Justice Minister Aivars Aksenoks will support a proposal to
abolish a clause in Latvia's religion law that bans the registration of more
than one association of any one denomination, his official spokesman told Forum
18 News Service from the capital Riga on 26 May. "The minister of justice
says the law will be changed." Ringolds Balodis, the head of the Justice
Ministry's Religious Affairs Board, told Forum 18 that he intends to send his
proposal to the minister by 10 June. "I absolutely agree that allowing
only one church for any one confession is against the principles of religious
freedom and the separation of church and state," Balodis declared from
Riga on 22 May. Ina Druviete, chair of the human rights committee of the Saeima
(parliament) which if the justice ministry approves it - will spearhead the
amendment in parliament, agreed it was time for this clause to be abolished.
"I hope there will soon be a positive resolution of this issue," she
told Forum 18 from Riga on 22 May.
Article 7, part 3 of the 1995 religion law declares: "Congregations of the
same denomination may establish only one religious association (Church) in the
country." The two Churches that have been spearheading the campaign
against this clause are the Confessional Lutheran Church and the Autonomous
True Orthodox Church in Latvia, which are both considering legal challenges to
what they agree is a "discriminatory" provision which has prevented
their registration as religious associations (see F18News 30 April 2003).
Balodis cited opposition to abolishing this article from political parties
close to the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church and from the Russian Orthodox
Church in Latvia.
Druviete whose attention to the issue was sparked by Forum 18's article
said she had met Balodis in early May to discuss the issue. She said she hoped
the justice ministry would soon send the amendment which she said would be
confined to abolishing Article 7 part 3 of the law to her committee.
"The committee will discuss it, then it will have to go through three
readings in parliament," she told Forum 18. "I can't predict the result."
She said it was unlikely parliament would handle the issue before the summer
recess begins on 21 June, but hoped parliament would have adopted the amendment
this year.
"I have a tendency to support the abolition of the clause, but I am only
one vote out of nine on the committee and one vote out of 100 in
parliament," she added.
Without registration as a religious association, religious communities find it
difficult to own property, face public suspicion, do not enjoy tax-exempt
status and cannot set up training establishments in the name of the religious
community. The Autocephalous Orthodox Church which has 14 parishes - has been
denied not only registration as an association, but all forms of registration.
However, the Confessional Lutheran Church which has 11 congregations - has
been able to register as a "new religious movement", a lesser status
requiring registration to be renewed every year for the first ten years.
Gundars Bakulis, head of the Confessional Lutheran Church, welcomed moves to
abolish the clause. "I think it is a result of your inquiry," he told
Forum 18 from Riga on 21 May, "and also that they learned that we are
preparing the documents to bring our case to Latvia's Constitutional Court and
eventually to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if we are turned
down in Latvia."
However, he complained that even if this clause were abolished "we still
could not register [as an association] since the 10 year registration
limitation does not allow us to". With their tenth congregation gaining
lower level registration last year, they would only now be able to begin the
ten-year process which would culminate in registering an association.
Bakulis complained that his Church was discriminated against compared with
"traditional" denominations. "Our rights are limited in the area
of owning or purchasing a church property, establishing a seminary or tax
exemptions," he told Forum 18. "Legally we cannot even put a sign at
our church doors indicating that this is a Confessional Lutheran church. We
cannot defend the interests of our church in the courts." Nor can the
church conduct marriages recognised by civil law.
John Warwick Montgomery, a British-based lawyer who won a challenge at the
European Court of Human Rights to the denial of registration by the Moldovan
authorities of the Bessarabian Orthodox Church, said any such restrictions are
counter to the European convention on human rights. "The European Court of
Human Rights, in my unanimously successful Bessarabian Church case, settled
that registration must NOT be employed in a discriminatory manner to restrict
the civil rights of a church body," he told Forum 18 on 23 May. "All
churches must be able to own property and go to court in their own corporate
names. If Church A can legally establish a seminary, so can Church B!"
Opposition to abolishing this clause of the religion law is set to come from
the Latvian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate, which bitterly
opposes the rival Autonomous True Orthodox Church. "This amendment could
lead to discord within the Church," the secretary of the synod, Fr
Aleksandr, warned Forum 18 from Riga on 23 May. "Of course we would
protest." However, he said that any campaign his Church conducts would be
restrained. "We've already given our view that this change wouldn't be
good. But we don't pressure the state. The church and the state are
separate."
Archbishop Janis Vanags, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, was more
measured. "The Lutheran outlook hardly supports the point of view that
there can exist only one association of any one denomination," he told
Forum 18 on 26 May. "This is the real world. We have to accept it."
He said he "personally" had no objection to the registration of the
Confessional Lutheran Church, but expressed concern that the similarity of
names with his Church might cause "confusion". He argued that the
amended law should prevent such "deception".