Religion & Law

Repressive Religion Law Signed By President of Nagorno-Karabakh

By Howard M. Friedman

Yesterday Forum 18 reported that on December 24, President Bako Sahakyan of the unrecognised Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the South Caucasus (between Armenia and Azerbaijan) signed a "repressive" new Religion Law. The statute, many of whose provisions were taken from Armenia's Religion Law, will go into effect ten days after its official publication later this month. Forum 18 says:

The main restrictions in Karabakh's new Law are: an apparent ban on unregistered religious activity; state censorship of religious literature; the requirement for 100 adult citizens to register a religious community; an undefined "monopoly" given to the Armenian Apostolic Church over preaching and spreading its faith while restricting other faiths to similarly undefined "rallying their own faithful"; and the vague formulation of restrictions....

Although the Law does not specifically ban unregistered religious activity, Article 25 requires all religious organisations to register or re-register within six months of the new Law coming into force.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on January 06, 2009 (boomark / email).