Background information

In Belarus no statistics on quantity of believers in total and those who identify themselves with a certain religious tradition and church is available. The question of religious belonging is not included in census, religious organizations do not register their believers and there is no other mechanism of individual religious identity on the state level. The only official source of data on the issue is quantity of registered religious organizations. There are also sociological surveys results of which differ significantly depending on the used methodology. Usually state authorities used the following approximate data: from almost 10 billion people approx. 50% consider themselves as believers, among them approx. 80% indicate themselves as Orthodox, 15% as Roman Catholics, 2-3% as Protestants of different denominations (first of all Baptists and Evangelicals). It must be admitted that in the case of Orthodox and Roman Catholics self-identification is not with the Churches, but rather with tradition or national or cultural identity while Protestants are mainly having registration of church members in the community, so their data has statistical value. In case of Orthodox only 20 people per parish are registered (the minimal quantity needed for being registered as a community). If to take data of all registered communities the situation on 1st of January 2011 is the following:

total amount of religious organizations registered - 3321

amount of religious communities registered - 3162

among them

Belarusian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate - 1545 parishes (united in 11 dioceses), 1557 priests

Roman Catholic Church - 475 parishes (united in 4 dioceses), 418 priests

Christians of Evangelical faith (Pentecostals) - 505 communities

Evangelical Baptist Christians - 275 communities

Adventists - 72 communities

Lutheran Church - 27 communities

Old believers - 32 communities

Judaism - 52 communities

Muslims - 25 communities (24 of Sunnis, 1 of Shiite)

Full Gospel Churches (Charismatic), Reformed, Greek-Catholic - no data published; according to my calculation respectively more than 50; 5-10; 15-30.

There is also big regional difference in communities placement - in Western part of Belarus (that means territory which was under Poland till 1939) quantity of communities is almost twice as big as in the Eastern Belarus (territory which belonged to USSR, and where on 1st of September 1937 no official religious community operated).

Church-State relations

Belarus gained its independence in 1991 after collapse of Soviet Union. In the system of Soviet economy Belarus was industrial country depending on resources from Russia, which determined its huge dependence on Russian economy. In 1994 Constitution was adopted according to which new post of President was introduced. In the same year Aliaksandar Lukashenka was elected as a first President. In 1996 President in the circumstances of political crisis between him and a Parliament with referendum and support of Russia introduced new Constitution according to which all authority was concentrate in hands of President, Parliament was loosing many of its powers and in the same time part of the Parliament was dismissed. In 2004 Constitution was changed again to remove any limits on presidential turns of offices. Since 2000 no opposition is present in the Parliament. Local authorities are mainly appointed from executive power. Judicial system is also depending on executive power. Belarus is the only country in Europe which is not a member of the Council of Europe. After 19 of December after brutal reaction on peaceful protest against falsification of votes persecutions became more severe with imprisonment of several alternative candidates for presidency and more than 20 activists who were recognized as political prisoners and due to pressure of European institutions many of them were released.

In the preamble of the Law on religious freedom and activities of religious organizations adopted in 2002 5 religions are mentioned as having special influence of Belarusian nation and its history and culture. First place is given to Orthodox Church as having a key role in development of spiritual, cultural and state traditions of Belarusian nation, second - to Catholic Church as having spiritual, cultural and historical role on the territory of Belarus, and third - to Evangelical-Lutheran Church judaism and islam as inseparability from history of Belarusian people. According to the law state can conclude an agreement on cooperation with churches according to civil legislation.

Such agreement was made with Belarusian Orthodox Church in 2003, and smaller agreements were concluded with different ministries on different issue. The similar agreement in the form of concordat is worked upon with Vatican (Catholic Church), especially after 2008 when political liberalization process and dialogue with European Union started and Belarus was visited by state secretary of Vatican cardinal Bertone. After more the three years this process is still far from the end.

On the level of policy and decision making religious organizations as well as civil society are deprived from legislation process. There is no official mechanisms of influence in the framework of the mentioned above agreements. Decision making process has tough vertical style and is concentrated in the power center which is President and depending on him authority bodies. This authoritarian style requires special form of lobbying which are not based on support of civil society or on claims but rather on the requests to state authorities the effect of which depends on the will of the latter.

