Source: www.forum18.org
Date: May 11, 2023
Seven Protestants were fined about 2 months' average wages each for talking
to others on a Minsk street about Easter. Police arrested and handcuffed
the seven, took them to a police station, and held them for about eight
hours. No official would explain why they did this. Similarly, regime
officials refuse to explain why they denied the Catholic Red Church parish
– forcibly closed by the regime in 2022 – permission to hold Easter
mass in the church grounds. The regime also refuses to publish planned 2023
Religion Law changes.
BELARUS: Seven fined for talking about Easter in street
https://www.forum18.org/archiv
By Olga Glace, Forum 18, and Felix Corley, Forum 18
A court in Belarus' capital Minsk has fined seven young Protestants about
two months' average wage each. They were punished for talking to others on
a city centre street about the meaning of Easter on Saturday 15 April, the
day before Orthodox Christians celebrated the festival. Police arrested and
handcuffed the seven, took them to Central District Police Station, and
held them for about eight hours.
Officials refused to explain to Forum 18 why it is a violation of the law
for individuals to talk in a street to others about their faith, and why
police needed to arrest, handcuff, and detain the seven Protestants for
eight hours at a police station. The duty officer at Minsk's Central
District Police Station – where the seven were held - refused to give any
comments. "I have no information to give you," he told Forum 18 (see
below).
"Unfortunately, the court did not take into account the arguments of the
young people that they sincerely wanted to share the meaning of Easter with
others, that public order was not violated, and that they shared their
message with those who were interested," Minsk's New Life Church noted on
28 April, the day the court handed down the fines. Five of the seven fined
are members of that Church (see below).
Officials closed Minsk's Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally
due to its brickwork as the Red Church) after a suspicious September 2022
fire. Nearly eight months later, officials refuse to say when they will
allow the Church to reopen for worship. "There is no information," parish
administrator Fr Yuri Sanko told Forum 18 (see below).
The parish expressed its gratitude on 19 March to an Orthodox Christian
from Russia, Mikhail, who had passed on "a word of support from your
Orthodox brothers and sisters from Russia". Mikhail had also written to
Belarus' Embassy in Moscow about the enforced closure of the Church (see
below).
As its access to the Red Church remained blocked, the parish wrote to Minsk
Executive Committee for permission to hold an Easter service on the
Church's land. (Catholics celebrated Easter this year on 9 April.)
Less than a week before the proposed service, the Deputy Head of Minsk
Executive Committee Artyom Tsuran denied permission for this, insisting
that the Red Church cannot be used until repair works are finished. He said
the application for an outdoor service – a "mass event" – did not meet
the requirements of the Mass Events Law, which was harshened after
widespread popular protests against the regime began in 2020 (see below).
"Unfortunately, our shrine is still closed," the Red Church website noted.
"The Red Church, which used to be filled with thousands of Catholics
praying on Easter day, is empty now. We asked officials to allow us to hold
the Easter Mass but received NO as an answer" (see below).
The Deputy Head of Minsk Executive Committee's Ideology, Religion, and
Ethnic Affairs Coordination Department, Yekaterina Kaverina (who drafted
Tsuran's reply), refused to explain to Forum 18 why the Red Church was
denied permission to celebrate Mass on its own grounds (see below).
Meanwhile, the regime is preparing more changes to the harsh Religion Law.
Aleksandr Lukashenko specified that the Council of Ministers should prepare
the draft amendments by June for them to be presented to the lower chamber
of Parliament, the House of Representatives, in September. The
Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs and the Justice Ministry
were instructed to prepare the amendments, supervised by the Education and
Social/Cultural Department of the Council of Ministers (see below).
As of 11 May, no text of the Religion Law amendments has been published.
Officials persistently refuse to give any information or comments on the
regime's planned changes to religious leaders and human right defenders.
Forum 18 could not reach the head of the Education and Social/Cultural
Department at the Council of Ministers (see below).
An official – who did not identify herself - of the Religious Affairs
Department of the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs put the
phone down as soon as Forum 18 asked for comment on the planned amendments
(see below).
The regime has stripped individuals from Belarus of the possibility to
complain to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee about violations
of their rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR). The move took effect from 8 February, three months after
the UN received the notification of Belarus' renunciation (see below).
The Human Rights Committee has found that Belarus violated the rights to
freedom of religion or belief of a number of complainants. Three complaints
from Jehovah's Witnesses are still pending with the Committee, which will
continue to consider them (see below).
Seven fined for talking about Easter
On Saturday 15 April, the day before Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter,
a group of young Protestants from several churches shared their faith with
passers-by in central Minsk. They stood with a two-metre high wooden cross
on Nemiha Street by a park below the Orthodox Holy Spirit Cathedral close
to the metro station. They explained the meaning of Easter and offered
passers-by to write their sins on a piece of paper and, as a symbol, attach
it to the cross.
