This week, Kazakhstan's parliament has accepted a new law that would amend the country's current law on religion. The deputies in the Majlis unanimously approved the text. The bill must now be approved by President Nazarbaev. The standard analysis is that since Russia amended its law on religion, the Central Asian countries have been following the same path, i.e. "hastily" making amendments. The concern is that the governments are not fully consulting civil society and legal (human rights) organizations in the process. For example, in Tajikistan, over a year has passed since a draft of the new law on religion has been seen by anyone outside the government decision-making structures. The head of the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) in Kazakhstan, as reported in F18News, has said that the President of Kazakhstan should be aiming for a "more transparent and inclusive law-making process." For Tajikistan, the fear is that President Rahmon will now attach his name to the bill for political weight, and it will pass too quickly , by March.
As Patrick Frost, our own blogger on Central Asia pointed out yesterday, "all five of our CA states" have laws in the works that may lead to restrictions on the freedom of religion. The question is to what degree these countries are allowing the draft laws to be made public , specifically the "new" drafts, which will be voted on in their parliaments. In Tajikistan, we have no idea whether the draft that will soon be voted on looks the same as it did one year ago. The F18 article presents the views of various religious leaders on the new law in Kazakhstan. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church "broadly welcomed the law" and some argued that the worst provisions of the law had already been removed.
The general fear throughout Central Asia though is mass conversion of Muslims to Christian sects. This has particularly affected Baptists and Jehovah's Witnesses, whose literature has been confiscated in large quantities. Baptist bibles were confiscated in Tajikistan, for example, after authorities claimed they were importing more than was necessary for their official membership. As restrictions on registration grow, therefore, the controls on literature and freedom of speech may suffer. The F18 article also points out that the majority of complaints in the Astana Ombudsperson's Office are coming from Baptists, who have been receiving a lot of fines for their activities. On the other hand, a representative of the Rabbinate has said that the law is necessary. Those in favor of the law say that it protects the safety of citizens and restricts the activities of "totalitarian sects."