April 4, 2017

USCIRF Condemns Actions That Would Eliminate the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Legal Existence in Russia

Washington, D.C. –  Russia’s Justice Ministry suspended the Jehovah’s Witnesses on March 24, alleging that its activities “violate Russia’s laws on combating extremism.”  The Russian authorities have used their extremism law to systematically harass the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a legally registered religious group in Russia with close to 200,000 adherents.  That law, which requires neither the use nor advocacy of violence for activity to be labeled extremist, was enacted after a sustained Russian campaign against this group began in early 2006. 

Thomas J. Reese, S.J., Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated, “The Russian government’s latest actions appear designed to eliminate the legal existence of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. If the Supreme Court rules in April that this group is ‘extremist’ it would mark the first time that Russia legally has banned a centrally-administered religious organization and would effectively criminalize all Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activity nationwide. USCIRF calls on the Russian government to stop its harassment of this peaceful religious group.”

The treatment of the Jehovah’s Witnesses reflects the Russian government’s tendency to view all independent religious activity as a threat to its control and the country’s political stability.  This approach dates back to the Soviet period and impacts other religious groups, including peaceful Christians and Muslims.  These groups are also being persecuted for their beliefs in the Russian-occupied areas of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

In March 2016, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office warned the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national headquarters that the organization could be banned and its activities shut down nationwide if further evidence of alleged “extremism” was found within a year. In January 2017, an appellate court rejected the Witnesses’ appeal of the warning, and in March 2017 the Ministry of Justice filed a formal request for the Russian Supreme Court to designate the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ headquarters as extremist.

USCIRF calls on the Russian government and judiciary to respect the freedom of religion or belief and halt their harassment of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and other religious groups. 

For more information, see USCIRF’s 2016 Annual Report chapter on Russia.  Click here to view the Russian version of the chapter.

To interview a Commissioner please contact [email protected] or John D. Lawrence, Director of Communications ([email protected]/+1-202-786-0611).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 15 marks the 6^th anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict. Since the conflict began, an estimated 400,000 people have been killed; about 4.9 million Syrian refugees have registered with the UN refugee agency, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; 6.6 million are internally displaced; and at least 13.5 million are in dire need of humanitarian assistance. Syria’s religious communities have been targeted by many entities, including the al-Assad regime and about 100-armed opposition groups and U.S.-designated terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  

“Once a religiously and ethnically diverse country, the actions of the al-Assad regime and ISIS have made Syria a hostile place for all groups,” said USCIRF Chair Thomas J. Reese, S.J. “The al-Assad regime persecutes and commits crimes against humanity against Sunni Muslims and others, and ISIS carries out mass beheadings, rape, murder, and torture of civilians, including religious leaders and community members.”

The al-Assad regime continues to indiscriminately target and forcibly displace Sunni Muslims. In 2016 alone, the Syrian government forcibly displaced 125,000 Sunni Arab civilians from the Damascus suburbs, as well as another 250,000 from Eastern Aleppo. The Syrian government reportedly is repopulating these historically Sunni Arab population centers with Shi’a Muslims from Iraq and Lebanon and government sympathizers. In addition, the regime since 2011 has detained or killed prominent Christian civil rights activists, humanitarian workers, and religious leaders.  

ISIS makes little distinction between sects and ethnicities as it seizes and seeks to control territory from which almost all religious minority groups have been forced to flee. ISIS has attacked, destroyed, and desecrated churches and non-Sunni mosques, including Sufi and Shi’a mosques. Since 2014, over 450 Christians have been kidnapped by the group, and 45 remain in captivity. In March 2016, the State Department proclaimed that groups including Yazidis, Christians, and Shi’a Muslims in Syria (and Iraq) are victims of genocide by ISIS.

Along with recommending that Syria be designated a “country of particular concern” (CPC), USCIRF recommends that the U.S. government call for or support a referral by the UN Security Council to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate ISIS violations in Syria (as well as in Iraq) against religious and ethnic minorities, and continue to call for an ICC investigation into crimes the al-Assad regime has committed.

For more information, see USCIRF’s 2016 Annual Report chapter on Syria. (Click here to see the Kurdish translation of the Chapter. Click here to view the Arabic translation of the chapter). 

To interview a Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-3258.