US commission slams amendments limiting religious freedom in Belarus
The ruined building of the New Life Protestant Church in Minsk
January 7, Pozirk. Freedom of religion in Belarus is shrinking, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said, after Alaksandar Łukašenka signed amendments to the religion law on January 3.
The amendments retain “the most regressive provisions of the country’s 2002 religion law” and impose “more undue restrictions on religious communities,” the USCIRF said.
“Instead of repealing its highly restrictive religion law enacted over two decades ago, which did not meet international human rights standards, Belarusian officials have doubled down and implemented a more repressive religion law that grants the government unbridled control over religious communities and their affairs,” said USCIRF Chair Abraham Cooper.
He added that “religious communities will face the daunting choice of practicing their religion or belief ‘illegally’ or submitting to a brutal regime that uses indiscriminate force and intimidation against its own people.”
The commission said that since the 2020 protests, “authorities have sought to eliminate independent civil society and subjugate all aspects of social life to state control and surveillance.” The amended legislation “imposes strict, burdensome requirements on religious communities and includes vague prohibitions that will likely curtail the peaceful expression of religious beliefs.”
“The law requires religious communities to reregister within a year, which is expected to result in the deregistration of dozens of small religious communities, as occurred after the enactment of the country’s 2002 religion law,” the USCIRF noted.
Its vice chairman, Frederick A. Davie, urged President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress to “prioritize religious freedom as part of US government efforts to hold Belarus accountable for its gross human rights violations.”
The USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan advisory body established by the United States Congress. It monitors religious freedom around the world and develops foreign policy recommendations for lawmakers, the secretary of state, and the president.
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