Page 4 - Article 9 News Today

A new study has found underreporting under the EET, with more than one in five Article 9 funds underreporting their exposure to fossil fuels.

For the first known time since February 2020, courts in 2022 fined five individuals several weeks average wages for trying to import religious literature. Border guards seized the books at Shymkent Airport and at a border crossing from Uzbekistan. A Shymkent Airport border guard insisted that his service had not imposed the two literature seizures at the airport and subsequent fines. "We didnt confiscate any books, we just took them away and handed them on to the police to be examined,&quot...

A Greek Catholic website and a YouTube interview with a Catholic priest are the latest religious items banned by courts as "extremist" and added to the Information Ministrys "Republican List of Extremist Materials". Deputy Information Minister Igor Buzovsky, who is also Deputy Chair of the "Republican Expert Commission for the Evaluation of Symbols, Attributes, and Information Products for the presence (or absence) in them of signs of Extremism", defended such bans....

After his last Mass in Grodnos Holy Redeemer Church on 27 December, Polish citizen Fr Jozef Geza left Belarus after 25 years service. Religious affairs official Aleksandr Rumak rejected his bishop’s request to extend the permission which foreign citizens need to conduct religious work. Rumak "wont comment" on his decision, his colleague Andrei Aryayev said. Last July, Rumak refused the latest request for permission for Fr Klemens Werth. A Russian citizen, he can therefore serve o...

The characterization of Japan as a “pacifist” country is widespread — and very misleading.

The security environment around Japan has changed in the past few years, given the threats from China, Russia and North Korea, and Tokyo is left with few options in response. This hefty new outlay could be a preview of things to come.

Regulatory teams face another tough year in 2023 as further divergence between EU and UK regimes extend the list of rules that must be followed.

A Baku court fined Shola Jafarova two months average wage for holding mourning meetings in the Muslim holy month of Muharram and organising children to sing a mourning song uploaded to social media. A Goychay court similarly fined Samira Jafarova for a social media video with 15 children performing a lamentation for Imam Hussain (the third Imam of Shia Islam). She told her appeal hearing that "holding a religious ceremony is her right arising from the Constitution", but the court rejec...

Multiple prosecutions and fines of Muslims - who in different parts of Azerbaijan met for Islamic worship in homes without state permission - have followed raids by police and State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations officials. The Muslims were each fined the equivalent of about two months average wages for those in formal work. For people in rural areas, those without a formal job, or pensioners, such fines are a heavy financial burden.

Jehovahs Witness prisoner of conscience 71-year-old Shamil Khakimov has again been denied urgently needed medical treatment in a specialised hospital, after a closed court hearing in his prison. The repeated denial of medical treatment is against multiple statements by the UN Human Rights Committee. Elsewhere, the family and friends of Ismaili Muslim prisoner of conscience Muzaffar Davlatmirov are still being denied information on where he is in jail.