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
4 December 2017
TAJIKISTAN: Nine long jail terms – for what?
At least nine Muslim men – including an imam and a well-known heart surgeon - are known to have been jailed as prisoners of conscience since August in the northern Sugd Region in three separate cases. All received five years or more jail terms. Officials refused to explain what they had done wrong.
29 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Compulsory re-registration if restrictions become law
Amending Law imposing new restrictions on freedom of religion or belief is now with Prime Minister. If adopted, it will require re-registration of almost all religious communities, and impose new restrictions on and punishments for religious education, sharing beliefs, censorship of literature and (for state officials) participating in worship.
23 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Continuing attempts to stop communities meeting
Baptists in Ekibastuz have been fined and told that they "should not meet for worship until they register". Meetings for worship by Oskemen's New Life Church remain banned until 19 December after church members, relatives and friends sang religious songs without state permission. Officials would not explain why football fans don't need permission to publicly sing songs but religious believers do.
17 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: Six more arrests for sharing faith
Six Sunni Muslims arrested in Karaganda are under criminal investigation for alleged membership of a Muslim missionary movement. Three of them are in pre-trial detention. All known criminal cases against conscientious objectors have been dropped.
7 November 2017
RUSSIA: Muslim prisoner of conscience tortured
In Russia's prisons one Muslim prisoner of conscience has recently been tortured, and Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses have both been denied literature. Other Muslims and Jehovah's Witnesses continue to be on trial and face investigations for allegedly organising or participating in allegedly "extremist" organisations.
3 November 2017
KAZAKHSTAN: UN call for prisoner of conscience's release
A Baptist has been given a criminal conviction for refusal to pay a fine for – as the Constitution allows - handing out religious literature on the street. And the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has called for a prisoner of conscience's "immediate" release.
1 November 2017
TURKEY: What do parents and pupils think?
A group of NGOs have surveyed what Turkish parents and secondary school pupils think about the government's education policies in relation to freedom of religion and belief. Some welcome state actions, but others feel coerced into religious instruction and practices they disagree with.
27 October 2017
UZBEKISTAN: Book banning, censorship, illegal fines, reprisals
A Muslim hairdresser and one of his regular customers with his family is being intensively investigated by an Uzbek police Struggle with Extremism and Terrorism Department for sharing a Muslim book electronically. Several Protestants also have been fined – two illegally threatened - for keeping Christian material in their own homes.
26 October 2017
RUSSIA: Building, retaining places of worship obstructed
Problems caused by the authorities for non-state favoured communities attempting to build new places of worship can include demolition if a mining company wants the land, repeated refusal to legalise land claims, and the withdrawal of building permission while construction is underway.
20 October 2017
TAJIKISTAN: One more prisoner of conscience
Jehovah's Witness conscientious objector to military service Daniil Islamov has been jailed for six months. And the government has imposed highly intrusive Mourning Regulations ordering among other things: "Crying while grieving for the dead is allowed. But crying and wailing loudly .. is forbidden".
19 October 2017
UZBEKISTAN: Surveillance, raids, Bible destruction, jailing, torture
An Urgench Protestant Pastor under surveillance was followed to a neighbouring region, where a meeting was raided. A Bible was ordered to be destroyed, and one person was tortured. Police replied to complaints about torture: "We do not care, you can complain anywhere".
12 October 2017
UZBEKISTAN: Torture and impunity for torturers continues
Torture and impunity for torturers continues in Uzbekistan, directed against Muslims, Protestants, Jehovah's Witnesses and people of other faiths. Women are targeted for assault, and in another torture case police told a Jehovah's Witness that complaining makes no difference as "we will remain unpunished".