Religious associations in the Russian Federation briefly. Religious associations

The concept and role of religious associations in the system of civil society in the Russian Federation

The essence of the concept of "religious association" reveals the federal law Russian Federation"on freedom of conscience and religious associations" Paragraph 1 of Article 6 of this normative act reads: "Religious association the Russian Federation recognizes a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and having the following characteristics corresponding to this purpose:

religion;

performing divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies;

the teaching of religion and the religious upbringing of their followers."

The role of religious associations in the development of our state includes many aspects, such as organizing the spiritual development of the individual, supporting moral guidelines, as well as the education of love for the fatherland, religious tolerance and tolerance in relations among peoples, the education and formation of the worldview of young people.

Today in Russia there are many religious associations. Along with other confessions, Orthodoxy and Islam are traditionally considered the largest in terms of the number of followers, which, in other respects, does not prevent the rapid development of the activities of other religious associations (according to a selective survey conducted in 2001, believers 55% of respondents, non-believers - 33%, among believers the majority of Christians, Muslims - 5%, supporters of some other religions - 2%; the rest of the respondents find it difficult to answer). Such a variety of religious preferences in society is guaranteed by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states:

"Religious associations separated from the state and equal before the law.

Everyone is guaranteed freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or jointly with others any religion or not to profess any, to freely choose, have and disseminate religious and other beliefs and act in accordance with them.

concept "religious association" includes three features:

- religion

- performance of divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies

- teaching religion and religious education of their followers,

provided that:

- it does not contradict the laws of the Russian Federation

- members of the association reside in the territory of the Russian Federation legally.

The role of religious associations this moment time is very large. The activities of religious associations in the field of politics, culture, morality, etc., can be beneficial if a rational approach is used by government agencies and a reasonable dialogue on the part of representatives of religious associations, and harm in case of ignoring by the authorities of the problems associated with the relationship of religious organizations with the state and society, and radicalism in the views of the followers of religious associations.

Destructive religious associations

At present, one of the most urgent is the question of the criteria for dividing religious organizations into two directly opposite types: confessional formations socially acceptable to Russian society and the state, whose activities do not violate the laws of the Russian Federation; and socially unacceptable for the Russian society and the state confessional formations, whose activities grossly violate the laws of the Russian Federation. This second type of religious organizations is also called totalitarian religious sects.

Destructive religious association (destructive cult, totalitarian sect) is an authoritarian hierarchical organization of any orientation, destructive in relation to the natural harmonious spiritual, mental and physical state of the individual (internal destructiveness), as well as to creative traditions and norms, established social structures, culture, order and society as a whole (external destructiveness), practicing hidden psychological violence, expressed in the purposeful establishment by an individual (leader) or a group of individuals (leadership) for their narrowly selfish purposes of illegal control over the consciousness, behavior and life of other individuals without their voluntary and informed consent to form and maintain their state unnatural and illegal dependence and obedience to the doctrine and leaders, seeking through the uninformed use of adherents devoted to them and dependent on them for illegal enrichment and illegal power.

One of the main goals of the leaders of such religious organizations is to select among the mass of their supporters those who, on the orders of the leader, will take any action, up to a crime or sacrificing their own lives. In order to make a person fanatically devoted to the leader, methods of psychological influence are used, leading to control over consciousness. To this end, group pressure is directed to those involved in the sect in order to strengthen the “need for belonging”. The information provided to the recruit is given through meditation, monotonous singing and repeated actions, i.e. through a specially created state of high suggestibility. Those involved in a sect are obliged, under the pretext of creating intimacy, to confess their fears and secrets, which are then used for emotional pressure through explicit and veiled threats. The normal physical state of a person is disturbed, and the refusal of sleep is encouraged, supposedly for spiritual exercises and the necessary training. Inadequate nutrition is introduced, disguised as a special diet to improve health or rituals. The result is a sensory (feeling) overload that imposes a set of goals and definitions for a new doctrine to replace the old values through the assimilation of a mass of information in a short time, with a very limited ability critical check.

Leaders and members of totalitarian religious (as well as pseudo-religious) sects use the latest achievements in general and social psychology to attract new members to the sect and to keep them in this sect. Consistent use by leaders of sects of "powerful" psychological techniques in relation to newcomers to the sect for a long time (several months or years) leads to a significant change in the psyche of sect members and a change in their behavior. A member of a sect no longer imagines his existence without communication with other sectarians and leaders of the sect, who are often simply deified by him. Members of the sect sell their apartments and transfer all their savings and almost all property to the leaders of the sect. Members of the sect work for free, earning money for the leaders of the sect. Sectarians live in a poor and half-starved state, sleep very little and work a lot. Often the leaders of the sect choose their marriage partners for the members of the sect. At the same time, the leaders of the sect, as a rule, demand from the members of the sect a complete break in relations with those people who were relatives and friends for the sectarians before they joined the sect (that is, they demand a complete break with parents, relatives, spouses, friends, comrades). Only other members of the sect can be relatives and friends of a sectarian.

The leaders of the sect themselves, as a rule, live a completely different life than ordinary sectarians: the leaders of most totalitarian sects are millionaires or even multimillionaires and behave like rich or super-rich people.

The cult mind control practiced in destructive religious organizations does not so much erase the old personal identification as it creates a new one in order to suppress the old one. This leads to mental disorders in some sectarians, and, ultimately, to a high probability of aggressive actions on their part in a state of mental insanity. A person forms a clear line between those who have the right to exist (supporters of the sect), and those who do not have such a right (“ external world"). This leads to the systematic spread of hatred towards non-cult society. And it potentially determines the willingness of the adherents of the sect to sacrifice any number of non-adepts in order to achieve the goals of their cult. In other words, a priori, sin is removed for any crime in the name of the goals of the organization. Such destruction of the complex of guilt for the committed crime and the justification of any one's (or other members of the sect) actions can lead a person to a conflict-free acceptance of suicide. In some sects, psychotropic and narcotic substances are used to deliberately violate the identity of the individual and break the extra-cult ties of the adept.

