1 March 2007

SERBIA: Stalling tactics used to delay granting legal status?

Only three religious communities – the Seventh-day Adventist and United Methodist churches and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) - appear to have been given legal status under Serbia's controversial Religion Law, Forum 18 News Service has found. This is unofficial, as Religion Minister Milan Radulovic's office has not answered Forum 18's repeated enquiries about what if any official figures there may be. Many smaller religious communities – such as the Adventist Reform movement and Hare Krishna community – appear to have had their registration applications arbitrarily stalled. One apparent stalling tactic of the Religion Ministry is to try to force communities to register as Citizens Associations with the Public Administration Ministry – which then tells them to go back to the Religion Ministry to register as religious communities. In separate legal challenges, the Jehovah's Witnesses are taking the Religion Ministry to the Supreme Court for breaking the Religion Law, and the Serbian Baptist Union are refusing to apply for registration and have started a case against the Religion Law in the Constitutional Court.

4 December 2006

SERBIA: Simultaneously legal and illegal religious communities

Nearly seven months after Serbia's controversial new Religion Law – admitted by Serbian President Boris Tadic to break the European Convention on Human Rights - entered into force, no so-called "non-traditional" religious communities have received state registration and legal status, Forum 18 News Service has found. Many communities, such as smaller Protestant communities and Jehovah's Witnesses, that have applied have had their applications arbitrarily stalled. Others – such as the Baptist Union - have told Forum 18 they will not apply, as they regard the Law as discriminatory and the conditions it sets as unacceptable. Some communities, such as the Hare Krishnas, are afraid that information supplied to the authorities may be misused. Technically, the Religion Ministry claims, non-registered religious communities can legally operate. But this is legally unworkable, as to legally have a bank account, and undertake activities such as employing staff, legal documents are necessary – which non-registered religious communities have not been able to acquire.

28 November 2006

SERBIA: Legal status to be denied to religious-based associations?

Serbian religious-based associations, which are not churches and do not conduct worship, have expressed their growing frustration to Forum 18 News Service about unlawful attempts by the Public Administration Ministry to strip them of their legal status. This is a very serious problem for such religious associations, as this bars them from gaining access to their own bank accounts, or taking decisions as a corporate legal body. Associations affected by this state-created legal problem include the Serbian Evangelical Alliance. In an apparent attempt to avoid bad publicity, when Forum 18 made enquiries the Ministry suddenly ordered local officials "urgently" to issue certificates confirming current registration to two Protestant associations and a Catholic group, the Pax Romana Association of Christian Intellectuals. This abrupt reversal of policy should allow these associations access to their own bank accounts. However, the Ministry is still ordering that these groups' registration as associations should be revoked, and that they must instead apply for registration at the Religion Ministry.

25 September 2006

SERBIA: Attacks continue on religious minorities

Although the number of violent attacks on Serbia's religious minorities has declined in recent years, numerous such attacks still continue, Forum 18 News Service has found in its latest annual survey. In June a Hare Krishna devotee was knifed. One blackspot is the town of Backa Palanka, where Seventh-day Adventist and Pentecostal churches have faced graffiti, arson and stone-throwing attacks and a Jehovah's Witness was assaulted. A newly-built Catholic church in Smederevo has faced three attacks in the past year, while Nazarene, Orthodox, Lutheran, Muslim and Mormon sites have also been attacked. On 6 September a new Islamic faculty being prepared in Novi Pazar was vandalised. Frustrated by officials' failure to prosecute those who boasted of burning down a Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall in 1999, Jehovah's Witnesses this year sued the Serbian state.

20 September 2006

KOSOVO: Religion law fails to tackle contentious legal status question

While some Protestants are jubilant that the new religion law approved by the Kosovo Assembly on 13 July has been amended by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) to specify five of the faiths by name that enjoy rights and freedoms (Muslims, Orthodox, Catholics, Jews and Evangelicals) others are critical. "If it is true that the Evangelical (Pentecostal) church is mentioned it is not right, since all should be mentioned or none," Adventist pastor Nikola Aslimovski complained to Forum 18 News Service. UNMIK promulgated the law on 24 August, but only made this public on 20 September. The law fails to tackle the highly contentious issue of how and which religious communities will get legal status. "Everything should be nailed down in one law," one religious freedom expert told Forum 18. "Nothing should ever be left vague to be returned to later."