Economically Churches in Belarus are depending on external support from abroad (which is highly controlled by state giving authorization on receiving money, so often this support is going through illegal ways), from sponsorship of national business, from donations and payments of believers, from state itself, from semi-legal or illegal economical activities of religious organizations. Finances of religious organizations are not transparent which make them in huge extend under risk.

Legislation and religious freedom

Freedom of religion is regulated by the Law on Religious Freedom and Activities of Religious Organizations adopted in 2002 as well as other legislation regulating specific issues such as administrative and criminal liability. Included in this are statutes on foreign religious workers, the legal status of houses of worship and wider legal issues such as freedom of association, regulations concerning mass demonstrations and mass media, etc. This has created a legal regime which doesn’t permit the exercise of religious freedom fully and significantly restricts activities of religious organizations. The legislation therefore does not comply with international human rights standards which Belarus has undertaken to implement. Violations of religious freedom in Belarus have two aspects: violation of the concrete rights of a certain community, group, or person; and restriction of religious freedom by legislative acts mentioned.

The Law was introduced in 2002 with great support of Orthodox Church, partly of Catholic Church, and with high opposition of minor religious communities as well as civil society. During last decade more there were several campaigns during one of which 50 thousand signatures were collected to introduces amendments in the legislation.

The violation of freedom of religion in Belarus can be described as repressive legal regime in which not all of the violation os it are punished, but the legal regime creates a situation where almost anyone and any organization could be prosecuted as a law-breaker. Law enforcement and other state agencies and officials selectively and arbitrarily prosecute and harass some religious communities and believers. The aim of this selective discrimination is to encourage religious communities themselves to police their followers, and stop them protesting against a lack of democracy, and violations of freedom of religion or belief and other human rights. Religious believers and communities are pushed towards a ghetto, with no expectation that their faith has any impact on the society they live in.

The following restrictive norms can be mentioned to illustrate:

1.) The Law demands compulsory registration of religious organizations and groups.

Non-registered organizations – who do not therefore have legal status - are banned and completely illegal. All unregistered religious activity of any kind is illegal - including praying together, reading religious literature, the performance of ceremonies and so on. Registration has highly restrictive requirements: a minimum of twenty members of legal age, living in the same populated area, and possessing a legal address. Regulatory bodies also impose other obstacles. According to criminal law participation in non-registered organization (including religious) causes criminal liability of imprisonment (art. 193(1)). This article was already used in 2006 against four people of the organization “Partnership” whose main idea was to observe presidential elections on 2006 and several times applied for registration. All of the prosecuted were recognized as political prisoners and in the end released.

Nevertheless, there are many communities acting without registration, who perform religious meetings and rituals. If such communities are small and not publicly visible – or for arbitrary reasons decided upon by officials – these communities can for years operate without penalty. But as de jure their activities are illegal, they can at any moment face official actions and penalties. Baptist and Pentecostal churches are, among other Protestants, regularly targeted in this way. An example of the arbitrary nature of official actions was a KGB secret police raid in 2007 on a home meeting of the Transfiguration Fellowship in Homel. This is part of a network of fellowships operating in Russia and Belarus within the Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, whose adherents are normally left alone by officials. The uncertainty created by official arbitrariness causes anxiety and discomfort, and sometimes even fear, among those who may attend such meetings.

2.) Permitted registered religious activities are restricted to a specific location.

The only legal places for regular religious activities are registered houses of worship, which have a special legal status. If it is occasionally desired to conduct ceremonies and worship elsewhere, for example baptism in a lake, a state permit must first be obtained. Such permits are often issued selectively and arbitrarily. Even if a leader or member of a religious organisation owns private property, this can only be used for worship purposes if it is granted special status as a house of worship. The decision on granting this status is dependent on the often arbitrary decisions of state authorities. The most well-known example is the New Life Church in Minsk, in which a registered religious organisation has been repeatedly harassed by state authorities for using its own privately-owned building for its gatherings. The state has repeatedly refused to grant the building special status as a house of worship. Less well-known cases include cases where the leaders of communities are prosecuted for performing worship in private houses used by a community (eg. the “John the Baptist” Pentecostal Church in Minsk) or owned by a religious leader (eg. Pastor Georgi Vyazovsky of the Minsk-based Christ's Covenant Reformed Baptist Church). Nevertheless, many so-called “home groups” meet regularly in private homes, and only in quite rare cases do law enforcement bodies pay attention at them. But any unregistered meeting in a private home can at any time become a basis for a legal prosecution.

