E/CN.4/2006/5/Add.1
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the Bobruisk group, first having claimed that the legal address was not in
order, then the charter, and finally that the application was submitted too
late. The authorities also insisted that the Mogilev group seeking initial
registration must first pass an expert analysis and would not accept
confirmation from the Minsk Society that it belonged to the same religious
confession. The Bobruisk community could apply for registration as a new
religious organization. Since the applicants had described themselves as
"Vaishnavis" rather than Krishna devotees, the Mogilev group was
reportedly deemed to be liable for expert analysis, although the 2002
religion law stipulates that this is the case only for religious confessions
new to Belarus. These terms are allegedly synonymous.
-The authorities in Brest had returned re-registration applications to six
autonomous Bapt ist churches in the region. Moreover, the banks where two
of the six had accounts closed these accounts at the request of the
authorities. The six congregations had refused to accept a provision in the
2002 religion law stipulating that a religious organization may function only
within the borders of the territory upon which it is registered. This was
reportedly confirmed by Vasili Marchenko, the Brest regional religious
affairs official. Maintaining that a similar restriction exists for all legal
personalities in Belarus, Mr. Marchenko specified that the territory in
question constituted the limits of a town or city if that was where an
organization was registered or the several neighbouring small settlements or
villages where founding members live.
Response from the Government dated 18 July 2005
46.
The Government stressed that eight Full Gospel Christian communities have
been re-registered to date. The Government informed that it was decided not to reregister the Full Gospel New Life Church because it did not have a legal address. In
the application, the legal address was cited as a farm building. A Commission
inspected the building and found it to be in a poor state of repair. Furthermore, many
of the provisions of the religious community’s charter did not conform to current
legislation; for this reason two of the organizers of the religious meetings held at the
aforementioned address were fined under administrative law. With a view to
resolving the issue, the organizer of the New Life Church was invited on two
occasions to re-register the community using a new legal address. To date, the State
authorities are unaware that the religious community has taken any such decision.
47.
The Government informed that Full Gospel Word of Truth Church in
Dzerzhinsk is the only one of 11 Full Gospel churches that has not completed official
re-registration formalities. This is because it lacks a legal address. Article 17 of the
Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations Act provides that a religious
community must submit an application accompanied by a document confirming the
organization’s right to occupy the premises cited in the Charter. In this case the
application did not contain such a document and it also lacked required reports by
official bodies authorized to conduct public heath and town planning inspections.
Accordingly, the application could not be forwarded to the Minsk Provincial
Executive Committee for re -registration.