Police arrested seven Protestants, five of them members of Minsk's New Life
Pentecostal Church. Officers handcuffed them and took them to Minsk's
Central District Police Station, holding them for eight hours, Protestants
told Forum 18. Police released them not long before midnight.
Officers drew up records of an offence against the seven under
Administrative Code Article 24.23, Part 1 ("Violation of the procedure for
organising or conducting a mass event or demonstration"). Punishments are a
fine of up to 100 base units (about two months' average wage), or community
service, or 15 days' imprisonment.
One of those detained wrote a verse (chapter 3, verse 16) from John's
Gospel on the police record: "For this is how God loved the world: he gave
his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may
have eternal life."
On 28 April, Minsk's Central District Court found all seven Protestants
guilty in separate hearings under different judges. The judges fined each
of them between 90 and 100 base units, between 3,330 and 3,700 Belarusian
Roubles, a Protestant close to the case told Forum 18. (3,700 Belarusian
Roubles is 100 base units, the maximum fine under this Article.)
"Unfortunately, the court did not take into account the arguments of the
young people that they sincerely wanted to share the meaning of Easter with
others, that public order was not violated, and that they shared their
message with those who were interested," New Life Church noted on Telegram
on 28 April. It pointed out that the court sentenced each of them to a fine
that was the maximum or close to the maximum possible.
The seven Protestants appear to have decided not to appeal against the
fines.
Officials refused to explain to Forum 18 why it is a violation of the law
for individuals to talk in a street to others about their faith, and why
police needed to arrest, handcuff, and detain the seven Protestants for
eight hours at a police station.
The duty officer at Minsk's Central District Police Station refused to give
any comments. "I have no information to give you," he told Forum 18 on 3
May.
An official of the Religious Affairs Department of the Plenipotentiary for
Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
identify herself - put the phone down on 3 May before Forum 18 could ask
about the detentions and fines. The Deputy Head of the Ideology, Religion,
and Ethnic Affairs Coordination Department of Minsk City Executive
Committee, Yekaterina Kaverina, similarly put the phone down on 10 May
before Forum 18 could ask about the detentions and fines.
In 2022, courts used Administrative Code Article 24.23, Part 1 to punish
three Protestant pastors in Gomel for holding outdoor baptisms
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
pastors in Minsk for leading worship in the car park of the confiscated New
Life Church (https://www.forum18.org/archi
On 17 February 2021, New Life Pentecostal Church was forcibly evicted from
its place of worship (https://www.forum18.org/archi
which the regime had never allowed to be redesignated for religious use. On
25 September 2022, the regime banned the Church from meeting for worship in
the church car park (https://www.forum18.org/archi
fining church leaders.
Kaverina of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology, Religion, and Ethnic
Affairs Coordination Department refused to reply, when Forum 18 asked
whether the authorities will compensate the Church for its building
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
evicted it
Minsk's Red Church still closed, nearly 8 months after suspicious fire
Minsk's Catholic Church of Saints Simon and Helena (known locally due to
its brickwork as the Red Church) remains closed. The church has been closed
since a fire in September 2022
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
multiple regime agencies close by, which parishioners described as "strange
and ambiguous."
Officials have refused to say when they will allow the Church to reopen for
worship. "There is no information," Fr Yuri Sanko, Red Church parish
administrator and spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops' Conference told
Forum 18 from Minsk on 10 May 2023.
The regime has also repeatedly rejected appeals over many years to hand the
Church of Saints Simon and Helena back to the Catholic community
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
agency owned by the city administration, has also for some years been in
dispute with the parish over large financial demands from the state for
building work it did not agree to and which it cannot afford. "Why should
we pay the state 13,000 Belarusian Roubles a month to pray in our own
church?" the then-parish priest Fr Stanislav Stanevsky asked independent
news agency Naviny.by in July 2020
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
refused to explain to Forum 18 the large sums they have demanded, or why
they repeatedly refuse to hand the Church back to its parishioners
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Some other Catholic parishes face similar problems. The regime terminated
unlimited, free of charge rental agreements with at least four Catholic
churches (https://www.forum18.org/archi
state hands. It claimed that, in exchange for signing a new agreement to
pay rent, the churches would eventually be allowed to resume using their
historical buildings rent-free. "We were told that if we don't sign the new
agreement, the church will be given to the museum .. while we'll be allowed
to worship there only once a week," a Catholic close to Corpus Christi
Church in Nesvizh told Forum 18 in February 2023.
Minsk's Red Church parish expressed its gratitude on 19 March 2023 to an
Orthodox Christian from Russia, named only as Mikhail, who had passed on "a
word of support from your Orthodox brothers and sisters from Russia".