3.) Registered religious communities, and their leaders and members, can only carry out religious activities within their registered administrative-territorial location.

The activities of foreign religious workers are restricted to one parish only. Prosecutions have been launched against a Protestant pastor participating in a cycle tour mission outside his parish, and on Catholic priest Fr Antoni Koczko (a Polish citizen) for celebrating one Mass in Minsk city outside his Minsk Region parish. Once again the circumstances are created in which prosecutions become possible, although carried out only in some cases.

4.) Foreign religious workers and and other persons leading religious activities can only do this with permission from a state agency.

This includes activities such as preaching, leading prayer, blessing a wedding, conducting baptism, etc. Foreign religious workers also require a special visa, which can be cancelled at any time forcing the person to leave the country. Often this affects Catholic priests and nuns from Poland, as well as less frequently Protestant pastors and ministers.

Such foreign religious workers can only perform religious activities within the parish they are attached to, and they cannot lead any religious community. In addition, foreign religious workers must prove that they have a knowledge of Belarusian – even if the community they are working with mainly uses another language such as Polish.

Foreign religious workers not wanted by the authorities can be denied entry, as happened in the 2008 case of the Ukrainian founder of one of the largest charismatic churches in Minsk - Veniamin Bruk of the Full Gospel Church. Similarly, in 2007 Polish Pentecostal Jaroslaw Lukasik (whose wife and three children are Belarusian citizens) of Minsk's St John the Baptist Church was deported after the authorities claimed he was "illegally" involved in the church's Pentecost service which was raided by police. The official reason given in the state's notification of his deportation is "activity aimed at bringing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus in the sphere of inter-confessional relations".

The requirements for communities to invite foreign religious workers are very restrictive. Firstly, only centralized legal religious unions of communities can invite foreign religious workers, and the invitation must be confirmed by the local and national offices of the state agency for religious affairs – the Plenipotentiary for Religious and Ethnic Affairs. This takes much time and effort. Secondly, a plan of activities of such an invited religious worker can be required by state authorities before confirming the invitation, and they can require changes. Religious workers who do not fulfill these requirements – even from countries whose citizens do not need visas to enter Belarus – run the risk of fines and deportation from the country.

5.) Missionary activities, large public events, religious mass media and religious organizations for these and similar activities are regulated very strictly.

The Religion Law bans all forms of independent religious organizations that it does not specifically name. Organizations which are not named – and so must be founded and come under a centralized legal religious unions of communities or parishes – include nationwide religious youth groups or student movements. They cannot be founded or come under individual legally registered local parishes.

6.) Gaps and inconsistencies in legislation enable state authorities to arbitrarily interpret and apply laws.

Much attention is sometimes devoted to a few religious freedom causes célèbres in Belarus. But almost no attention is paid to routine, daily, violations of religious freedom, such as when a Bible school is fined because students consume home-made food, or when an organization cannot register itself for many years because of the procrastination of regulatory bodies. It is difficult to define what the motive is for such hostility. Sometime it appears that there is a targeting of certain persons, organizations and confessions – especially those willing to publicly witness to human rights violations. This impression is reinforced when one observes that those who are ready to state or imply – whether overtly or by ignoring realities – that Belarus respects human rights are not targeted by the state. Two images of religion in Belarus are created: serious violations of religious freedom from one angle and full inter-confessional peace and stability from another angle. Often this peace and stability is related to the personal attitude of certain officials.

The absence of clear and uniform legal mechanisms to protect the right to freedom of religion or belief is due to the selective use of repressive legislation. It is also important to note that freedom of religion or belief is inseparably linked with other human rights, and its implementation is not possible when there are restrictions on freedom of association, freedom of speech, of assembly, and other rights and freedoms. In an authoritarian regime, where the state-controlled part of society is excessively large and and the domain of autonomous civil society is too small, independent religious activity is also restricted.

The state attempts to control society to the maximum extent of its resources. Lacking unlimited resources, the state targets repression to encourage religious organizations themselves to self-censor and self-restrict the activities of their organizations and members. This results in religious organizations themselves policing the activities of communities and individuals to impose the limits imposed by the state.

