BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

26/11/2005

Will UN Decision Help Religious Communities?

BY GERALDINE FAGAN, FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE

BELARUS, Nov 26 (VNN) - Belarus has yet to meet a 12 November deadline, set by a UN committee, for confirming the correction of a religious freedom violation against Hare Krishna devotees, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. In a decision with implications for other religious communities (such as the New Life charismatic church), the UN Human Rights Committee found that Belarus had violated citizens' rights under the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights by refusing to register a nation-wide Hare Krishna association.

Two devotees, Sergei Malakhovsky and Aleksandr Pikul, complained to the Committee, which set a 90 day deadline from 23 August for correcting the violation. Aleksandr Kalinov, of the State Committee for Religious and Ethnic Affairs, initially claimed to Forum 18 that all Krishna communities had registration, but then, questioned about the nation-wide association, claimed it did not have the right to register. Sergei Malakhovsky told Forum 18 that Krishna devotees had taken the UN Committee's decision to the State Committee and other government departments, "but they just shrugged their shoulders and said nothing."

Belarus has not yet formally responded to a 12 November deadline, set by a UN committee, for confirming that the country has corrected a religious freedom violation against Hare Krishna devotees, Forum 18 News Service has learnt.

Source:

http://www.vnn.org/world/WD0511/WD26-8875.html