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draft provides that the founders of religious organizations and unions must submit signatures
from 200 citizens in support of the establishment of a religious association in any given town or
settlement. For a central religious association to be established 800 signatures are required for a
Muslim association and 600 are required for a non-Muslim association. Other draft articles
include the condition that any religious organisation or union must have at least twenty founding
members (article 4); allowing religious education only for children who are older than 7 years old
(article 10); only allowing one mosque for villages that have a population of between 200 and
2000 people (article 14). There are concerns that the draft law could lead to limits on the rights of
religious communities.
Observations
287. The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response to the urgent appeal
sent on 1 March 2006 and for having extended an invitation to visit the country. Consequently,
she will address the question of the destruction of a synagogue in Dushanbe as well as the draft
law in her report that will be submitted subsequent to the visit that she will carry out to Tajikistan
in February/March 2007.
Thailand
Communication sent on 2 June 2006 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people
288. The Special Rapporteurs raised concern on information they had received concerning the
desecration of Hmong graves in Wat Tham Krabok. According to the allegations, monastery
officials from the Wat Tham Krabok Buddhist monastery, which was formerly used as a Hmong
refugee camp, have been exhuming Hmong graves. There are said to be about 2,000 Hmong
graves in the Monastery. According to monastery officials the reason for digging up the graves is
that they were contaminating the Monastery’s water supply. Relatives of the Hmong people
buried at Wat Tham Krabok were not given notice of the exhumations. The Hmong consider
graveyards to be sacred sites. The exhumations sometimes include dismemberment, separation of
parts of the corpses and cremation, which violates Hmong religious and cultural tradition.
Observations
289. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that she has not received a reply from the
Government concerning the above mentioned allegation. She would like to refer to her
framework for communications, more specifically to the international human rights norms and to
the mandate practice concerning “Freedom to worship” (see above para. 1, category I. 3. a) and
“Places of worship” (category I. 3. b).
290. As she noted in her 2005 report to the Commission on Human Rights (E/CN.4/2005/61,
paras. 49-51): “Moreover, the Special Rapporteur notes that in addition to places of worship,
different types of buildings or properties that have more than a material signification for the
religious community that is attached to it, such as cemeteries, monasteries or community
headquarters, have been targeted. Finally, while attacks on such places have usually been
committed by non-State actors, other forms of harm or restrictions were usually committed or
imposed by State authorities. Regarding, in particular, attacks on places of worship, the Special