V. Klyueva, E. Shestakov. (Anti)missionary regional lawmaking

Sector Leading Researcher Social Anthropology of the Institute for Problems of the Development of the North SB RAS Vera Klyueva and Lawyer Yevgeny Shestakov prepared for the SOVA Center an overview of several regional laws governing missionary activity.  

For several weeks, believers and secular religious scholars are discussing the topic of anti-missionary amendments in the Yarovaya-Ozerov bill. But the practice of restricting missionary activity did not begin at the moment development of this bill. Attempts to regulate the activities of evangelizers and missionaries did not stop throughout the post-Soviet period.

The reason for writing this text was the ongoing process of mass development in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation laws "On missionary activity", although it would be more correct to call them "On restriction of missionary activity” or “On restriction of freedom of conscience and freedom of religion." Regional laws "On missionary activity" operate, in particular, in the Belgorod, Smolensk, Pskov, Voronezh, Kostroma, Novgorod, Kursk, Tambov, Arkhangelsk regions, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. And in 20 regions of the country such laws were proposed and either were not adopted or were subsequently cancelled. This process began in the early 2000s, and the latest law to date was adopted in June 2016.

Attempts to legislate missionary activities were typical for the first half of the 1990s, however, with the adoption of the law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations”, the need in them, it would seem, has disappeared. But the topic was periodically updated and there were projects at the federal level aimed at resolving missionary activities of religious organizations.

But is it worth taking another Legislative act that needs to be finalized, corrected and clarified? So far since the law "On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations", adopted back in 1997 did not correct a number of absurd provisions. Judge for yourself, according to paragraph 1 of Art. 6 of this law, “a religious association in the Russian Federation is recognized voluntary association of citizens”, and paragraph 2 of the same article specifies that “religious associations can be created in the form of religious groups and religious organizations." Moreover, a religious group carries out its activities without acquisition of legal capacity of a legal entity. However, according to Art. 15 internal regulations can only be ... for religious organizations, and the state respects the internal regulations of religious organizations. A religious groups in this case are not mentioned at all. Moreover, according to the letter and meaning of Art. 16 of the same religious law rites and ceremonies are also freely performed by religious organizations, without mentioning that religious groups. It is precisely such contradictions that make it possible at the present time to make prosecutor's orders, as happened in Tyumen region with a religious a group of evangelical Christians - Baptists. About a similar case religious group was also told by Kaliningrad believers.

The reason for the discussion and adoption of regional laws are on the surface. of this speak The legislators themselves : “The reason for such a legislative initiative, according to its authors, deputies Alexander Dyatlov and Ekaterina Pozdeeva, there were numerous complaints from citizens about intrusive behavior of representatives of various religious associations, simply sects" . The essence of the document was to introduce a rule on the mandatory registration of all religious associations on the territory of the Arkhangelsk region, including and religious groups. Although this proposal directly contradicts the law on freedom of conscience. In December 2015, the Arkhangelsk the law was adopted in the second reading. In March 2016 Governor of the Arkhangelsk region introduced amendments to the draft regional law on administrative responsibility for the implementation of missionary activities with violation of the established order.

What exactly is written in the law? IN religious sphere, it is difficult for legislators to come up with something new, so all local laws are close in content to each other. So let's look at some the provisions of one of the first regional laws - the law of the Belgorod region dated March 19, 2001 "On missionary activity in the territory Belgorod Region" (subject to changes from May 03, 2011). In Art. 2 provides definitions for the concepts of "missionary activity", "missionaries", "informational and organizational missionary activity". So, "missionary work - informational and organizational activities of representatives of religious associations, as well as persons distributing religious literature and other religious objects produced by religious associations, directly or indirectly aimed at spreading one's dogma and religious practice on the territory of the Belgorod region among persons of a different faith and unbelievers . " In this case, it is not clear what missionary activity different from other religious activities, especially if we reverse attention to expression "directly or indirectly aimed at spreading own doctrine and religious practice . Any activity of a religious associations - " directly or indirectly aimed at spreading their creeds and religious practices" . All liturgical activities priestly vestments, interior and exterior decoration of temples, objects cult and much more is directly or indirectly aimed at spreading doctrine and religious practice.

Accordingly, the definition of missionary activities enshrined in the Belgorod law (as well as in other similar laws), is interpreted too broadly and vaguely. And anyone can fall under it. statement of a believer about his faith, any activity of a religious organizations, especially if you recall the expression " directly or indirectly." Explain that this is not missionary work, but completely different activity, it will be very difficult.

It would seem that one can refer that the missionary is a representative of the organization. And then it does not apply to religious group, or especially private initiative. This is exactly what is written in paragraph 1 of Art. 2 Belgorod law: "Missionary activity - informational and organizational activity of representatives of religious associations”. However, religious associations, by virtue of paragraph 2 of Art. 6 of the law on freedom of conscience, exist in the form of religious groups and religious organizations. And the religious group and does not have legal personality, so requiring the group to issue any document, especially in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 3 of the law "On missionary activity", is very problematic. What kind of document is this, who approves it and according to what form, how it will be taken into account, is unclear. And an attempt to legislate to endow a religious group with such rights and obligations is an attempt to create "similar to a legal entity." What then is the difference between religious organization and group?

