FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
The right to believe, to worship and witness
The right to change one’s belief or religion
The right to join together and express one’s belief
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Friday 7 October 2005
ROMANIA: TOO MUCH POWER FOR THE STATE AND RECOGNIZED COMMUNITIES?
Romanian religious minorities have told Forum 18 News Service of their
concerns about the undefined powers given to the state by the draft
religion law, due to passed by the end of 2005, and the privileges the law
gives the highest status religious communities. Amongst areas of concern
Forum 18 has been told of are legal protection being given only to members
of 18 state-recognized “religious denominations,” and the undefined powers
the state is given to decide which communities will be so classified in
future. Some have suggested to Forum 18 that the law breaks the Romanian
Constitution, and concerns have also been expressed about the lack of
legal personality of unrecognized groups, preventing them from buying
property, building churches or having paid staff or ministers.
ROMANIA: TOO MUCH POWER FOR THE STATE AND RECOGNIZED COMMUNITIES?
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Romania’s draft religion law, discussion of which in parliamentary
committees is set to resume next week, is intended to become law by the
end of 2005. As well as being concerned about the law’s three-tier system
of state recognition (see F18News 6 October 2005
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have told Forum 18 News Service of their concerns about the undefined
powers which the law gives the state and the privileges the law gives the
highest status religious communities.
Under the new law, all 18 faiths recognised by the government as
“religious denominations” will receive the highest level of status. They
are: the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox diocese, the Roman
Catholic Church, the Greek Catholic Church, the Old Rite Christian
(Orthodox) Church, the Reformed (Protestant) Church, the Christian
Evangelical Church, the Romanian Evangelical Church, the Evangelical
Augustinian Church, the Lutheran Evangelical Church-Synod Presbyterian,
the Unitarian Church, the Baptist Church, the Pentecostal Church, the
Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, Judaism,
Islam, and Jehovah’s Witnesses (whose status as a denomination was
confirmed after long legal battles in May 2003).
Under the draft law, only “recognised religious denominations” or “cults”
have the right to provide religious education in public schools, establish
their own religious schools, or receive financial support from the state.
Article 13 paragraph 3 of the draft Article 13 paragraph 3 prescribes
punishment only for those who obstruct the religious practice of members
of the recognised denominations. Unrecognised communities enjoy no such
protection.
In a bizarre proposal, only religious denominations and the lesser
category of religious associations will be allowed to call themselves
“church”. “In our culture it is important to have the title ‘church’,”
pastor Lucian Chis, head of the Federation of Autonomous Christian
Churches, told Forum 18 from Timisoara. “If you don’t, you’re treated not
as a church but as a ‘sect’. This is a problem, as lots of churches don’t
have 300 members.” But Agafatei of the State Secretariat insists any group
can call itself a church, although not in law without legal status.
The River of Revival Pentecostal church thinks that dividing religious
communities up in this way “does not respect the Romanian Constitution,
which guarantees absolute equality between people, regardless of
religion.”
The state has great but undefined powers in deciding which religious
communities should gain this status. Article 5 states that religious
associations can only gain the status of denomination if they guarantee
“durability and stability.” The Jehovah’s Witnesses are concerned that
such undefined criteria are open to the “whimsical excesses of the state”
and could lead to “discriminatory interpretation.” Baptists are among the
religious communities which oppose the time limit of 12 years before a
community can start to apply for recognition.
River of Revival Pentecostal church also notes that the new law would not
allow religious communities with fewer than 300 members to gain legal
status. Such newly-founded communities, it complained to Forum 18 News
Service, “cannot promote their identity, having no right to purchase
property, to build churches or to have paid staff or ministers”. The
church added that the registration system with different categories of
religious communities with differing rights “may lead to discrimination
and persecution”.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses agree with this, stating that “it is
unconstitutional that citizens who share a certain religious creed and
wish to manifest their religious freedom collectively should be obligated
to go through an intermediary stage of ‘religious association’, which
provides few rights and then become a ‘religious denomination’ after a
certain period of time,” they told Forum 18.
The River of Revival church has further concerns about the procedure for
approval to become a religious association. “In the court the government
is represented by a prosecutor and an inspector from the State Secretariat
of the Romanian government. We do not consider this to be appropriate.”
Mihai Agafatei of the State Secretariat for Religious Denominations says
that under the law on juridical entities, which also covers religious
associations, prosecutors attend all such court sessions, so religious
associations are being treated no differently.
The church is asking for a number of changes, including the right for as
few as 21 people to begin a religious association and use the name
“church” with their group. Such an association, the church stated, should
be allowed to have the same rights and freedoms as any religious
community.
