E/CN.4/2004/63/Add.1 page 6 II. RELIGIOUS MAKE-UP 16. The great majority of the Georgian population (70 per cent) claims to belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Russian and Greek Orthodox churches in Georgia are subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Church. There are also a small number of Russian adherents, chiefly to two dissenting Orthodox schools, the Malakane and the Dukhobors, most of whom have left the country. Lastly, a dissenting movement formed the Orthodox Church in Georgia in 1997. 17. During the Soviet period, the number of operating churches and priests fell sharply and religious education was almost non-existent. Since independence, however, the number of churchgoers has risen steadily. Today, the Church numbers four theological seminaries, two academies, a number of schools, 27 dioceses, 700 priests, 250 monks and 150 nuns. 18. A number of other religions have long formed part of the Georgian religious landscape, among them the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Judaism and Islam. A large number of Armenians live in the Javakheti district. Islam is the main religion of the Azeris and the northern Caucasian ethnic communities living in the eastern part of the country. There is also a strong Islamic presence in Ajaria and Abkhazia. Muslims make up about 5 per cent of the population. There have been Jews in Georgia for 2,600 years: the main communities are in T’bilisi and Kuthaisi. There are no more than about 8,000 Jews since most of them fled the country in the early 1970s and the late 1980s. There is also a small number of Lutherans (around 1,000, they claim), descendants of Germans who settled in Georgia. Lastly, there has been a small community of Yezidi Kurds living in the country for some centuries. 19. More recently, and particularly since the end of the Soviet period, a number of reform or Protestant movements have appeared or become more prominent. These include Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Georgian and Russian Pentecostalists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New Apostolic Church, the Word of Life Church, the Assembly of God, Baha’is and adherents of Hare Krishna. III. THE LEGAL POSITION ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF 1. Constitutional 20. The Constitution of Georgia deals with the question of freedom of religion and belief in relatively general terms. Article 19 states that: 1. Every individual has the right to freedom of speech, thought, conscience, religion and belief. 2. The persecution of an individual for his thoughts, beliefs or religion is prohibited as is compulsion to express opinions about them. 3. These rights may not be restricted unless the exercise of these rights infringes upon the rights of other individuals.