Mikhail had written to the Embassy of Belarus in Russia about the enforced
closure of the Church. He received a reply dated 24 January (seen by Forum
18) from the regime's senior religious affairs official, Plenipotentiary
for Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
claiming that the Church of Saints Simon and Helena would be reopened "for
believers and tourists" once repair works are completed. He gave no
timetable.
Mikhail also asked the Committee on Commonwealth of Independent States
Affairs of Russia's State Duma (lower house of parliament) to support
attempts to have the Red Church reopen for worship. In a 7 March reply
(seen by Forum 18), Committee Chair Leonid Kalashnikov said the issue would
be discussed in the Culture, Science and Education Commission of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia.
Officials of the Union's Parliamentary Assembly in both Minsk and Moscow
told Forum 18 on 11 May that they had no information about the work of the
Culture, Science and Education Commission.
Officials of the State Duma's Committee on Commonwealth of Independent
States Affairs in Moscow did not answer the phone on 11 May. Forum 18 sent
written questions for Kalashnikov in the middle of the working day in
Moscow of 11 May on whether and, if so, when the Parliamentary Assembly's
Culture, Science and Education Commission had discussed the enforced
closure of the Red Church, and what the result of any discussion might have
been. Forum 18 received no response by the end of the working day in Moscow
of 11 May.
"We asked officials to allow us to hold the Easter Mass but received NO as
an answer"
The parish of Saints Simon and Helena tried to get permission to hold an
Easter service on its own grounds by the closed Red Church, but the
authorities refused. Catholics celebrated Easter this year on 9 April 2023.
The parish had applied for permission to Minsk Executive Committee on 23
March. In a 3 April reply (seen by Forum 18), the Deputy Head of Minsk
Executive Committee Artyom Tsuran denied permission for the Church to
celebrate Mass on its own grounds, insisting that the Red Church cannot be
used until repair works are finished.
Minsk Executive Committee regarded the Red Church parish's request to hold
an outdoor Mass on their own land as coming under the Mass Events Law
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
harshened in June 2021 after large-scale protests began against the
regime's fraudulent 2020 presidential elections.
The Executive Committee also referred to the January 2019 Council of
Ministers Decree No. 49 ("On the procedure of payment for public security
provided by police, for healthcare services, for cleaning a venue after a
public event"). The Decree imposes further conditions related to the Mass
Events Law (https://www.forum18.org/archi
varying event fees to be paid to state agencies depending on the number of
participants. It requires that all permitted public event organisers -
including of religious events – must both agree event fees with the
police, state healthcare, and cleaning services, and also pay these fees in
advance.
"For your information, your application does not meet the requirements of
Articles 5, 6 and 9 of the [Mass Events] Law
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
requirements of the above-mentioned Council of Ministers' Decree and the
decisions of Minsk Executive Committee," Tsuran told the parish. "Minsk
Executive Committee does not approve the declared mass event and warns
against legal violations by the community."
Minsk Heritage officials also denied permission for Easter Mass either
inside or anywhere around the Red Church. In his 7 April letter (seen by
Forum 18), the General Manager of Minsk Heritage Aleksandr Kokhan informed
the religious community of "the impossibility to carry out worshipping and
other events in the Red Church building, priest's house and the church
grounds". He insisted that all the parish's religious activities have been
transferred to the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"Unfortunately, our shrine is still closed," the Red Church website noted
on 7 April. "The Red Church, which used to be filled with thousands of
Catholics praying on Easter day, is empty now. We asked officials to allow
us to hold the Easter Mass but received NO as an answer."
The Deputy Head of Minsk City Executive Committee's Ideology, Religion, and
Ethnic Affairs Coordination Department, Yekaterina Kaverina (who drafted
Tsuran's reply), refused to explain to Forum 18 why the Red Church parish
was denied permission to celebrate Mass on its own grounds. "Call
Minsk-Mohilev Archdiocese, let them give you comments," she told Forum 18
on 10 May before putting the phone down.
It is unclear why Kaverina thought the Archdiocese (which wants the Red
Church to be reopened) could comment on behalf of the regime's Minsk City
Executive Committee which closed the Church.
Forum 18 could not reach Minsk Heritage to find out why the Easter
celebration was not allowed on the church grounds. Kokhan's phone was not
answered when Forum 18 repeatedly called on 10 May to get comments on its
refusal and to inquire about the progress on any repair works.
Some religious communities have told Forum 18 that, after the Decree came
into force in January 2019
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
or change their plans for annual pilgrimages and religious meetings
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
afford the fees.
Religion Law changes planned in 2023
The regime plans to this year again change the country's harsh Religion Law
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
amend the law was included in a 30 December 2022 Decree signed by Aleksandr
Lukashenko setting out the legislative plan for 2023.
Lukashenko tasked the Council of Ministers to prepare draft Religion Law
amendments "to perfect the law taking into account its practical
implementation and bring it into line with the Constitution". The regime
amended the Constitution in early 2022 to increase Lukashenko's powers.
