EMC and religious associations call for reforms and abolition of State Agency for Religious Affair
By Natalia Kochiashvili
Tuesday, January 19
Amid clashes between Christians and Muslims in the Gurian village of Buknari, human rights activists and religious groups are calling for the abolition of the State Agency for Religious Affairs and the launch of fundamental reforms in the area of religious freedom.
"Religious harassment of the Georgian Muslim community in the village of Buknari is not the first and only case. There has been almost no effective legal response to almost any incident and no one has been held accountable for religious persecution and violence, including for the reported obvious cases of abuse (in villages Chela and Mokhe) of local Muslim peasants from the side of police,” said the January 18 statement signed by the Center for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (EMC), the Evangelical Baptist Church, the Georgian Muslim Union, and the Evangelical Muslim Supreme Division of Georgia Church, platform salute and platform of solidarity.
“Even though the agency's competence is to facilitate the resolution of religious disputes, the agency was not an actor in resolving the conflicts identified in the village of Buknar and their involvement in the mediation process was not visible, which should be explained by sharp criticism and distrust of the agency,” read the statement.
According to the statement, since the establishment of the Religion Agency in 2014, none of the important issues have been resolved. The statement lists the problems: Discriminatory entries in the rules for financing religious organizations, the Law on State Property, the Forest Code; Lack of law and policy on the return of property confiscated during the Soviet period, the problem of protection and preservation of historical heritage sites; Cases of obstruction in the construction of religious buildings, cases of religious indoctrination, proselytism and discrimination in public schools; Crimes motivated by religious intolerance.
The signatories state that the agency has a problematic mandate and vague competencies, which give it opportunities for arbitrariness and undemocratic work.
According to the statement, state agencies should study the systemic legal, political and social causes of the practice of religious persecution, harassment, conflict and alienation and respond to it with positive interventions and reforms at the legislative or social levels. Signatory organizations make three demands:
1. To change the existing approach of working with religious organizations and communities to establish unwavering adherence to the standards of equality, religious neutrality and religious freedom, instead of approaching security, control and hierarchies of religious groups. To end the practice of controlling and interfering in the autonomy of certain religious organizations;
2. Develop a coherent religious freedom policy reform plan based on the recommendations of local and international actors, as well as democratic consultations with the Ombudsman Council and the ombudsman;
3. Abolish the State Agency for Religious Affairs and work on new models of communication and policy coordination between religious and public organizations, based on a critical analysis of the negative experiences and democratic consultation with relevant actors.