The emergence of sects is always associated with chaos in the souls of people and the collapse of stability in the country. And as soon as one scandal associated with some sect subsides, a new one comes to replace it.

The goal of some sects is also to change the consciousness of the Russian people, the destruction of the Orthodox self-consciousness of the citizens of Russia. The destruction of everything Russian, Orthodox, Slavic is in full swing. To be more precise, our state is being dismembered and the law of the masses is being violated when the people cannot be monolithic and highly organized. Sects destroy the soul, the culture of the people, the Orthodox Church and the unity of the Heavenly Church, the Orthodox, home (family) church.

Today in Russia there are from 300 to 500 different sects. The number of people involved in destructive and occult religious organizations reaches 1 million people, and 70% of them are young people aged 18 to 27 years.

According to the calculations of the president of the Center for Religious Studies and the author of the term "totalitarian sect" Alexander Dvorkin, there are at least 600-800 thousand "full-time" sectarians alone.

Today it is impossible to distinguish between socially acceptable and socially unacceptable religious organizations, since unambiguous and precise criteria for such a distinction have not yet been developed. But one can hope that in the future it will be possible to find correct solution this problem of science and practice. AT modern world where science is developing so rapidly, religion occupies not the last place. Along with long-recognised, traditional religions such as Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, there are relatively new religious organizations that most often have a negative impact on the individual and society.

Sectarianism pushes people to various crimes, including murder; people who fall into a sect lose their opinion, they lose the purpose and meaning of life; many commit suicide, etc.

Thus, the activity of sects in Russia undermines the normative social foundations, exposes society and the individual to increased danger associated with the uncontrolled actions of sectarians, with their unquestioning obedience to their "leaders" and the fulfillment of any of their orders, usually directed against the will and consciousness of society and the individual.

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Introduction

Public administration can be defined as a purposeful organizing influence of public authorities on the development of various spheres of public life, taking into account the economic, political and social characteristics of the state at certain stages of its historical development. Executive power is a subsystem, a branch of state power, which carries out executive and administrative activities for the purpose of managing certain areas (subjects) of jurisdiction by exercising state powers by methods and means of public and predominantly administrative law Executive power in the Russian Federation. Development problems. / Rev. Ed. Dr. jurid. Nauk Bachilo I.L. - M.: Jurist 1998. - P. 29

An unambiguous understanding of the system of executive power in practice and in the legislation of the Russian Federation has not yet developed, however important changes in the views on this branch of power occurred after the adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation in 1993.

The new Basic Law of the State made significant changes to the legitimate basis of the executive power of Russia in comparison with the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978. The Constitution of the Russian Federation defined the executive power as an independent branch of state power, introduced the concept of a unified system of executive power, significantly changed the procedure for forming the Government, changed the approach to determining powers Government and provided for the formation of a system federal bodies executive power.

The body of the state is an independent structural unit in the system of state power. He is endowed with state-imperious powers, which are necessary for the implementation of the functions of a certain branch of state power.

The executive authority is an independent structural unit in the system of executive authority, which implements the functions government controlled within the framework of the granted powers in a certain area of state jurisdiction. Being a part of the state apparatus, it has a certain competence, has a structure, a territorial scope of activity, is formed in the manner prescribed by law or other regulatory legal acts. The executive authority is vested with the right to act on behalf of the state and is called upon to carry out daily management of economic, socio-cultural and administrative-political construction in the order of executive and administrative activities.

In accordance with the current legislation, the terms "executive authority" and "government body" are used as equivalent.

In Art. 14 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation states that the Russian Federation is a secular state. Religious associations are separated from the state and are equal before the law. The principle of separation of religious associations from the state means mutual non-interference of the state and confessional formations in each other's affairs. Religious organizations do not interfere in the affairs of the state, do not participate in the elections of state authorities and local self-government bodies, as well as in the activities of political parties. And the state, in turn, does not regulate the internal institutions of religious entities and does not interfere in their canonical, charitable, economic and other activities (if it does not violate the law).

1. Features of the administrative and legal status of religious associations

Russia is a multi-confessional state, where people of various faiths live nearby - Orthodox, Muslims, Buddhists, Catholics, Lutherans, Jews, pagans. Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism and other religions of the peoples of Russia are an integral part of its historical heritage.

Freedom of religion presupposes the freedom of activity of religious associations on the basis of equality.

As a secular state, Russia does not give preference to any religion, does not prohibit religious activities (cults, rituals), if the law is not violated. State bodies do not interfere in the internal affairs of religious associations. This position of the state is due to the loyalty of religious associations towards the state.

The state establishes the legal status of religious associations through the adoption of laws, and the supervision of the implementation of legislation on freedom of conscience and religious associations is carried out by the prosecutor's office.

In order to suppress illegal extremist activities, the state may prohibit certain religious associations. Such decisions are taken by the courts.

According to the Federal Law "On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations" dated December 26, 1997, as amended and supplemented on March 26, 2000, on March 21 and July 26, 2002, a religious association in the Russian Federation is recognized as a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and having the characteristics corresponding to this purpose:

Religion;

Performing divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies;

Teaching religion and religious education of their followers.

Religious associations may be created in the form of religious groups and religious organizations.

Also, the creation of religious associations in state authorities, other state bodies, public institutions and local governments, military units, state and municipal organizations prohibited. Establishment and activities of religious associations whose goals and actions are contrary to the law are prohibited.

At the beginning of 2003, 21,500 religious associations were registered in Russia, which is four times more than it was 12 years ago.

A religious group in this Federal Law is a voluntary association of citizens formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith, operating without state registration and acquiring the legal capacity of a legal entity.

Premises and property necessary for the activities of a religious group shall be provided for the use of the group by its members. Citizens who have formed a religious group with the intention to further transform it into a religious organization shall notify the local self-government bodies of its creation and commencement of activities.