Agafatei of the State Secretariat defended the three-tier registration
system, claiming that the 18 recognised religious denominations themselves
want this and that the European experts and the Council of Europe Venice
Commission also recommended this. Asked by Forum 18 on 7 October why
religious communities which already have the top-level legal status should
be allowed to set such a high threshold that other religious communities
will be unable to meet he had no answer. (Religious denominations also
have to be consulted over any future changes to the religion law.)
Some faiths, including the Baha’is, Reform Adventists and Old Believers,
have failed to gain state recognition in recent years. “We have 7,000
members, more than four or five of the denominations currently
recognised,” Wargha Enayati of the Baha’i community told Forum 18 from
Bucharest on 6 October. “We’ve been here in Romania since 1926, but it’s
impossible – under the old law and the new – for us to be recognised as a
religious denomination. This is not fair.” He believes that if a
distinction is made between religious communities on the basis of size, it
should be set at the lowest membership level among current recognised
denominations. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the lowest, with only
about 700 members.
In a lengthy analysis signed by its president, Pastor Paul Negrut, the
Baptist Union complained that nowhere in the draft is the separation of
the state and religious communities explicitly mentioned, a concern shared
by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Agafatei of the State Secretariat told Forum 18
such a declaration was unnecessary, as the country’s Constitution already
specifies that religious communities are autonomous.
Although the Baptist Union welcomed the earlier removal from the draft
that the recognised religious denominations were “public property”, it
regretted that no recognition was inserted that they are “private
property”. The Baptist Union fears this lack could lead to eventual
government attempts to influence religious communities. “The eventual use
of such power and influence cannot be accepted by the church since it is
contrary to its purpose and its calling,” it declared.
The Baptist Union also complains that the draft law continues the practice
of state payment of the wages for religious personnel and the upkeep of
places of worship, something the Baptists believe “consolidates government
control over the denominations”. The Baptists have not accepted such
financial support although they are currently a recognised denomination.
“We believe that the financial support of each denomination ought to come
from individuals as well as commercial entities that can decide to support
the denomination of their own choosing by receiving from the government a
tax deduction in the amount of their donation,” it proposes, pointing out
that no donations to non-profit entities are currently tax-deductible.
Agafatei of the State Secretariat defended this as a Romanian “tradition”.
“The state doesn’t oblige religious communities to take the money it
offers,” he told Forum 18.
Religious education in schools is another controversial area. The Baptist
Union is worried about Article 39 paragraph 4 of the draft, which appears
to require schools set up by religious denominations for their own
communities to offer religious education to pupils of another faith who
voluntarily choose to attend the school. Another concern was expressed by
the Enayati of the Baha’is, who told Forum 18 that without religious
denomination status the Baha’is, who he says do not engage in proselytism,
cannot even be invited into schools during comparative religion classes to
explain what they believe.
Cemeteries are also controversial in a country where the dominant Orthodox
Church often allows burials in their cemeteries only under Orthodox rites.
Many minorities and human rights activists welcome the requirement in
Article 29 paragraph 2 that local authorities provide secular graveyards
for all citizens, but fear that without an enforcement mechanism local
officials may never provide such facilities.
The Baptists are also worried that religious freedom can be restricted on
“national security,” grounds, replacing the “public safety” grounds
specified in Article 8 (2) of the European Convention on Human Rights
(ECHR). Article 5 paragraph 3 and Article 49 paragraph 3 of the religion
law replaces the ECHR phrase “public safety” with “national security”.
“Keeping in mind the different understanding of the two phrases – the two
of them never to be interchangeably used – and in light of past practices
where a truly totalitarian state under the pretext of ‘national security’
persecuted Christians from our denominations for having fellowship with
believers in other nations, we believe the texts of the two articles must
be modified to respect the text of the European Convention on Human
Rights.”
Agafatei of the State Secretariat conceded that the use of the term
“national security” was a mistake and that this should be “public safety”.
He said this will be corrected.
Some remain concerned that the draft law does not spell out the role of
the State Secretariat for Religious Denominations, part of the Ministry of
Culture and Religion. Minorities already complain that the State
Secretariat is staffed by Orthodox believers who believe their role is to
defend the rights of their Church. “The current staff is anything but
professional or neutral,” one human rights activist who has been involved
in this area told Forum 18. “Without operational enforcement of the law’s
provisions and without professional staff, we will be stuck with the
Romanian dilemma: reform implemented by dinosaurs.”
“You have to look not only at what the law says, but how it will be
enacted in its social context,” Dorina Nastase of the Bucharest-based
think tank the Romanian Centre for Global Studies told Forum 18 on 6
October. “The consensus in the Bucharest elite is that Romania should
protect its identity by protecting the Romanian Orthodox Church.”
A printer-friendly map of Romania is available at
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(END)
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