None of the amendments appeared to affect the way religious communities
function.
Lukashenko specified that the Council of Ministers should prepare the draft
Religion Law amendments by June 2023 for them to be presented to the lower
chamber of Parliament, the House of Representatives, in September.
A Council of Ministers Decree of 24 January handed the task of preparing
the Religion Law amendments to the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic
Affairs (https://www.forum18.org/archi
Justice Ministry. Supervision of the amendments was placed under the
Education and Social/Cultural Department of the Council of Ministers.
As of 11 May, no text of the Religion Law amendments has been published.
Officials persistently refuse to give any comments or information on the
amendments to religious leaders and human right defenders.
Forum 18 has been unable to find out the details of the amendments from the
Council of Ministers. It was unable to reach the Head of the Education and
Social/Cultural Department, Yosif Petkevich.
Human rights defenders and religious leaders do not know what will be in
the Religion Law amendments. "We have not seen the amendments to the
Religion Law (https://www.forum18.org/archi
they [the officials] will inform us and would like to hear our opinion,"
one religious leader who wished to remain anonymous told Forum 18 on 3 May.
Another feared that the regime might require all registered religious
communities to seek re-registration under the amended Religion Law.
An official – who did not identify herself - of the Religious Affairs
Department of the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
3 May as soon as Forum 18 asked for comment on the planned amendments.
The Head of the Ideology, Religion, and Ethnic Affairs Coordination
Department of Minsk City Executive Committee Tatyana Shevchik refused to
discuss this issue with Forum 18 on 10 May. "Why should I give you any
answers?" she told Forum 18. "Come personally with an official inquiry, we
do not give such comments on the phone."
Regime strips individuals of possibility to complain to United Nations
The regime has stripped individuals from Belarus of the possibility to
complain to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee about violations
of their rights under the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights (ICCPR). The move took effect from 8 February 2023.
In 1992, Belarus acceded to the ICCPR Optional Protocol
(https://www.ohchr.org/en/trea
This allows individuals to complain directly to the UN Human Rights
Committee after domestic remedies have been exhausted. Since 2000 the
Committee has considered more than 175 complaints from Belarus, many of
them involving more than one complainant, and is still considering other
complaints from Belarus. Some of these relate to violations of individuals'
right to freedom of religion or belief.
Three separate complaints from Jehovah's Witnesses are among those pending
with the Human Rights Committee
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
a complaint in November 2021 after being fined four months' average wages
for refusing on grounds of conscience to undergo nearly four weeks of
reservist military training. Earlier, Andrei Kuzin lodged a complaint after
a court fined him more than a month's average wage for leading a Jehovah's
Witness meeting on his property. Kirill Dashkovsky complained of being
fined after police raided a meeting for worship.
In earlier decisions (https://www.forum18.org/archi
the Human Rights Committee found that the rights of an executed prisoner's
family had been violated when the regime refused to release the body for
burial. In another case, the UN Committee found that the rights of two Hare
Krishna devotees had been violated when the regime refused to register a
nationwide Hare Krishna organisation as well as a local community in Minsk.
Parliament approved the draft Law on the denunciation by the Republic of
Belarus of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights in October 2022 and Lukashenko signed it into law on 27
October 2022.
On 22 August 2022, seven local human rights groups – including Viasna
(Spring), the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and Human Constanta – had
condemned the proposed withdrawal from the Optional Protocol
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
be abandoned. They noted that "although the authorities consistently
ignored the [Human Rights] Committee's decisions, the state was under an
obligation to respond to the Committee, explaining the relevant issue and
providing information on measures taken".
Belarus notified the UN Secretary General in early November 2022 of its
denunciation of the ICCPR Optional Protocol. The move took effect on 8
February 2023, three months after the UN received the notification.
The UN Human Rights Committee expressed "profound regret" at the move. It
said this "will deprive victims of human rights violations in Belarus, who
have been denied justice domestically, of bringing their complaints before
the Committee".
"The Committee noted that Belarus adopted its decision without providing a
particular explanation and without holding any consultation with civil
society and non-governmental entities at any stage of the national process
of denunciation," the Human Rights Committee stated on 25 November 2022
(https://www.ohchr.org/en/pres
"With this regrettable step, the Republic of Belarus becomes the fourth and
only country in the twenty-first century to withdraw from the Optional
Protocol, which has been ratified by 117 countries," the Committee added.
The Human Rights Committee said it would continue to accept and examine
petitions about human rights violations lodged with it before 8 February
2023. It stressed that it would continue after then to follow up on
implementation of earlier "cases found to be in violation of rights". (END)
Full reports on freedom of thought, conscience and belief in Belarus
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
For more background, see Forum 18's Belarus religious freedom survey
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
Forum 18's compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in
Europe (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments
(https://www.forum18.org/archi
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