CCPR/C/130/D/2661/2015 Legal conditions are ensured in the State party for realizing, protecting and respecting the rights and freedoms of each person when manifesting religion or belief, including by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of attitude towards religion. 6.7 The State party, in strict conformity with its obligations under articles 18 (3), 19 (3) and 20 (2) of the Covenant, has enshrined in domestic legislation norms prohibiting the promotion of religious hatred and enmity, including under penalty of criminal prosecution. For example, according to the provisions of the Law on Counteracting Extremism, incitement to religious enmity or discord is a form of extremism (art. 1) and, under the Law on National Security, it constitutes one of the primary threats to national security (art. 6 (1) (8)). The Law on Counteracting Extremism prohibits the use on the territory of the State party of networks or communication tools to carry out extremism, as well as the importation, production, preparation and/or distribution of extremist materials (art. 12). The Criminal Code provides that natural persons may incur criminal accountability for violation of these legal norms (art. 174), while organizations involved may be declared extremist and banned by a court. In this regard, the religious expert examination prescribed in articles 6 and 9 (3) of the 2011 Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations has the objective of preventing the importation and dissemination of religious literature and other materials containing religious information that advocate religious hatred and enmity. A religious expert examination thus prevents any potential opportunity for importing and distributing materials that advocate hatred and enmity on religious grounds, including towards followers of the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves. 6.8 The measures that the State party applied in respect of the Jehovah’s Witnesses publications concerned were necessary, proportionate and minimally restrictive; their importation was simply not permitted. Additionally, although there were legal grounds to do so, the State party did not initiate proceedings in court to declare the Jehovah’s Witnesses publications to be extremist and to prohibit their distribution, including on the Internet or using other communication networks. Currently, followers of the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses on the territory of the State party can read and use these publications, which can be freely accessed on the Internet. 6.9 According to article 9 (3) of the 2011 Law, followers of the community of Jehovah’s Witnesses have the opportunity to import the publications for their personal use. Moreover, as it was proportionate, necessary and minimal, the refusal to allow the importation of these individual publications in no way hindered the followers of Jehovah’s Witnesses from manifesting their religion or from freely seeking, receiving and imparting information and ideas of all kinds. Therefore, the rights of believers enshrined in articles 18 and 19 of the Covenant were not violated; the refusal to permit the importation into the State party by the Christian Centre of Jehovah’s Witnesses religious association of copies of 10 publications is based on law and complies with article 20 (2) of the Covenant regarding the prohibition of advocacy of religious hatred and enmity. 6.10 As to the alleged violation of article 27 of the Covenant allegedly resulting from the refusal by the Agency for Religious Affairs to permit the importation of the publications in question, the State party maintains that the members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious association have never been denied their right to practise their religion together with other members of the group. The refusal to permit the importation of the 10 publications has been erroneously and groundlessly presented as a denial by the State of the realization of the right to profess a religion. It is not disputed by the authors that there are now over 17,000 followers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses religious association in the State party, they use their religious literature freely, their community has 55 houses of worship and they are united in 59 registered local religious associations and 1 regional religious association, which carry out their activities autonomously and independently. Therefore, in the State party, the rights of Jehovah’s Witnesses are being realized in conformity with the provisions of article 27 of the Covenant. 6.11 The State party considers the counsel’s assertion that the 2011 Law on Religious Activity and Religious Associations “contravenes the international human rights obligations of Kazakhstan” to be unacceptable, groundless and erroneous and that it exceeds his authority as a lawyer. The Law was adopted taking into account the opinion of representatives of the main religious communities in the State party, international legal documents and 7