Russian Supreme Court Goes Ahead to Ban Jehovah's Witnesses

Members of the Jehovah's Witnesses Administration centre legal team awaiting the Judgement

Russia has decided to go ahead with the Ministry of justice's motion to ban Jehovah's Witnesses after the Supreme Court ruled the Christian Organization  to be an "extremist" group.

“The Supreme Court has ruled to sustain the claim of Russia's ministry of justice and deem the 'Administrative Centre of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia' organisation extremist, eliminate it and ban its activity in Russia,” said judge Yuri Ivanenko. “The property of the Jehovah's Witnesses organisation is to be confiscated to the state revenue." 

A lawyer for the justice ministry, Svetlana Borisova, told the court the followers of this religion “pose a threat to the rights of the citizens, public order and public security". Judges ordered the closure of the group's Russian headquarters and 395 local chapters, as well as the seizure of its property. 

Social networks have been abuzz with an outcry from all over the world about this decision. Some say it poses a threat to freedom of religion, not just to Russians but all Christians worldwide. Some say it is sad that the Court chose to overlook evidence presented before it of falsified "evidence" by police to the premises of Jehovah's Witnesses. The Ministry of Justice  has failed to prove how are Jehovah's Witnesses a re a threat to society and where in their publications are they promoting extremism. Some feel that Lady Justice has failed the minority groups in Russia. Some say this may have some political influence, but time will tell.

Lawyers for the Jehovah's Witnesses said they would appeal the court's decision, which has not yet come into effect, and could take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The world is watching!

UNITED NATIONS RIGHTS EXPERTS URGE RUSSIA TO DROP JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES LAWSUIT WHICH THREATENS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

4 April 2017

GENEVA – Moves by the Russian Government to ban the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses using a lawsuit brought under anti-extremism legislation have been condemned as “extremely worrying” by three United Nations human rights experts*.

“This lawsuit is a threat not only to Jehovah’s Witnesses, but to individual freedom in general in the Russian Federation,” the experts said.

“The use of counter-extremism legislation in this way to confine freedom of opinion, including religious belief, expression and association to that which is state-approved is unlawful and dangerous, and signals a dark future for all religious freedom in Russia,” they stressed.

The condemnation follows a lawsuit lodged at the country’s Supreme Court on 15 March to declare the Jehovah’s Witnesses Administrative Centre ‘extremist’, to liquidate it, and to ban its activity.

A suspension order came into effect on that date, preventing the Administrative Centre and all its local religious centres from using state and municipal news media, and from organizing and conducting assemblies, rallies and other public events.

A full court hearing is scheduled for 5 April and if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the authorities, it will be the first such ruling by a court declaring a registered centralized religious organization to be ‘extremist’.

Concerns about the counter-extremism legislation have previously been raised in a communication by the three experts to the Russian authorities on 28 July 2016.

The Suspension Order imposed on 15 March is the latest in a series of judicial cases and orders, including a warning sent to the organization last year referring to the ‘inadmissibility of extremist activity’. This has already led to the dissolution of several local Jehovah’s Witness organizations, raids against their premises and literature being confiscated.

“We urge the authorities to drop the lawsuit in compliance with their obligations under international human rights law, and to revise the counter-extremism legislation and its implementation to avoid fundamental human rights abuses,” the UN experts concluded.


(*) The experts: Mr. David Kaye (USA), Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Maina Kiai (Kenya), Special Rapporteur on freedoms of peaceful assembly and of association, and Mr. Ahmed Shaheed (the Maldives), Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. 

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.