The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
11 November 2003
BELARUS: State subsidies for "traditional" Confessions?
A Belarusian religious affairs official has told Forum 18 News Service that Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Islam, Judaism and Lutheranism are "clearly defined as traditional religions" by the republic's new law on religion and so receive state support. However, the law does not call these confessions "traditional," but describes the Orthodox Church as "playing the defining role in the state traditions of the Belarusian people." The official also said that a religious organisation given access to a school "will be Orthodox, Catholic or Lutheran and not New Apostolic, Krishnaite or Baha'i." Catholic representatives, however, have criticised the new law as it contains no provision for religious education in state schools. While the Belarusian Orthodox Church's access to state institutions appears to vary from region to region, it does receive state financial aid, unlike other confessions. A Belarusian Orthodox spokesman im[plied that this was justified since Protestants build churches "with western money." Forum 18 found little evidence of significant contact between western churches and Belarusian Protestants, however.
16 May 2003
POLAND: Secret instructions order religious surveillance
A month after secret instructions to collect information about religious minorities issued by a police officer in Gdansk were revealed, Baptists, Adventists, Pentecostals and others named in the instructions remain unconvinced by police claims that they have nothing to fear. "These instructions are absolutely unacceptable, like something from the communist part of our history," Baptist Union president Andrzej Seweryn told Forum 18 News Service. "They are against the law and the constitution." The Adventists have called for the instructions to be withdrawn. However, Marta Frykowska of the Gdansk police press office dismissed such concerns. "There has been a misunderstanding," she told Forum 18. "These instructions are geared only towards illegal sects." Yet she refused to pass on to Forum 18 the texts of the "internal" instructions.