A religious organization, in turn, is a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing in the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and registered as a legal entity in the manner prescribed by law. Religious organizations, depending on the territorial scope of their activities, are divided into local and centralized.

The federal law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" directly defines the procedure for creating religious organizations.

The founders of a local religious organization may be at least ten citizens of the Russian Federation united in a religious group that has a confirmation of its existence in the given territory for at least fifteen years, issued by local governments, or a confirmation of entry into the structure of a centralized religious organization of the same religion issued by the specified organization.

Centralized religious organizations are formed when there are at least three local religious organizations of the same confession in accordance with their own regulations of religious organizations, if such regulations do not contradict the law.

Like any legal entity, a religious organization operates on the basis of a charter, which is approved by its founders or a centralized religious organization and must meet the requirements civil law Russian Federation.

The charter of a religious organization states:

Name, location, type of religious organization, religion and, if belonging to an existing centralized religious organization, its name;

Goals, objectives and main forms of activity;

The procedure for the creation and termination of activities;

The structure of the organization, its management bodies, the procedure for their formation and competence;

Sources of Education Money and other property of the organization;

The procedure for introducing amendments and additions to the charter;

The procedure for disposing of property in the event of termination of activities;

Other information related to the specifics of the activities of this religious organization

The state has the right to put a restriction on the legalization of sects that violate human rights and commit illegal criminal acts; to prevent missionary activity if it is incompatible with respect for constitutional rights and freedoms of a person and is accompanied by unlawful influence on people in distress, psychological pressure or the threat of violence.

Religious organizations may own buildings, land, industrial, social, charitable, cultural, educational and other purposes, religious items, funds and other property necessary to ensure their activities, including those classified as historical and cultural monuments.

Religious organizations have the right of ownership to property acquired or created by them at their own expense, donated by citizens, organizations or transferred to religious organizations in the ownership of the state or acquired in other ways that do not contradict the legislation of the Russian Federation.

The transfer of ownership to religious organizations for functional purposes of religious buildings and structures with land plots related to them and other property of religious purposes, which is in state or municipal ownership, is carried out free of charge. Religious organizations may own property abroad.

Religious organizations have the right to use for their needs land plots, buildings and property provided to them by state, municipal, public and other organizations and citizens, in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

Registration of religious organizations is carried out by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation or territorial justice bodies of the constituent entities of the Federation.

According to part 2 of Art. 14 of the Constitution in Russia, religious associations are separated from the state and cannot interfere in political life. The state has no right to impose on religious associations the performance of any state functions.

Religious associations and their hierarchs are not included in the system of state power and local self-government; they cannot influence government decision-making. The actions of state authorities and local self-government are not coordinated with religious associations.

Citizens of Russia have equal rights regardless of their religious beliefs. The state does not participate in the regulation of the internal structure of religious associations. No religious association can be financed from the state budget.

Structures of religious organizations cannot be formed in state bodies, local self-government bodies, educational institutions. The decisions of the governing bodies of religious organizations do not have the significance of public law norms.

Civil servants are not entitled to use their official position in the interests of religious associations. They may participate in religious ceremonies as ordinary believers and not in an official capacity. Religious symbols should not be placed in office rooms.

The state restricts the activities of religious associations or individuals only to the extent necessary to protect the foundations of the constitutional order, morality, health, rights and legitimate interests other persons. Restrictions on these grounds are also allowed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Religious associations are prohibited from interfering in the activities of state and local self-government bodies. State bodies and local self-government bodies are not entitled to transfer their powers to religious organizations or to assume any functions of the latter.

At the same time, although religious associations are separated from the state, they are not separated from society. Therefore, the state is forced to reckon with the opinion of the religious community.

Religious organizations are equal before the law. They are allowed to own property, funds mass media to engage in charitable activities. They may receive certain financial benefits from the state.

The law permits the activities of religious associations to assist their members in conflict situations, recognizes the right of a clergyman to refuse to testify on the grounds of circumstances that became known to him from confession.

The state cooperates with religious associations in countering extremist activities.

The separation of religious associations from the state signifies the secular nature of education. At the same time, the church may have its own educational institutions for the training of clergy.

federal religious confessional

2. Issues of creation and liquidation of religious associations

Special religious freedom laws usually govern in detail the formation of religious associations. is no exception, and the new Russian law 1997 In his Art. 6 defines the concept of a religious association.

Such in the Russian Federation is a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and having the following characteristics corresponding to this goal: religion; performing divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies; teaching religion and religious education of their followers.

Comparing the current Law with the 1990 Law, some notable features can be seen. In developing the Constitution of the Russian Federation, the Law of 1997 considers a religious association such a voluntary association, which includes, along with citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons, i.e. foreigners and stateless persons.

The previous Law dealt mainly with the category "citizen", which meant that the right to religious worship was enjoyed mainly by citizens of the RSFSR. At the same time, it should be noted that the 1997 Law does not allow foreign citizens and stateless persons to form religious associations on their own, without the participation of citizens of the Russian Federation.

Only citizens of the Russian Federation can be founders of a local religious organization. And this means that other categories of persons have the opportunity only to connect, to join the corresponding religious association. Such a decision of the legislator seems to be quite justified: worship can be the business of each individual, regardless of his nationality, but the use of organizational means to create new religious associations without the participation of citizens of the Russian Federation would be unnatural.

I would like to draw attention to one more circumstance when comparing the two laws. The 1990 law stated that the confession and dissemination of faith includes, in particular, the commission of a cult, the dissemination of one's beliefs in society directly or through the media.

The said Law, if not in a direct, then in an indirect form, assumed an active position of believers, not only personally professing faith, but also convincing other members of society of its values as own word as well as through the media. There was an echo of the previous time in this: then there was freedom of anti-religious propaganda, now another extreme was allowed - the freedom of religious propaganda was guaranteed.

The 1997 law abandoned this. From the provisions of Art. 6, it can be seen that the spread of faith occurs in the ways that are natural for religious associations and believers: through worship, other rites and ceremonies that affect everyone who is present at the same time; through the teaching of religion and the religious education of their followers. This provision does not at all mean that religious associations do not use and cannot use mass media channels to broadcast religious content.

