Kazakhstan maintains public lists of individuals and organisations allegedly connected to "terrorism or extremism" list, and secret "high-risk" or "suspicious" organisation lists circulated to banks. Both lists lead to blocking and denial of bank accounts and numerous other problems. "We ve written more than 10 letters to various state agencies," Protestant Pastor Pyotr Shelepanov of New Life Church in Talgar told Forum 18. "But we ve had no real answer." His Church describes the denial of a bank account as "incomprehensible".
Freedom of religion and belief, with interlinked freedoms of expression, association, and assembly, remains severely restricted in Uzbekistan. Forum 18 s survey analysis documents violations including: jailing and torturing prisoners of conscience whose only crime is to exercise their freedom of religion and belief; banning education and worship meetings without state permission; complete state control of all expressions of Islam; and religious literature censorship and destruction.
9 April 2021
Felix Corley, Forum 18
Courts fined at least 17 people in 2021 for distributing religious literature, texts, videos, audio and items in places and ways the regime declares illegal under its compulsory religious censorship. Most fines were of three weeks average wages. People don t have the right to distribute religious materials in any form whatsoever, whether text, video or audio, insists Kayrulla Kushkaliyev of Atyrau s Religious Affairs Department – which brought six prosecutions. The UN Human Rights Committee found an import ban on ten Jehovah s Witness publications violated Polat Bekzhan s rights.
Courts have fined at least 17 people in the first three months of 2021 for distributing religious literature, texts, videos, audio and religious items in places and ways the regime declares to be illegal under its compulsory religious censorship. Only one of the individuals, Council of Churches Baptist Nikolai Novikov – who was offering religious literature for f
22 December 2020
Mushfig Bayram, Forum 18, and John Kinahan, Forum 18
Tajikistan restricts freedom of religion and belief, along with interlinked freedoms of expression, association and assembly. Forum 18 s survey analyses violations including: ban on and punishments for all exercise of freedom of religion or belief without state permission; severe limitations on numbers of mosques; jailing of Muslim, Jehovah s Witness and Protestant prisoners of conscience on alleged extremism charges; impunity for torture; jailing of conscientious objectors; and state censorship of religious materials.
Tajikistan has a record of violating freedom of religion or belief and related human rights such as the freedoms of expression and association. Serious violations documented by Forum 18 include but are not limited to: