Tag: Religion Law

Tajikistan: Children barred from attending church, 5,000 Christian calendars burned

February 25, 2019 Tajikistan Baptists, Children, Education, Religion Law, Tajikistan

A church in Isfara, northern Tajikistan. (Photo: 2005, World Watch Monitor)

Tajik authorities implementing a new religion law are barring children from attending religious services and have burned thousands of calendars with Bible verses. Amendments to Tajikistan’s Religion Law came into force in January last year, giving the state greater control over religious education, and increase the amount of information religious organisations . . . Read More

Vietnamese government urged to cease persecution of religious minorities ahead of UN review

January 22, 2019 Human rights, Minorities, Nguyễn Trung Tôn, Nguyen Van Dai, Religion Law, Vietnam

Vietnamese human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, 48, was sentenced to 15 years in jail in April. (Photo: -/AFP/Getty Images)

Religious freedom advocates have called on the Vietnamese government to cease persecution of Christians and members of other religious minorities, including torture. Their calls come ahead of the UN Review of the country’s human rights records in Geneva today, 22 January. Non-governmental organisations said in their submission to the UN . . . Read More

Police in China given quotas for how many Christians to arrest

December 6, 2018 China Catholics, China, Churches, Hebei, Henan, Liaoning, Peter Shao Zhumin, Police, Religion Law, Shanxi, Xi Jinping, Zhejiang, Zhengzhou

Police stations in a city in northeast China are having their performance evaluated according to the number of Christians they arrest, says religious-liberty magazine Bitter Winter. A police officer from Dalian, a port city in Liaoning Province, near the North Korean border, told the magazine that his station had received . . . Read More

Ukraine: Churches forced to close after registration denied

October 26, 2018 Ukraine Catholics, Churches, Luhansk, Protestants, Religion Law, Ukraine

In the battle for Luhansk between Ukrainian forces and rebels in 2014, churches like this one in Pervomaisk, some 50 km west of Luhansk, were also attacked. (Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Dozens of churches in the rebel-held Luhansk region of Ukraine have had to stop meeting after their registration applications were turned down by the authorities of the self-declared republic, reports Oslo-based news agency Forum 18. The deadline for religious communities to register, set for 15 October by the Luhansk People’s . . . Read More

Having human rights in Kazakhstan depends on state permission – report

September 5, 2018 Kazakhstan Children, Human rights, Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, Proselytism, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Women

The Presidential Palace, the official work place of Kazakhstan's president, in the capital Astana. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Kazakhstan tries to make the “exercising of human rights conditional on state permission”, says the Oslo-based news service Forum 18. “[Kazakhstan] systematically violates intertwined fundamental rights – such as the freedoms of religion or belief, of expression and of assembly” when it has international obligations to respect and defend these, . . . Read More

Kazakhstan: 69 punished for practising faith in first half of 2018

July 5, 2018 Kazakhstan Baptists, Human rights, Jehovah's Witnesses, Kazakhstan, Kostanay, Missionaries, Pentecostals, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Sunni

Courts in Kazakhstan prosecuted at least 69 individuals, religious communities or organisations for religious activities in the first half of this year, according to Oslo-based news service Forum 18. Punishments included fines of up to four months’ average salary (US$1,400) and three-month bans on activities such as distributing religious literature or . . . Read More

Foreign Christian students targeted by Russia’s security services

July 3, 2018 Russia Missionaries, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Pentecostals, Proselytism, Protestants, Religion Law, Russia, Yarovaya Law

Foreign students of Pentecostal churches in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region have become a particular target for the authorities under the so-called “anti-missionary” law introduced two years ago, Forum 18 reports. The vague definition of “missionary activity” in the law, officially titled the Yarovaya Law after one of its authors, has meant that law . . . Read More

Uzbekistan: Five Baptists fined on non-specific charges

June 22, 2018 Uzbekistan Baptists, Karshi, Religion Law, Tashkent, Urgench, Uzbekistan

As the government does not allow religious meetings without state permission, Christians in Uzbekistan meet in secret. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Five members of a Baptist church in the southern Uzbek city of Karshi were detained and fined for meeting without state permission, without hearing the exact charges, reports Forum 18. Police also raided the homes of two Baptists, Khamid and Ziyatullo Rakhmonov (not related), on 23 May, and took them . . . Read More

Kazakhstan passes Religion Law that ‘undermines principles of human rights’

June 1, 2018 Kazakhstan Children, Human rights, Kazakhstan, Protestants, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Russian Orthodox Church

Kazakhstan's Parliament building in the capital Astana. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Kazakhstan’s Parliament has approved a set of wide-ranging amendments to the country’s Religion Law, refusing calls from civil society groups for a legal review by an independent body. The new set of restrictions, which are expected to further infringe upon religious freedom and have been criticised for violating international human . . . Read More

China: Pastor and 200 church members detained for commemorating earthquake

May 17, 2018 China Chengdu, China, Churches, Communism, House churches, Mao Zedong, Religion Law, Religious freedom, Sichuan, Sinicisation, Xi Jinping

People are sifting through the rubble to look for personal items after their homes were destroyed in an earthquake. (World Watch Monitor, 2008)

A church in Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern Sichuan province, was raided by police on Saturday (12 May) as it prepared to commemorate the 10th anniversary of an earthquake that killed almost 90,000 people and left millions homeless. Pastor Wang Yi of Early Rain Covenant Church was arrested alongside . . . Read More

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