Such transmissions and publications are quite possible both because any religion has followers, and because each legally operating concession has the right to disseminate information about its essence and teachings. I must say that it is in this vein that the teaching of religious disciplines in higher educational institutions should be considered.

Special religious education is received in vocational schools. Teaching children religion in state or municipal educational institutions is possible only at the request of the parents, at the request of the children, with the permission of the administration of the educational institution, agreed with the relevant local government.

The 1990 law did not accept the earlier division of religious associations into religious groups and religious societies (the former were smaller, the latter large in number).

It used only the category of a religious association, which had to consist of at least 10 adult citizens and the charter of which was subject to registration with the justice authority in order to obtain the rights of a legal entity. The law did not directly speak of the possibility of the existence of a religious association without registering a charter.

The federal law of 1997 (Article 6) provided that religious associations may be created in the form of religious groups and religious organizations.

He specifically banned the creation of religious associations in state authorities, other state bodies, state institutions and local governments, military units, state and municipal organizations. The law also introduced a ban on the creation and activities of religious associations whose goals and functions are contrary to the law.

As you can see, the 1997 Law approaches the classification of religious associations with certain criteria: groups exist without state registration and without acquiring the rights of a legal entity, religious organizations are required to be subject to state registration and, upon registration, acquire the rights of a legal entity. It is possible to profess and spread the faith, therefore, on the basis of the voluntary association of any number of persons creating a group.

The new Law provides for another very important circumstance.

It is practically impossible to establish a local religious organization without having a pre-established religious group or an already existing centralized religious organization.

According to Art. 9 of the Law, the founders of a local religious organization may be at least 10 citizens of the Russian Federation united in a religious group that has a confirmation of its existence in this territory for at least 15 years, issued by local governments, or a confirmation of entry into the structure of a centralized religious organization of the same faith, issued by the specified organization. If there is no centralized organization, then it is formed if there are at least three local religious organizations.

And since the formation of the latter requires 15 years to confirm the existence of religious groups, their presence is already becoming a significant legal factor.

It is no coincidence that Art. 7 of the Law, as already mentioned, states that citizens who have formed a religious group with the intention to further transform it into a religious organization, notify local governments of its creation and start of activity. It turns out that already at the very beginning of the journey, they must present their long-term goals and act appropriately.

The former Law spoke about the registration of charters (regulations) of religious associations. The new Law provides for the registration of religious organizations. In principle, especially considering the legal consequences, there is not much difference here.

At the same time, the 1997 Law, as it were, emphasizes the fact that a religious organization exists from the moment of not its formation, but registration, by the rule on registration of the organizations themselves, and not their statutes.

An indispensable condition for the existence of a religious organization is that it has a charter. According to Art. ten federal law 1997, a religious organization operates on the basis of a charter, which is approved by its founders or a centralized religious organization and must meet the requirements of the civil legislation of the Russian Federation.

The charter of a religious organization shall indicate: the name, location, type of religious organization, religion, and in case of belonging to an existing centralized religious organization, the name of the latter; goals, objectives and main forms of activity; the procedure for the creation and termination of activities; the structure of the organization, its management bodies, the procedure for their formation and competence; sources of formation of funds and other property of the organization; the procedure for introducing amendments and additions to the charter; the procedure for disposing of property in the event of termination of activities; other information related to the specifics of the activities of this religious organization.

However, for the state registration of a religious organization, a whole set of documents is submitted to the justice authority (part 5, article 11 of the Law): an application for registration; a list of persons creating a religious organization, indicating citizenship, living place, date of birth; charter of a religious organization; protocol constituent assembly; a document confirming the existence of a religious group in the specified territory for at least 15 years and issued by a local government, or a document confirming its membership in a centralized religious organization and issued by its governing center; information about the fundamentals of the dogma and its corresponding practice, including the history of the emergence of the religion and the aforementioned association, the forms and methods of its activity, the attitude to family and marriage, education, the peculiarities of the attitude towards the health of the followers of this religion, the restrictions for members and employees of the organization in relation to their civil rights and responsibilities; a document confirming the location (legal address) of the religious organization being created.

Comparing the new Law with the previous one, it can be stated that the registration process has become more complicated. Previously, when registering a charter, it was only required to submit it.

Now, when registering a religious association, one of the most important is information about the basics of the dogma, and with a detailed breakdown. Obviously, without the submission of a document on such information, the registration authority simply will not (and is not entitled) to consider the application for registration. In addition, during registration, this body has the right to assess the nature of religion and refuse registration.

In accordance with Art. 12 of the Law, a religious organization may be denied state registration if, in particular: the goals and activities of the religious organization are contrary to the Constitution and legislation of the Russian Federation - with reference to specific articles of laws; the organization being created is not recognized as a religious one; the charter and other submitted documents do not meet the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation or the information contained in them is unreliable.

Denial of state registration must be motivated. The law does not allow refusal based on the inappropriateness of establishing a religious organization. Refusal to register, as well as evasion of registration by the relevant registering body, may be appealed against in court.

It is known that during the preparation and passage of the Federal Law through the stages of the legislative process, there were many accusations that it was sustained in the spirit of a benevolent attitude towards religions that have long existed in Russia and of restricting the activities in the Russian Federation of those religious organizations existing abroad that would like to create their own. centers, associations and spread the faith in our country. Without going into all the details of the disputes, I would like to note the following: in this Law, the state really showed a restrained attitude towards all kinds of religious organizations that wish to infiltrate Russian soil.

As already mentioned, the Law proceeds from the fact that citizens of the Russian Federation must certainly take part in religious denominations and ceremonies. And if this has been the case for many years, only then can the question of state registration of the relevant religious organization be raised. The legislator considered that this would take 15 years.