And the difference is the following. Religious group according to paragraph 1 of Art. 7 of the Law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" recognizes voluntary association of citizens formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith, carrying out activities without state registration and acquisition of legal capacity of a legal entity, and according to paragraph 3 Art. 7 of this law, they have the right to celebrate divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies, as well as teaching religion and religious education of their followers. It turns out one of the goals of creation religious group will just be the activity "directly or indirectly" directed on the dissemination of their dogma and religious practice, which is called in Belgorod law missionary activity. So the regional legislator, tries to regulate activities that are already established federal law. Just to keep it out of sight different terms are used, but the content remains the same.

In addition, the very interpretation of the concept "missionary" as " a person carrying out missionary activity on the territory of the region "is puzzling, in according to the definition of missionary activity, a missionary can consider anyone who is engaged in the dissemination of their dogma and religious practices. The question arises, whom exactly did the legislator have in mind? And why in so many vague wordings in the law? How does this help the law enforcement officer and It is not clear to the law enforcement officer to implement the implementation of the law. Could it be clarify that a missionary is a person representing a religious organization and carrying out missionary activities in the region . Why create preconditions allowing arbitrary persecution of citizens exercising their constitutional the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion?

There is also concern about the attempt regulate " missionary activities among minors ”, which, in the opinion of the regional legislator, should be carried out with the written consent of both parents or persons replacing them . But the question arises: how to calculate Orthodox/Catholic baptism performed in infancy or rite circumcision among Muslims and Jews? Isn't it spreading the creed and religious practice? Isn't this reminiscent of Soviet practice, when a fact baptisms were reported at the place of work of the parents in order to be held with them explanatory work? Or is a child a priori considered a believer? This is far from the only attempts at ordinary liturgical activity with religious rites and ceremonies to be interpreted as missionary. We repeat that all this unreasonably and significantly restricts the possibility of exercising constitutional rights and freedoms of citizens to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.

And here is the latest [law] (http://www.sova-center.ru/(http://www.zsyanao.ru/legislative_activity/docs/?doc=8451&sphrase_id=81188) - “On missionary activity on the territory of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous districts" dated June 6, 2016. Yamal legislators were concerned about the spread in the district "non-traditional" religions and their influence on the indigenous peoples of the North. The people of Yamal approached the content of the law no less creatively than the people of Belgorod or Novgorodians, etc. If you carefully read the law, it turns out that any the activity of believers is missionary. According to Art. 2 missionary activity is “information and organizational activities of missionaries on the territory of the Autonomous Okrug among unbelievers and (or) persons of a different faith . And the missionary is "a person engaged in the dissemination of dogma, religious practice among unbelievers and (or) persons of another faith in order to involve them in participation in religious activities". Thus, according to the meaning and letter of the law, any person who decides to talk about his faith is a missionary, even if he has no goal involvement in a religious association or involvement in a religious activities. Although according to Art. 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation attraction to religious activities may not be associated with any religious association. For example, a joint prayer for the successful completion of the work begun. IN according to the Yamal law, this is already missionary work.

But there is also Art. 3 of this law, which establishes the duty of a missionary to have a document of belonging to religious association and confirming the authority for missionary activity. By the way, the same requirement is in other regional laws, for example, in the law of the Arkhangelsk region. So, according to Art. 3 the missionary is a representative of a religious association, which can issue some paper, but what about Art. 2? Why arrange confusion in a fairly small law, consisting of only five articles?

Another interesting establishment of the Yamal law: according to paragraph 4, art. 3 missionary activities among minors “is carried out only at their request and with the written consent of their parents . So the missionary must receive written consent of the minor's parents. On the one hand, it is necessary take into account the opinion of the parents. On the other hand, the application of this rule, taking into account broad interpretation of missionary activity will cause serious problems for all religious organizations. Since the law explicitly states that written consent of both parents, then there may be a conflict interests, especially if one of the parents is an unbeliever in the family.

There have been attempts to challenge regional laws. In November 2015, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation considered the application of the prosecutor Novgorod Region on the invalidation of certain provisions of the Regional law of the Novgorod region of December 26, 2014 "On the missionary activities on the territory of the Novgorod region. Prosecutor's Office of Novgorod region stated that the regional legislator had exceeded his competence, engaged in the editing of federal laws. And although the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation with this I did not agree with the opinion, but I would like to hope that this decision will be challenged in the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and the European Court of Human Rights.

To be sure, to regulate the missionary activity is necessary, but why do it with such haste and without taking into account the opinion religious associations, although this is provided for in clause 7, article 8 of 125-FZ “State authorities under consideration of issues affecting the activities of religious organizations in society, take into account the territorial sphere of activity of a religious organization and provide relevant religious organizations with the opportunity to participate in consideration of these issues." Moreover, it would be nice to take into account Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, which in its decision dated October 30, 2003 g., indicated that " cannot exercise such a regulation that would infringe on the very essence of a particular right and would lead to the loss of its real content .

And the Russian government in response to draft law on missionary activity No. 2.3.3-17/718 dated May 18, 2016 rightly stated: “Thus, the legislation of the Russian Federation to a sufficient extent the issue of the activities of religious associations for the purpose of spreading the faith" and beyond that “may lead to unreasonable restrictions freedom of religion and related in this case other freedoms (freedom assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, etc.).

In general, the adoption of various regional legislative acts trying to "fix" the gaps in the federal legislation, and in some cases to replace it, will only lead to additional tension between citizens and religious associations, due to what can the Russian Federation be accused of violating fundamental rights and freedom.