Religious situation in Belarus worsening :: Charter'97 :: News

The civil initiative “For the Freedom of Worship” carried out a monitoring of the situation after the new law on religion has been passed. According to the results, the authors of the periodical “white book” came to the conclusion that the Belarusian authorities use religion in pursuing their political goals.

In activists’ view, after the new law on freedom of denomination was passed and the concordat on a special status of the Orthodox Church was signed, the situation for the representatives of other, the so-called non-traditional, confessions has considerably worsened.

“We evidence how the things approved during the tsar’s regime, more than 150 years ago, are being revived, when the state ideology was put into three words: Monarchy, Orthodoxy and Cathedrality. The last presupposed unanimity, which is being enforced now by strength.
The monopolization of the whole spiritual life of the country and state interference into people’s spiritual lives is happening. Today such politics in our country, which is multinational and multiconfessional, can lead to the destabilization of the society. And that worries us most of all,” said Yakau Basin, the editor of “the White Book”, which includes examples of violations.