The object of criticism is not the very establishment of the term, but its size - according to some, it is too long. It cannot be ruled out that the legislator will return to the problem and reduce the specified period. But it is unlikely that he will completely refuse any "trial" terms for newfangled, and even more so foreign, religious movements in the Russian Federation. The norm under consideration will most likely have to be assessed by the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation as to whether it restricts the constitutional right of "everyone" to freedom of religion.

The law establishes rules restricting the activities of foreign religious organizations in the country. So, when registering, if the higher governing body (center) of the religious organization being formed is located outside the Russian Federation, in addition to the documents listed above, the charter or other fundamental document of the foreign religious organization, which is certified by the state body of the country where this organization is located, must be submitted.

A foreign religious organization may be granted the right to open its representative office on the territory of the Russian Federation. Such a representative office cannot engage in cult or other religious activities, and it is not covered by the status of a religious association established by the Federal Law of 1997. The law allows Russian religious organizations to carry a representative office of a foreign religious organization.

The specificity of the new Federal Law is the detailed regulation of the issues of liquidation of a religious organization and the prohibition of the activities of a religious association in case of violation of the law by them. The 1990 law resolved these issues too simply: the activities of a religious association may be terminated by a court decision if it contradicts the charter (regulation) of such an association and the current legislation.

Now even this general rule became more detailed: according to Part 1 of Art. 14 of the Federal Law of 1997, religious organizations may be liquidated by a court decision in the event of repeated or gross violations of the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, this Federal Law and other federal laws, or in the event of a religious organization systematically carrying out activities that contradict the goals of its creation (statutory goals).

Further, in part 2 of the said article of the Law, this provision is detailed and it states that the grounds for the liquidation of a religious organization, a ban on the activities of a religious organization or a religious group in a judicial proceeding are recognized as:

1) violation of public security and public order, undermining the security of the state;

2) actions aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional order and violating the integrity of the Russian Federation;

3) creation of armed formations;

4) propaganda of war, inciting social, racial, national or religious hatred, misanthropy;

5) coercion to destroy the family;

6) encroachment on the personality, rights and freedoms of citizens;

7) infliction of damage to the morality, health of citizens, established in accordance with the law, including the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, hypnosis, committing depraved and other unlawful acts in connection with their religious activities;

8) inducement to commit suicide or to refuse on religious grounds to provide medical care persons in a state of danger to life and health;

9) impeding the acquisition of compulsory education;

10) coercion of members and followers of a religious association and other persons to alienate their property in favor of a religious association;

11) preventing the threat of causing harm to life, health, property, if there is a danger of its real execution, or the use of violent influence, by other unlawful actions, the exit of a citizen from a religious association;

12) inducing citizens to refuse to fulfill their civil obligations established by law and to commit other unlawful acts.

All of the above grounds can also be applied to the prohibition of the activities of a religious group.

The new Law clearly defined the subjects entitled to raise the issue of liquidation in this case. According to part 5 of Art. 14, the prosecution authorities of the Russian Federation, the body that registers religious organizations, as well as local governments have the right to submit to the court a submission on the liquidation of a religious organization or on a ban on the activities of a religious organization or religious group.

The Law does not explain whether the liquidation of a religious association in case of violation of the law and the ban on its activities are different from each other. An analysis of the norms of the Law shows that the concepts under consideration are basically identical. We are talking about liquidation and prohibition in the same parts of Art. 14 of the Law and the grounds for applying such measures are the same. Perhaps, in this regard, it would be worthwhile to use the wording from Art. 44 of the Federal Law "On Public Associations" of 1995: the liquidation of a public association by a court decision means a ban on its activities, regardless of the fact of its state registration.

Drawing a conclusion on the second chapter, I want to note that the Federal Law of September 26, 1997 "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations" quite fully reveals the administrative and legal status of religious associations in the Russian Federation. New law clearly defined the subjects entitled to raise the issue of the liquidation of a religious association, which was not provided for by the old law.

However, the new legal act has a number of shortcomings, for example, comparing these two versions of the law, it can be stated that the registration process has become more complicated, and the law does not explain whether the liquidation of a religious association in case of violation of the law and the ban on his activities.

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Legislation

The Federal Law on Religious Associations contains a definition of religious associations, as well as the rights and obligations of the citizens who make them up. People can jointly hold religious ceremonies, pass on experience to the younger generations.

Classification

Religious associations in the Russian Federation are divided into organizations and groups. Let's analyze their main distinguishing features.

The Law on Religious Associations allows the existence of groups without special state registration, registration of a legal entity. Religious groups have the right to conduct worship services and otherwise educate followers.

A religious association is a legal entity. In our country, it is allowed to create brotherhoods (sisterhoods), monasteries, spiritual educational institutions, missionary societies.

Parishes, communities

Such a religious association is an organization consisting of more than 10 adults who adhere to a common religion to conduct joint religious holidays and rites. Such an association can be considered the initial link in the structure of religious organizations. Basically, communities, parishes belong to some kind of centralized associations. At the same time, their independent existence is also quite acceptable.

Regional representations

Such and associations have their own charter, they have at least three religious local organizations.

The Brotherhood is a community that is created for cultural, educational, missionary, charitable purposes. Some monastic Catholic orders are also called brotherhoods.

Missions and seminaries

A missionary religious association is an organization that is established to preach and spread a certain creed through educational, religious, and charitable activities.

Institutions (seminaries, academies, schools) are institutions that are engaged in the targeted training of church ministers and priests. Graduates of such educational institutions conduct purposeful religious and educational activities in churches and monasteries.

The Federal Law on Religious Associations regulates their activities.

It is in it that all the basic rights and obligations of various religious associations are indicated. Violation of the law entails administrative and criminal liability.

Religious associations of the Russian Federation are voluntary associations of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons who legally reside in the territory of our country. They are created for joint confession, as well as for the purpose of spreading the doctrine.

The procedure for creating religious groups

The Law on Conscience and Religious Associations regulates the formation of such an organization. Religious groups do not require state registration, there is no need to formalize and confirm the legal capacity of a legal entity. For the functioning of such a religious organization, the property is used, which is in the personal use of the participants.

