Russian Federation And Religious Groups

EDM number 385 in 1998-99, proposed by David Atkinson on 03/03/1999.

That this House notes with concern that Moscow prosecutors are attempting to ban Jehovah's Witnesses in the Russian capital, in a case which is the first real test of the law on religion passed by the State Duma and Federal Council and ratified by President Yeltsin in September 1997, that other religious groups also expect to be banned if they lose, that dozens of cases of harassment of religious groups by local police and authorities have taken place, and that last November the Moscow Helsinki Group reported that the conditions have been created for large scale persecution of non-Orthodox faiths in Russia; and urges the Government to raise this issue with the Government of the Russian Federation and at the next G-8 Summit and to press for this law, which contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights, Russia's commitments on accession to the Council of Europe and indeed its own constitution, to be annulled.

This motion has been signed by a total of 18 MPs.