In this way, the state attempts to co-opt religious communities themselves into complicity in both violation of the concrete rights of a certain community, group, or person; and also into defending – or at the very least not challenging - the state's restriction of religious freedom by legislative acts.

Officially Belarusian Orthodox Church supports the Law and those church activists and priests who criticize it are persecuted (as an example, in 2007 priest Alexander Shramko of Belarusian Orthodox Church was banned by ecclesial court for participating in common press-conference with Protestants criticizing the Law and calling for a campaign for changing it). Still there are many church activists who participated in the campaign as well as in civic initiatives for changing the legislation. Roman Catholic Church does not express criticism about the Law. During a June 2008 visit to Belarus, the Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State [i.e. foreign minister] Tarcisio Bertone gave the government the thanks of Pope Benedict XVI "for the religious liberty that Belarus enjoys," and praised the 2002 Religion Law as "a good law reflecting the necessary protection and respect for the rights of the five main confessions traditional to Belarus". The Cardinal made his comments despite almost annual expulsions of Catholic priests and nuns. Protestant Churches who experience the most severe violations under the Law are mainly expressing their criticism and launch freedom of religion campaigns. Though on the official level they also try not to express too much criticism.

Agenda

The main issues raised by Churches are the following:

Relations with State:

1.1. Orthodox are trying to get support from state in the issue of building new churches, support for ecclesiastic organizations and for churches which are historical monuments. In some cases, this support is given. From the other hand, Orthodox Church is interested in limitations of activities of non-traditional (that means also Protestant) religions.

1.2. Catholics trying to get authorization of building new churches and to get authorization for Catholic priests to operate in Belarus (in big extent Catholic priests and ministers are foreigners, first of all, Polish citizenship). One of the most important issue - concluding of concordat.

1.3. Protestant churches seek for authorization of building new churches, registration of new communities, issue of foreign clergy, missionaries and visitors is also very burning one. They consider state violating religious freedom.

Education at public schools:

2.1. Orthodox are trying to introduce Orthodox religion in public schools, in few schools it was possible on semi-legal level; after introduction of new Code on Education it was limited significantly. For example, cooperation of educational establishments can be done only in the framework of “upbringing”, not of education; it can be done only outside of regular hours; no religious items can be present in the class-rooms and so on. There were no official reaction but some Orthodox activists expressed they concern. Concerning schools Orthodox often speak against sexual education at schools.

2.2. Catholics support introduction of Christian ethics in school while are quite critical about sexual education.

2.3. Protestants also want to get access to schools, which is not realistic, so as minimum aim they want their children not to be forced to be enrolled for classes of Orthodox religion or sexual education, not to be called “sects” an “sectarians” by school manuals and to have access to home-schooling; after introduction of new Code on education in 2011 home-schooling possibilities were limited.

Sexuality, Demography and Family

Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Churches are highly concerned of level of divorces, pre-marital sexual relations, and demographical situation. It is always on agenda but no policy is proposed besides censorship on TV and Internet where sexuality is presented in very open way. From the side of Protestant churches, limitations on alcohol is seen as a way to change situation.

Abortion and reproductive technologies

According to official data level of abortions in Belarus becomes lower every year, still it is big issue of concern for Churches. New law on reproductive technologies is in the process of adoption in Belarus, and it was highly discussed among Churches, especially Orthodox and Catholic.

4.1. Orthodox Church through few NGOes trying to make campaigns against abortion, as well as introduce in limited area pre-abortion consultations. Also hierarchs of Orthodox Church raised awareness of so called “social” indications for abortions. What about reproductive technologies, especially in-vitro there were no official statements on, but some officials of Orthodox Church expressed their concern about contradiction of the new law with Christian ethics. Still, state didn’t take in the account any of the objections.

4.2. Catholic Church through NGOes and parishes make pro-life campaigns against abortions. On the Law on reproductive technologies there were several official statements of the Catholic Church on contradiction of in-vitro technologies with Christian understanding of life.

4.3. Protestant Churches sometimes organize campaigns against abortion. For the moment there were no comments on reproductive technologies.

AIDS

The main theme in social domain where all the churches are cooperating is prevention of AIDS, campaigning supported by WCC projects.