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
12 March 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Parents face punishment for their children's religious education
On 21 February, a new law came into force introducing fines of over one month's average wages or up to 15 days in jail for parents who allow their children to receive "illegal" religious education before the age of 18. Existing laws target those who teach religion to under-18s, not parents. Many Muslims expressed concern about the law before it was adopted. An official at the regime-appointed Ombudsperson's Office refused to put Forum 18 through to her, adding: "unfortunately we cannot give any information since it is all confidential".
10 March 2025
UKRAINE: Conscientious objectors prosecuted, jailed as "disobedient" soldiers
Officials took Baptist Serhy Semchuk to prison in Lviv in January for his 5-year jail sentence. The Recruitment Office had told him he could serve in the military without weapons. However, later a criminal case was launched when he refused to take up weapons. "We're in such shock," a church member says. "He doesn't want to kill." Conscientious objectors to mobilisation who were not in the military also increasingly face prosecution on "disobedience" charges, including 6 Jehovah's Witnesses on trial. Many Protestant and Jehovah's Witness conscientious objectors are on trial for refusing mobilisation.
4 March 2025
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Religious freedom survey, March 2025
Freedom of religion or belief and interlinked human rights are seriously violated in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Forum 18's survey analysis documents among other violations: serious systemic freedom of religion or belief violations starting with the initial March 2014 invasion; pressuring, kidnapping, torturing, jailing, and murdering religious leaders; stopping meetings for worship, banning and closing religious communities; jailing prisoners of conscience for exercising freedom of religion or belief; banning religious texts and purging libraries; and "anti-missionary" prosecutions. Until Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory is ended, the freedom of religion or belief and other human rights violations seem set to continue.
26 February 2025
OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Orthodox priest illegally transferred to Russian labour camp
Fr Kostiantyn Maksimov – who served a Ukrainian Orthodox parish in Tokmak in Russian-occupied Ukraine – arrived on 11 February at a strict regime labour camp in Russia's Saratov Region. Occupation forces seized him in May 2023. In November 2024 a closed hearing in absentia in Moscow rejected his appeal against his 14-year sentence on "espionage" charges. The Russian-installed Crimean Ombudsperson's Office refused to explain why Russian authorities illegally transfer prisoners from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine – like Fr Kostiantyn and Jehovah's Witness prisoners of conscience - to prisons in Russia.
25 February 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Religious freedom survey, February 2025
Freedom of religion and belief and interlinked human rights are under increasing threat in Kyrgyzstan. Forum 18's survey analysis documents: a 2025 Religion Law which among many other violations continues to ban exercise of freedom of religion or belief without state permission and denies communities without 500 adults from being allowed to exist; arbitrary refusals to grant registration to communities seeking state permission to exist; jailing and fining critics of the regime's freedom of religion or belief violations; and failures to bring the perpetrators of violent attacks to justice.
21 February 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Prisoner of conscience facing extra third jail term?
A court jailed prisoner of conscience Fariduddin Abduvokhidov for 11 years in 2020 for discussing Islam with others, and another court added an extra 10 years in 2023. Now the 30-year-old is on trial for a third time accused of distributing "religious extremist" material and leading a "religious extremist" organisation while in prison. Judge Bahodir Alikulov of Navoi City Court refused to say why Abduvokhidov is being prosecuted for the same "crimes" now in prison. "I cannot share the details of the trial with you based on our Procedural Code," he insisted.
19 February 2025
UZBEKISTAN: Torturers' impunity "is mockery not justice"
Officials of Bukhara Region Prison No. 1 repeatedly tortured Muslim prisoner of conscience Tulkun Astanov. Prison officer Davr Sottiyev severely beat him and pledged to "give Astanov an injection which will soon kill him", a local Muslim told Forum 18. Despite complaints, the regime has taken no action against the suspect torturers. In January 2025 the Prison Governor called relatives with an implied threat of punishment if they lodge complaints. The Interior Ministry's Chief Directorate for the Enforcement of Punishments, General Prosecutor's Office, and Ombudsperson's Office refused to answer Forum 18's questions.
13 February 2025
TURKMENISTAN: Second conscientious objector sentenced to corrective labour
A second Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector is serving a corrective labour sentence, where the state takes a fifth of his wages. On 27 January, a Dashoguz Region court sentenced 20-year-old Agabek Rozbayew to 18 months' corrective labour. The indictment shows he informed the Military Conscription Office in September 2022 that he could not perform compulsory military service on grounds of conscience. More than 10 others appear to be under criminal investigation. An assistant to regime-appointed Ombudsperson Yazdursun Gurbannazarowa told Forum 18: "I have never heard of such kinds of problems." Muslim prisoner of conscience Myratdurdy Shamyradow is paralysed in prison hospital.
10 February 2025
RUSSIA: Multiple trials, convictions, for criticising invasion of Ukraine
Christian preacher Eduard Charov's trial for repeatedly allegedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces and state bodies is due soon. Buddhist Ilya Vasilyev is on trial for allegedly spreading "knowingly false information" about the Armed Forces "on grounds of hatred or enmity". Pastor Nikolay Romanyuk, tortured while arrested, is under investigation for preaching that "on the basis of Holy Scripture" Christians should not fight in Ukraine. On 27 January, Christian bard Andrey Buyanov received possibly the largest total fine yet for criticising from a religious perspective Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
5 February 2025
CRIMEA: Two more Jehovah's Witness prisoners of conscience jailed
On 14 January, a Russian-controlled court in the occupied Ukrainian city of Sevastopol jailed two Jehovah's Witnesses, 53-year-old Sergey Zhigalov and 55-year-old Viktor Kudinov, for six years each for organising the activities of a banned "extremist" organisation. They have appealed against the sentence. Eleven of the 13 jailed Crimean Jehovah's Witnesses have been illegally transferred to Russian prisons. Two other trials against 5 Jehovah's Witnesses are underway, including against 69-year-old Tamara Brattseva. It is illegal under international law for Russia to enforce its own laws in occupied Ukrainian territory.
28 January 2025
KYRGYZSTAN: Repressive new Religion Law in force from 1 February
In defiance of international human rights obligations, the new Religion Law signed by President Sadyr Japarov on 21 January bans religious communities that do not have 500 adult citizen members, and bans unregistered religious activity and places of worship and sharing faith in public. State censorship of all religious materials continues. A new Amending Law in the Area of Religion – which takes effect in early February – among other things sharply increases Violations Code fines for violating the Religion Law. "The new Law does not make anything better or easier for us to practice our faith, but makes it more difficult," a Protestant stated.
24 January 2025
RUSSIA: Getting Alternative Civilian Service "a hellishly difficult task"
Military officials deny many young men Alternative Civilian Service (ACS), rather than military service, despite their demonstrating their pacifist convictions. A Krasnoyarsk Region court fined Baptist conscientious objector Zakhar Asmalovsky three weeks' average wages in November 2024. He is appealing against the conviction. German Strelkov, another Baptist, is on his fourth round of legal proceedings to try to realise his right to conscientious objection. "After the war began, the situation changed dramatically, and now it has become very difficult to obtain ACS," Seventh-day Adventist Andrey Bondarenko told Forum 18.