Representatives of the group have the right to perform divine services, other religious rites, ceremonies, to teach the basics of faith to their followers.

To create it, you need to use a certain algorithm:

write an application according to the established template;
under the application must be put at least 10 signatures with transcripts;
selected local government.

Features of religious organizations

It is recognized only if, in the course of state expertise compliance has been established. After receiving the status of a religious organization, the association can count on receiving benefits from the state, including tax breaks, as well as conduct charitable activities.

Its main difference from a religious group will be the presence of a legal entity. According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation a person is an organization that owns property, conducts economic activity, is responsible for separate property, can act as a defendant and a plaintiff in a court session.

Classification of religious associations

Such organizations are divided into centralized and local. The first consists of 3 or more local organizations. To create the second group, 10 participants who have reached the age of majority and live in the same settlement (city, village) are enough.

The date of establishment is the day of official state registration of a religious association. It is mandatory to have your own Charter, which is approved by a centralized religious organization, meets all the requirements of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

In the Russian Federation, all issues related to the administrative and legal regulation of religious associations are related to the implementation of the constitutional rights of the individual to freedom of religion and conscience. At this stage of the socio-economic development of Russia, this very issue is of significant scientific and social importance.

Those norms that determine the administrative-legal status of religious associations in the Russian Federation are imperfect and need serious improvement.

Practice shows that in addition to the external activities of such associations, internal relationships that arise between the main participants of the organization are of particular importance. Such regulation is necessary, since in such relationships, the interests and rights of the individual, the interests of the state and society, which cannot be left without administrative and legal influence, are often affected.

The concept of a religious association as a subject of administrative law of the Russian Federation

The Constitution of the Russian Federation guarantees the activities and existence of various religious associations that have certain functions, goals, decide specific tasks. This term is considered in two different aspects. On the one hand, it is a religious concept that reflects the essence and characteristics of relations that develop in the process of organizing a particular religion.

On the other hand, it can be viewed as a legal concept developed taking into account religion. The legal status of an organization is summarized from formal and external factors.

In Russia, before Peter the Great, the Orthodox Church existed independently of the tsarist institution. The position, which was formulated by the Council in the 17th century, contained information about the advantage of the king in the conduct of civil affairs. The task of the patriarch included the implementation of church activities.

Peter I carried out a radical reform of the relationship between church and state, it was then that the Holy Synod was created.

Due to dominance Orthodox Church Russia was a polyconfessional state, where non-Christian and non-Orthodox communities existed. To consolidate the legal status of this category of believers, special state acts were adopted.

At present, all religious organizations are required to comply with the legislation of the Russian Federation, they are separated from the state, and have equal rights before the law.

Conclusion

AT modern Russia the activities of any religious associations are carried out in accordance with the Charter, it is possible only after the completion of the registration procedure. Such a procedure can be refused only if the organization is not recognized as a religious one, or its Charter contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The liquidation of such associations is carried out by a decision of the court or official founders.

The reason for the court's decision, in addition to violating public security, actions that are aimed at forcibly changing the constitutional rights of citizens, may be forcing citizens to destroy families, infringing on the rights, freedoms, personality of Russians, causing moral and physical health, coercion to suicide, refusal of medical care .

Foreign religious associations must first obtain a state certificate, which is issued at the request of a Russian religious organization professing a similar religion.

So that foreign figures do not have a desire to violate the norms Russian law, to involve our compatriots in their activities, it was decided special provision on the procedure for registration, opening, and closing of representative offices of foreign religious organizations in the Russian Federation.

To strengthen the economic and social base of the state, it is important to pay close attention to religious groups and organizations, the specifics of their activities. Of course, this does not imply restrictions on the freedoms of citizens in religion, restrictions on their constitutional rights and freedoms.

Article 6 The law establishes the definition and characteristics of a religious association:

“A religious association in the Russian Federation is a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and having the following features corresponding to this purpose:

religion;

performing divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies;

the teaching of religion and the religious education of their followers."

Religious associations are a form of collective exercise by individuals of their right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion.

Distinctive features of the concept of "voluntary association" are:

1) voluntary creation associations by persons originally united to achieve joint goals;

2) voluntariness entry to the union and stay in him. However, not in all confessions, the internal structure is created and developed by independent association of ordinary believers. In some religions, to create religious societies, the will of those who unite is not enough - permission or approval from the spiritual authorities is required.

It is also not on the basis of the voluntary will of the participants that a special type of religious association is created - a religious institution or organization created by a centralized religious organization in accordance with paragraph 6 of Art. 8 of the law, in particular institutions of professional religious education. Such religious associations have only one founder, the legal entity is a centralized religious organization, and, strictly speaking, they cannot be regarded as a voluntary association of citizens. Citizens voluntarily participate in the activities of a religious institution, but are not its creators.

Unlike other non-profit, including public associations, the main goal of a religious association is not determined independently by its founders, but is established by the commented norm. While the law allows religious organizations to engage in a wide range of activities, the purpose of the statute should be "the common practice and propagation of the faith." For example, a religious organization has the right to carry out charitable activities. But in accordance with Art. 6 of the Federal Law "On charitable activities and charitable organizations", charitable organization is a non-governmental (non-state and non-municipal) non-profit organization created to achieve the goals provided for by this Federal Law by carrying out charitable activities in the interests of society as a whole or certain categories of persons.

The goals of charitable activities are listed in Art. 2 of the said Law. Thus, the same legal entity cannot simultaneously have the status of a religious association and a charitable organization - they are created for different purposes. This, of course, does not prevent a religious organization from engaging in charitable activities, and a charitable organization, for example, from accompanying its activities with religious rites. But it is possible to use special rights and benefits established only for charitable or only for religious organizations, depending on whether the organization is registered as a religious or as a charitable organization.

