RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND RELIGIOUS GROUPS

Early day motion 385, tabled 3 March 1999 by David Atkinson (Conservative). Signed by 18 members.

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.

Signatures by party: Labour 6, Liberal Democrat 6, Conservative 3, UUP 3.