Russian Orthodox Church
Article 3. Right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion
5. No one is obliged to report his attitude to religion and cannot be subjected to coercion when determining his attitude to religion, to profess or refuse to profess religion, to participate or not to participate in divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies, in the activities of religious associations, in teaching religion. It is prohibited to involve minors in religious associations, as well as to teach religion to minors against their will and without the consent of their parents or persons in their stead.
Article 4. State and religious associations
2. In accordance with the constitutional principle of separation of religious associations from the state, the state: ∙ ensures the secular nature of education in state and municipal educational institutions.
3. The state regulates the provision of tax and other benefits to religious organizations, provides financial, material and other assistance to religious organizations in the restoration, maintenance and protection of buildings and objects that are historical and cultural monuments, as well as in ensuring the teaching of general education disciplines in educational institutions created by religious organizations in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on education.
Article 5. Religious education
1. Everyone has the right to receive religious education of his choice, individually or together with others.
2. The upbringing and education of children is carried out by parents or persons replacing them, taking into account the child’s right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.
3. Religious organizations have the right, in accordance with their charters and the legislation of the Russian Federation, to create educational institutions.
4. At the request of parents or persons replacing them, with the consent of children studying in state and municipal educational institutions, the administration of these institutions, in agreement with the relevant local government body, provides a religious organization with the opportunity to teach children religion outside the framework of the educational program.
Article 19. Institutions of professional religious education
1. Religious organizations, in accordance with their charters, have the exclusive right to create institutions of professional religious education (spiritual educational institutions) for the training of ministers and religious personnel.
2. Institutions of professional religious education are subject to registration as religious organizations and receive a state license for the right to carry out educational activities.
3. Citizens studying in full-time departments of institutions of professional religious education that have a state license enjoy the right to a deferment from conscription for military service in accordance with the legislation on conscription and military service and other benefits provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
The essence of 125 Federal Law
Federal Law No. 125 “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” was adopted by the State Duma on September 19, 1997, and approved by the Federation Council 5 days later. The latest changes to Federal Law 125 were made on July 6, 2021. Also at this time, adjustments were made to the Federal Law on Notaries. Details here:
Summary of the Federal Law:
- Chapter 1 - lists the general provisions of Federal Law 125;
- Chapter 2 - reveals the concept of “religious associations” that exist on the territory of the Russian Federation;
- Chapter 3 - lists the rights and activities of organizations related to church activity;
- Chapter 4 describes the process of supervision and control over the implementation of the provisions of the Federal Law on freedom of religion, conscience and religious organizations.
Read Federal Law 115 on concession agreements here:
Signs and distinctive features of a religious organization
Despite the widespread opinions of authors of legal literature regarding the absence of the need to separate religious from public into a separate form, there are some features that distinguish them from other types of public associations, which ensures their consideration as a separate organizational form.
In particular, I.V. Eliseev (textbook “Civil Law” edited by A.P. Sergeev, volume 1, pages 173 and 174) believed that if at least one feature of the organizational specificity of an organization distinguishes it from others, then we should talk about a separate legal form. In other cases, the institution should be considered a variety of another within the same organizational form.
Religious people differ from social ones in many ways, in particular:
- on some aspects of organizational specificity;
- on the nuances of separating property;
- on some aspects of liability to creditors.
For example, part 5 of Article 21 of Federal Law No. 125 establishes the impossibility of foreclosure on the claims of creditors of property for religious purposes (the list is approved by the Government of the Russian Federation at the initiative of religious associations).
The Civil Code of the Russian Federation also regulates other distinctive features inherent specifically to religious organizations - for example, according to the procedure for using property owned by the state, individuals and associations organized by them.
In addition, 7-FZ regulates the special legal status of religious associations. Thus, part 4 of Article 6 of Federal Law No. 7 establishes that the specifics of the legal status, registration, reorganization and liquidation of religious associations are established by 125-FZ.
Also, 7-FZ excludes the possibility of applying to the organizations in question the general rules of this law regarding the above operations applicable to non-profit associations, as well as other aspects (requirements for the composition of founders, for constituent documentation, amendments to it, etc.).
This provision may have been introduced as an attempt to emphasize the special regime inherent in a religious association as a separate organizational and legal form.
Concept and features of religious organizations
Article 50 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation defines the types of non-profit associations, among which clause 10 establishes this type.
Part 1 of Article 123.26. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation regulates the conceptual apparatus and some features: religious organizations are associations:
- individuals or other persons;
- registered as non-profit unitary organizations;
- on a voluntary basis, their participants;
- persons with Russian citizenship;
- citizens who permanently reside in the Russian Federation;
- who have undergone the registration procedure for the implementation of the goals of collective worship and the spread of religion;
- registered as local (one institution) or centralized (union of several) institutions, as well as governing bodies;
- created in accordance with Federal Law 125 “On freedom of conscience and religious associations”.
Religious associations and their types
Order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia No. 19-01-159-94 establishes that a religious society is a local association of ten or more adults who adhere to the same religion. They may differ from each other in the ways of organization and management. The types of these associations are divided depending on religion: churches, denominations and others. Other communities:
- monastery (lavra, skete) - a community of monks living as a community and adhering to certain rules established by the church;
- brotherhood (sisterhood) - a community created (most often) for missionary purposes;
- mission - an association whose purpose is to disseminate any teaching, charity and other activities.