Combining the status of a religious association and an educational institution is possible for institutions of professional religious education. At the same time, the Law “On Education” does not define the purpose of an educational institution, fixing in Art. 12 only that "educational is an institution that carries out the educational process."

For religious associations in the form of religious groups, if they do not have a charter, the purpose of forming a religious association may not be formally fixed, but it must have the features listed in the commented norm (see further commentary to Article 7 of the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience ...”) .

The Civil Code of the Russian Federation in Article 50 divides legal entities into commercial and non-commercial, defining non-commercial organizations as not having profit-making as the main goal and not distributing the profits received among the participants. Art. 117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation classifies religious organizations as non-profit organizations. For religious associations that do not have the rights of a legal entity (religious groups), the classification provided for by Art. 50 of the Civil Code, formally inapplicable. Religious groups, not being subjects of civil legal relations, in principle cannot receive profit (only members of a religious group, acting as individuals, can receive income). However, due to the definition in Art. 6 and 7 of the purpose of forming a religious association in the form of a religious group other than making a profit, it can be stated that all religious associations have a non-commercial purpose.

The Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." says that a religious association "recognized" such. The basis for recognition is the conformity of the purpose and characteristics of the association with those established by law. Thus, not every association that proclaims itself religious is recognized as such. In addition to self-identification, the objective properties of a religious association should also be present. Such state control is necessary for two main reasons. First, international law provides for a number of special guarantees that ensure the freedom of activity of religious associations. therefore, it is necessary to distinguish them from other worldview associations in order to determine which associations are covered by these special guarantees.

Secondly, the status of a religious association with the rights of a legal entity provides for the possibility of enjoying tax benefits and special rights, in particular, the exclusive right to receive ownership or use of religious property that is state or municipal property. This makes it necessary state control(“recognition”) in order to prevent abuse, the formation of pseudo-religious associations in order to access special benefits and rights.

The three features that are obligatory for a religious association, listed in the commented norm, are formal criteria that make it possible to distinguish religious associations from any other associations. In practice, the problem of "recognition" or "non-recognition" of an association as a religious one may arise in the process of acceptance by an authorized state body of documents submitted for state registration of a religious organization as a legal entity. If a religious organization to be created has confirmation from a centralized religious organization of the same denomination that it belongs to its structure, the recognition of the religious nature of the organization is not a problem. If the application for registration as a legal entity is submitted by the founders who profess a doctrine not previously represented in the territory of the Russian Federation, or if the religious organization being created belongs to a known religion, but is autonomous, is not part of the structure of any centralized religious organization, it may be necessary to study whether the professed doctrine is a religion (creed). Article 11 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." provides for the conduct of state religious expertise for the relevant purposes.

The listed features make it possible to refuse recognition as religious to those associations that clearly do not possess them: commercial organizations, associations of a political, philosophical, trade union, etc. nature that do not have a creed and do not perform worship. At the same time, due to the extreme diversity of religious teachings, an attempt to give an unambiguous answer to the question of where the line lies between religion and non-religion is faced with the absence of a single universal definition of religion. Academician L. N. Mitrokhin spoke about the impossibility in principle to develop such a definition in the article “Religion” in the New Philosophical Encyclopedia: “It can even be stated that it is generally impossible to give an adequate formal-logical definition of religion; its essence is comprehended only as a result of revealing its specific diverse forms and essential characteristics. .

The first sign is “religion” or dogma, that is, the presence of a system that is stable and perceived as absolute truths ideas about the relationship between man and the supernatural. The wording is necessarily very broad, because in a number of religions, such as Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, there are no ideas about a personal God that are characteristic of Christianity or Islam. As a result of this breadth and indefiniteness of the formulation, the question arises: what is the difference between religion and religious-philosophical and philosophical-idealistic teachings about God, the Absolute Spirit, the Supreme Being, etc.?

The second sign - "performing divine services, other religious rites and ceremonies" - is designed to distinguish religions from doctrines of a philosophical and ideological nature, whose followers do not practice rituals and ceremonies (and, as a rule, do not consider their teachings to be a religion). In centralized religious organizations, worship services, other religious rites and ceremonies can be carried out both directly and in local religious organizations that are part of its structure.

The third sign - "the teaching of religion and the religious education of their followers" - seems to be less clear. If the first two signs are called “necessary” in the language of logic (that is, the presence of each of them is necessary for the recognition of an association as religious), then the third sign in the existing formulation cannot be unequivocally perceived as necessary. Some religious associations different reasons, including due to the absence of converts and young people, for a more or less long period of time they do not engage in anyone's education and upbringing, but because of this they do not lose their religious nature. In addition, the concept of “follower” is devoid of legal specificity, so it remains unclear who exactly should be trained and educated in an association in order to satisfy the criterion for recognizing him as a religious one.

Apparently, it would be more correct to mean under the third sign the presence in the association of religious morality and ethics, based on the doctrine of moral and ethical ideas about good and evil, proper and improper, on which religious education is based. Such a criterion makes it possible to distinguish religions from teachings and practices such as spiritualism and magic. The latter also possess the doctrine of the supernatural, rites and rituals for interacting with the other world, but, as a rule, do not contain special moral and ethical guidelines.

To complete the review of the difficulties faced by resolving the issue of recognizing an association as a religious one, we state that Freemasonry almost perfectly meets all the criteria for a religious association established by the Russian legislator. Only the absence on the part of the Masonic associations themselves of the desire to be recognized as religious associations has not yet made the law enforcer face the need to make an appropriate decision.

Expression " a joint confession and dissemination of the faith" presupposes the presence single common religious beliefs of persons who constituted a religious association. Worship of different deities in accordance with the teachings of different religions cannot be recognized as a "joint" confession of faith. Therefore, interfaith associations, even if their activities are accompanied by ecumenical joint services, are not recognized as religious associations. However, in cases of significant closeness of beliefs, joint confession of faith becomes more possible. For example, resolving the issue of whether local religious organizations of Sunnis and Shiites can be part of one Muslim spiritual administration, whether they carry out a joint confession of faith, in our opinion, lies outside the competence of the state.

