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Prof. Dr. Heiner Bielefeldt
Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
Palais des Nations
CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Dear Mr. Rapporteur,
We write as an informal group of organizations and individuals who are scholars, religious leaders, human rights advocates and practitioners to express our deep concern about rising restrictions on religion in the Republic of Kazakhstan. According to the 2012 Annual Report of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “Conditions for religious freedom declined sharply in Kazakhstan during the reporting period.”

We urge you to visit Kazakhstan at the earliest possible opportunity, perform a review of the situation, identify existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief, and present recommendations on ways and means to overcome these obstacles.

Your visit would be consistent with recommendations that were made to Kazakhstan in 2010 as part of the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). In fact, Kazakhstan accepted the recommendation “To reach out to the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief to arrange a visit at the earliest possible opportunity (United States of America).”

At the same time, Kazakhstan rejected the recommendation “To abolish requirements for the registration of religious groups from the existing Administrative Code, in accordance with the laws adopted in 2005 on the elimination of extremism and the strengthening national security, and to review the provisions of the Law on Freedom of Religion and Religious Associations in order to effectively guarantee freedom of belief and a non-discriminatory legal system for the registration of religious entities (Mexico).”

Further, Kazakhstan rejected the recommendation “To consider the rules for the registration of religious groups, and to take steps to promote interfaith harmony, including with regard to those faiths considered to be non-traditional in the country, in order to adhere to the Constitution and to international norms (Norway).”

Finally, the subsequent rising restrictions on religion are the result of two new laws that were enacted without debate and signed by President Nazarbaev in October 2011 – a new Religion Law and an Administrative Code Law that amends nine other laws and legal provisions related to religious activity and religious associations.

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I thought of the old ILGWU fight song while recently meeting with the directors of the US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL division) in Washington DC to discuss how to counter the new Russian Extremism law which has targeted religions that don’t conform with the Russian Orthodox Church or standard Muslim teachings.  We were with representatives of the Baptists, Catholics, Falun Gang, the Scientologists, the atheists, Jehovah Witnesses, Hindus, and other human rights activists.  We’re all part of an International Religious Freedom Round Table (IRF) which informally works together to fight for religious freedom.  We support each other all around the world.

It made me think of the Union of Councils purpose, the UNION LABEL.  In the 70s and the 80s we represented the Refusenik movement in the USSR and did not ignore the human rights activists such as Scharansky and Sacharov who were abandoned by the Jewish establishment. We recognized that anti-Semitism, religious discrimination and xenophobia were interconnected with abuse of human rights and the absence of the rule of law.  This is what led us in the 1990s to form human rights organizations in the various parts of the former Soviet Union creating the Moscow Helsinki Group with Ludmilla Alexeeva and other such NGOs.  Today we consider ourselves the unofficial representative of 55+ NGOs in the FSU.

What was most notable of the meeting with DRL was that we were the only Jewish organization at the table. The lawyer for the Human Rights Law Foundation representing the Fulan Gang in their struggle in China and Russia said to  me that she was so proud that a Jewish organization was at the table. She remarked that all the human rights lawyers she runs into are Jewish. She thinks its part of our genetic nature to support these issues. I told her that it was the UNION LABEL.  We pride ourselves on recognizing the interconnection between all forms of discrimination and the abuse of human rights.

The DRL division is prepared to act on the abuses of the new Russian Extremism Law and will be engaged with their Russian counterparts to prevent future abuses.  Its good to know we have friends in the human rights community and at the State Department.  We at the UCSJ have taken on a mini-grant with the MHG to teach tolerance to college age youth in Russia with funding from the USAID and are hoping for even larger grants from the US government to push forward our fight against religious discrimination, xenophobia, and abuse of human rights and to further the Rule of law.

Larry Lerner,
UCSJ President