Third Decision of UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Regarding Russian Jehovah's Witnesses

[Isabella]

On May 6, 2020, the UN Human Rights Council Working Group on Arbitrary Detention prepared a decision concerning 18 believers in Russia. The Group considers the cases brought against them to be unlawful, urges authorities to immediately release those arrested, in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic, and to “take appropriate measures against those responsible for the violation of their rights.”

The authoritative UN body considered the complaint of eighteen Russian believers from Volgograd, Kemerovo, Smolensk, Penza, Perm and Novozybkov. Ten of them were arrested and detained in the pre-trial detention center: Andrey Magliv, Igor Yegozaryan, Ruslan Korolev, Vladimir Kulyasov, Valery Rogozin, Valery Shalev, Tatiana Shamsheva, Olga Silayeva, Alexander Solovyov and Denis Timoshin.

According to 15-page decision No. 10/2020, none of the cases examined had a basis for criminal prosecution and they should all be closed immediately. The cases were brought "only because [the accused] peacefully practised their religious beliefs, including carrying religious texts and the Bible, gathered together in worship services with fellow believers" (para. 67).

Paragraph 71 of the document states: "All 18 people ... were accused of various forms of 'extremist activity. However, in the Working Group's opinion, none of the activities described can be interpreted as such. Furthermore, no information has been submitted to the Working Group and the Working Group itself cannot establish any reasons that might justify restricting the rights of the 18 individuals concerned under article 18 of the [International] Covenant [on Civil and Political Rights]. The Working Group considers that all the activities in which they participated were a peaceful way of exercising the right to freedom of religion in accordance with article 18 of the Covenant. Such activities were the only basis for the detention and trial of all 18 individuals".

Paragraph 80 stresses that "the actions of the 18 named individuals were peaceful, and there is no evidence that any of them, or any of the Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia at all, have ever resorted to violence or called others to violence".

The decision repeats that there is a "systematic and institutionalized persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses" in Russia (clause 78). The same wording was used in the decision of 1 October 2019 concerning Vladimir Alushkin of Penza and in the decision of 3 May 2019 concerning Dmitry Mikhailov of Shuia (Ivanovo Region). Thus, this is the third opinion of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in relation to Russian Jehovah's Witnesses. In all cases the UN representatives rejected the connection of Jehovah's Witnesses with extremism.

The Working Group also calls for the release from detention of those detained in pretrial detention facilities, as there is a high risk of COVID-19 contamination with limited medical assistance (para. 84).

In paragraph 85, the Working Group calls for "a full and independent investigation into the circumstances of the arbitrary deprivation of liberty" of believers and "to take appropriate action against those responsible".

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is the body designed to investigate cases of detention that are not in conformity with the international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments. The Working Group is entitled to receive information from the authorities and non-governmental organizations and to meet with detainees and their families in order to establish the facts. The Working Group presents its findings and recommendations to Governments as well as to the United Nations Human Rights Council. Although the decisions of the Working Group are not binding on States, they may contribute to weakening the position of the authorities in a context of wide international publicity.

According to the legal position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as expressed in Decision No. 1276-O of 9 June 2015, the Russian Federation, as a State governed by the rule of law, cannot ignore, without avoiding the legal consequences, the decision of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention containing conclusions on the arbitrary detention and criminal prosecution of citizens.

https://jw-russia.org/news/2020/05/11.html

[Isabella]

Full list of 93 people currently on trial for exercising the right to freedom of religion and belief as Jehovah's Witnesses. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has adopted a wide-ranging Opinion condemning the "ever-growing number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia who have been arrested, detained and charged with criminal activity on the basis of mere exercise of freedom of religion".

Three years after the Supreme Court ordered the liquidation as "extremist" of all Jehovah's Witness associations in April 2017, 93 people are on trial on charges of "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation" for exercising the right to freedom of religion and belief. During the coronavirus pandemic fewer raids have been made on homes, but have not stopped.
 

Demonstrator protests against the jailing of Jehovah's Witness Dennis Christensen, St Petersburg, November 2019

Tatyana Voltskaya (RFE/RL)

On 1 May 2020, the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention adopted a wide-ranging Opinion condemning the raids, arrests, detention and trials of 18 Jehovah's Witnesses, stating it "wishes to emphasize that none of them should have been arrested and held in pre-trial detention and no trial of any of them should take or should have taken place" (see below and forthcoming F18News article).

The Working Group noted that the 18 "are part of now ever-growing number of Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia who have been arrested, detained and charged with criminal activity on the basis of mere exercise of freedom of religion, a right protected by article 18 of the Covenant" (see below and forthcoming F18News article).

Court proceedings can be lengthy, and property – such as cars or money – can be seized as surety for any subsequent fines. Employers have fired at least 18 people from their jobs under pressure from state agencies, while other Jehovah's Witnesses are pressured to resign "of their own free will" (see below).

Investigators have also had more than 200 Jehovah's Witnesses' bank accounts blocked, and Jehovah's Witnesses then often encounter problems registering for benefits, buying phone sim cards, and registering and insuring cars (see below).

At least 20 of the 93 people on trial are in their sixties, seventies or eighties. Three of the 93 are currently known to be in detention, despite the risk of coronavirus infection (see below).

Stress relating to the raids and prosecutions is said to have been a factor in the deaths of a 64-year-old and a 61-year-old Jehovah's Witness, both of whom faced trial (see below).

In another case, the FSB security service apparently forced the treatment being given to a Jehovah's Witness in an Ulyanovsk intensive care unit to be stopped (see below).

Jehovah's Witnesses and others in both pre-trial detention and in prisons also face the risk of being tortured. No officials accused in three cases of torture of individuals detained for exercising freedom of religion or belief appear to have been arrested or put on criminal trial, against Russia's legally binding international obligations (see below).

The Russian authorities have also stripped Russian citizenship from three individuals convicted of exercising freedom of religion and belief, one Muslim in 2019 and two Jehovah's Witnesses in 2020. None of the three appears to be a citizen of any other country (see forthcoming F18News article).

A full list is below of those facing criminal prosecution for "continuing the activities of a banned extremist organisation" following the 2017 Supreme Court ban on Jehovah's Witnesses whose cases have reached court for trial.
 

http://www.forum18.org/archive.php?article_id=2573

[Arauna]

Russia and China has growing influence in the UN. China has an important position in the human rights council and can appoint leaders to 15 agencies. Russia is running for a position...  Other positions are held by totalitarian countries with "sharia law" ......None of them have human rights in their countries.

This is the future of the world - where totalitarian friends vote each other onto UN organizations. (WHO) controvercies is a good example.

China gets along well with Arab totalitarian states. Their agreements usually have a clause.....something to this effecf: I do not say anything about your internal affairs and abuses and you say nothing about mine. We as a clan, we do not vote against each other.

This does not augur well for the future when worldly, august institutions (mountains in biblical symbols) have only superficial justice/righteousness. Integrity is a quality of the past.

These countries do as they please...... a law to themselves.... which seems to be a growing trend.