9 August 2006

SERBIA: Religion Minister breaks his own law

Serbia's Religion Minister, Milan Radulovic, has broken the controversial Religion Law his ministry sponsored, Forum 18 News Service has found. Radulovic's Ministry has published Regulations which illegally increase the number of adult Serbian citizens required for a religious community to be registered, from the 75 the Religion Law specifies to 100. The Ministry has repeatedly refused to say why it did this. What legal rights registered and unregistered communities will have remains unclear, and a legal challenge to the Religion Law has been submitted to the Serbian Constitutional Court, based on contradictions between the Law and the European Convention on Human Rights. Some Evangelical churches are refusing to apply for registration, as they refuse to "voluntarily and peacefully agree with discrimination between the churches." "Justice can only be gained via a court process, or with the help of the international community," two Evangelical leaders have publicly declared.

20 June 2006

SERBIA: Restitution Law passed

As Serbia and Montenegro separate, the Serbian National Assembly has passed a Restitution Law for property confiscated from religious communities. Much doubt remains about whether the Law will operate fairly, Forum 18 News Service has found. There are also concerns about how the complex legal problems involved will be resolved. This is especially the case for communities, such as Kalmykian Buddhists, with no unambiguously clear legal successor. It is also, Forum 18 has found, a problem for those – such as Adventists and Baptists - whose property was in the 1920s and 1930s formally owned by private individuals or companies, even though it was in practice owned by the church. Property such as formerly-Catholic and formerly-Methodist hospitals is barred from return. But religious communities also hope to regain some property, such as Catholic and Serbian Orthodox land given to the churches in the eighteenth century by the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa.

23 May 2006

SERBIA: No changes to controversial Religion Law

Despite Serbian President Boris Tadic requesting amendments to the new Religion Law as it breaks the European Convention on Human Rights, and strong criticism from the OSCE and Council of Europe, the Religion Ministry "is not preparing any amendments and no-one has sent any amendments to the Ministry," it told Forum 18 News Service. Religion Minister Milan Radulovic refused to comment on either the President's request, or the strong criticism of the Law. Sonja Biserko of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights told Forum 18 that "I believe that the pressure of international organisations - including the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the US Congress – is needed." Vidan Hadzi-Vidanovic of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights states that they will challenge the Law in the Constitutional Court. But, "we will need help to ensure that an appeal to the Constitutional Court does not end up in some file," Zarko Djordjevic of the Serbian Baptist Union told Forum 18.

9 May 2006

SERBIA: Are some more equal than others?

The Serbian Government, following its discriminatory Religion Law, is planning a law to restore or provide compensation for religious property confiscated after 1945. However, Forum 18 News Service has found that some fear that the Restitution Law will be used to discriminate against all but the seven recognised "traditional" religious communities. Nenad Ilic of the Ministry of International Economic Relations has insisted to Forum 18 that the law covers "all churches that have confiscated property, irrespective of whether they are traditional or are some other kind of church or religion." But the text of the law does not contain an unambiguous statement of this. Vidan Hadzi-Vidanovic of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights told Forum 18 that "I am almost sure that it will be changed with amendments to make restitution apply only to the seven traditional communities. Restitution should be made to all people affected and not just to some communities."

28 April 2006

SERBIA: President signs controversial religion law

Despite openly recognising that the controversial new religion law approved by parliament on 20 April violates the European Convention on Human Rights, Serbian president Boris Tadic signed it into law on 27 April. He ordered parliament to amend the law "in an urgent vote" to remove the violations, though Aleksandar Mitrovic of Serbia's Evangelical Alliance told Forum 18 News Service the president "was unable to give me a clear answer as to how he thinks he can achieve this, given his status and authority". Under a last-minute amendment before parliament approved the law, all but the seven recognised "traditional" faiths lose their legal status and will have to reapply, even those present in Serbia for more than a century like the Nazarenes, Baptists and Adventists. They also lose their tax-exempt status. "This law makes some citizens more equal than others," General Secretary of the Baptist Union Zarko Djordjevic complained to Forum 18. Minority faiths also fear they will lose the chance to regain confiscated property in the restitution bill expected to begin its parliamentary process in May.

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