A member of the Council of Europe and a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia is obligated to protect freedom of religion and association. It has previously been found in violation of multiple obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights for actions taken through the courts to dissolve communities of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses (Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia<\/span>, application no.\u00c2\u00a0302\/02<\/span>).<\/font><\/p>\n

The April 20 ruling to close the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses is a direct interference with freedom of religion, effectively denying its followers the right to worship, and cannot be justified as either necessary or proportionate. The closure order directly violates the pluralism of thought and belief that is foundational to a democratic society and as the court has repeatedly affirmed, is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153at the very heart of the protection which [the convention] affords.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not too late for the Russian authorities to make right this serious move against religious freedom,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Denber said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Justice Ministry should withdraw the suit against the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization and stop interfering with group\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s peaceful religious activity.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/font><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2017\/04\/20\/russia-court-bans-jehovahs-witnesses\u00c2\u00a0<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Moscow) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Supreme Court ruled on April 20, 2017 that the Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses organization should be closed down and no longer allowed to operate legally in Russia, Human Rights Watch said today. The ruling, which…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news","category-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5649,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2873\/revisions\/5649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}