Associations also include religious educational institutions (seminaries, madrassas, academies and others). Their task is to train clergy.
Types of religious associations
Penalties for violation
There are two types of liability - administrative (Article 5.26 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) or criminal (Article 148). The following penalties may be applied:
- penalties;
- arrest for up to 90 days;
- correctional labor for up to 1 year;
- restriction of freedom (3-5 years).
These measures will be applied to persons who have committed an act of vandalism, insulted a believer, and for other offenses.
The principle of separation of church and state
Chief Rabbi of Russia Berel Lazar told TASS that the need for additional education and certification will not affect the ability of Russian rabbis to fulfill their duties. “Education in yeshivas (Jewish religious educational institutions - TASS note) both in Russia and in other countries is structured the same. Everyone is taught the same thing: our Jewish Law was codified over two thousand years ago, and has not changed since then,” he said.
According to him, there are now from 20 to 25 rabbis in Russia who received their education abroad, but only those who graduated from Russian yeshivas are sent to new communities. “They are periodically tested before a commission of more experienced rabbis. “I stand at the head of this commission as the chief rabbi of Russia,” he added. “We regularly test the rabbis we send to communities at the Chief Rabbinate in Moscow.”
The Chief Rabbi of Moscow, President of the Council of Rabbis of Europe (CRE) Pinchas Goldschmidt told TASS that in Moscow alone there are dozens of rabbis and religious leaders who arrived in Soviet times, many of whom occupy leading positions in communities. “Officials cannot conduct such activities - it is simply impossible, it also contradicts the principle of separation of church and state. This means that certification can only be carried out within the religious community itself,” he added.
Goldschmidt expressed hope that religious leaders would be invited to discuss this issue. “Russian authorities, in order to protect themselves from extremism, can certify foreign educational institutions where religious leaders living in the country studied, for example, checking whether graduates of these universities have been observed in any terrorist activities,” he said.
President of the Russian Jewish Congress (REC) Yuri Kanner believes that an officially registered community can independently select a rabbi. “From the point of view of Judaism, this is a rather redundant law, because today there are several yeshivas in Russia, people are trained here, today there are many rabbis who studied in Russia working all over the world. <…> In Judaism, the educational institution you graduated from is not so important as the name of the rabbi who blessed you to be a rabbi. <…> If, for example, Rabbi Lazar authorized and blessed someone to be a rabbi, it doesn’t matter where this person studied, I think that’s enough, and there’s no need to check him a second time,” Kanner said in a conversation with TASS.
Freedom of conscience and religion
Guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation (Article 28). But it is not allowed:
- extremist demonstrations - agitation promoting racial intransigence (Article 29);
- formation of associations with the aim of violating the integrity of the country (Article 13);
- any restrictions on the rights of citizens due to their nationality, race, or religion (Article 19).
Conscience
This term denotes the inner quality of a person, which manifests itself as morality, self-control, respect for decency and adherence to certain rules of life.
For believers, this is a manifestation of their beliefs. For atheists - the separation of ethical signs of good and evil.
Liberty
This is a certain state of a person in which he himself is the cause of his own actions. That is, his actions are not determined by the influence of extraneous factors: natural, social, interpersonal and others.
Important: the concept of “freedom” should not be confused with permissiveness, when a person does not want to take into account the harm of his actions to society and those around him.
The meaning of the concept in the Constitution of the Russian Federation
The Basic Law uses the concepts of “freedom of conscience” and “freedom of religion” as equivalent. The meaning of the term covers the right of a person and citizen to profess any faith, personally or together with other people, to adhere to atheistic views, to spread or change their spiritual beliefs.
Consideration of a religious organization as a type of public association
Until 2014, religious organizations had a common concept together with public ones and were considered exclusively as a subspecies of the latter.
The Concept for the Development of Civil Legislation (clause 7.1.3.) states that public institutions of various forms, including religious ones, take part in legal relations:
- as legal entities;
- to implement the tasks of financing ongoing activities;
- Moreover, the activity is not the subject of civil regulation.
Based on this, public organizations are observed to acquire signs of strictly targeted legal capacity.
Public institutions, in fact, have a single legal form, regardless of the characteristics of the activities carried out, which go beyond the scope of civil law.
The requirement to consider religious as a subtype of social was also touched upon in literary sources (textbook edited by E.A. Sukhanov “Russian Civil Law”, volume 1, pages 272, 273).
Legal basis for the activities of religious associations in the Russian Federation
Before the adoption of Federal Law No. 125 in 1997, the RSFSR Law “On Freedom of Religion” was in force in Russia. What has changed with the entry into force of the new version of the document:
- the procedure for creating organizations has changed;
- the circle of people who can become founders and participants of communities has narrowed;
- the right to create a local religious organization is now granted only to Russians; foreign citizens can only be participants.
Important: some Russian regions have their own laws on respecting the right to freedom of religion. However, they are all subject to federal law.