With regard to individuals, control over the degree of religious unity of the founders and participants (members) of a religious association is difficult or impossible. With regard to centralized religious organizations, the use of a formal approach that allows only religious organizations whose statutes indicate literally identical denominations to enter into its structure seems to be an excessive restriction. Such an approach turns the secular state into an arbitrator, assessing the degree of significance of theological differences without taking into account the opinion of the religious organizations themselves about the possibility of uniting in a centralized structure. Apparently, if religious organizations belonging to the same religion (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, etc.) consider it acceptable to enter the structure of a common centralized religious organization, there are no legal obstacles to recognizing this organization as a religious one.

A separate problem is the degree of constancy of the dogma professed in a religious association and the limits of the competence of state control in this area. It is obvious that an association that often and significantly changes the foundations of a dogma (by name and/or content) cannot be regarded as a religious association. (In this case, there is no way to talk about the existence of some individually defined dogma, there are no those essential signs of religious or other worldview beliefs that the European Court of Human Rights has defined as “views that have reached a certain level of persuasiveness, significance, unity and importance” .) At the same time, the state cannot be drawn into the control of theological provisions. For example, the state should not judge how adequate to Orthodoxy is the dogma professed by a specific religious association, in particular if significant changes have been made in the content of the doctrine, but which the members of this association themselves continue to consider Orthodox. Apparently, a secular state should be limited to ascertaining availability religion as a necessary sign of religious association.

With regard to religious associations in the form of religious groups, the confessional identification of their religious affiliation, in principle, lies outside the competence of the state. (There are no legal grounds for subjecting a religious group to a state religious examination to determine its religion.) With regard to religious organizations, state control is possible over the conformity of the religious affiliation fixed in the charter with the actual creed. Although in this case the line between the freedom of theological interpretation of a religious organization of its doctrine and the need to act in accordance with the charter remains not always clear.

The law does not establish exceptional the rights of religious associations to carry out activities related to the joint confession and spread of faith. Judicial practice knows examples when the performance of services by a public association, its activities to spread religious beliefs were perceived by the controlling state bodies as a violation of the law, giving grounds for the liquidation of such a public association in a judicial proceeding. It seems that this is an unlawful interpretation of the norms of the law, detracting from the right to freedom of conscience. From the fact that a religious association aims at the joint confession and dissemination of faith, it does not logically follow that the activity of confession and dissemination of faith can be carried out only by religious associations. (Similarly, the existence of charitable organizations does not mean that no one except them has the right to engage in charitable work.) In this matter, one should take into account general principle: "in the sphere of rights and freedoms, everything is allowed that is not expressly prohibited by law."

The Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." uses the terms "participant", "member" and "follower". The terms “participant” and “member” are used interchangeably in the Law. The law leaves the nature of their legal relations with individuals participating in their activities to be independently regulated by the statutes of religious organizations. The law also provides religious associations with the opportunity to independently determine whether they are organized on the principle of fixed membership or not.

Legal relations between a religious association and individuals participating in its activities can be reduced to two types. In one version, the participation of an individual is documented in accordance with the requirements of the charter of the religious association, and the person is endowed with the rights and obligations provided for by the charter. In another option, an individual actually participates in the activities of a religious association, but his connection with the religious association is not documented and he does not have rights and obligations, in particular, does not participate in the management of the activities of the religious association. For example, based on the Model Charter of a local religious organization - a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church (2009), only persons who are members of the bodies of the parish are in relations of the first type with the parish, the rest of the parishioners are in relations of the second type with the parish.

For comparison: according to the Federal Law "On Public Associations", Art. 6 gives a clear definition of the concepts of “member” and “participant”: “members of a public association are individuals and legal entities - public associations, whose interest in jointly solving the problems of this association in accordance with the norms of its charter is formalized by appropriate individual statements or documents that allow taking into account the number of members of a public association in order to ensure their equality as members of this association”, “participants of a public association are individuals and legal entities - public associations that have expressed support for the goals this association and (or) its specific shares, participating in its activities without the obligatory registration of the conditions for their participation, unless otherwise provided by the charter.

The Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." does not introduce terms to designate such significantly qualitatively different types of participation individuals in religious associations, leaving the relevant regulation to the discretion of religious associations. As a result, there is a lack of terminological unity. In some religious associations, persons who are members of them on a fixed basis can be called members, and those who are not documented - participants, in others - vice versa. It is possible for a religious association to have only persons with documented participation, who, at the discretion of the religious association, may be called participants or members. In a religious organization registered as a legal entity, due to the need for the presence of bodies of a legal entity, there must be a sufficient number of individuals whose participation, rights and obligations in a religious organization are documented.

The Federal Law "On Public Associations" expressly allows participation (membership) in public associations along with individuals and legal entities (public associations may be founders and members (participants) of other public associations). The commented Law leaves the settlement of this issue to the discretion of religious associations. However, a local religious organization can only be established by individuals (citizens of the Russian Federation).

Within the framework of the law enforcement practice accumulated over the years of the Law, it cannot be said that the definition of the concept of “religious association” established in it, in which the developers saw one of the main advantages of the Law, had a significant impact on the religious situation. The number of associations that were denied recognition as religious turned out to be insignificant; associations that were recognized as religious contrary to self-determination are practically unknown. At the same time, the bodies of justice issued refusals to register public associations, the charters of which actually indicated their religious nature.

In Art. 6 also establishes restrictions prohibiting the creation of religious associations in government bodies, other state bodies, state institutions and local governments, military units, state and municipal organizations, as well as the creation and activities of associations whose goals and actions are contrary to law. This rule is intended to practically ensure the secular nature of the state, but it does not prevent civil servants or military personnel from being members of a religious association that exists outside of an organization or institution, for example, from being members of the Parish Assembly.

Head of the legal service of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church Ksenia (Chernega) also explains that: “the territory, in particular the premises, belonging to the relevant body (organization) can be used for the creation and activities of religious associations. For example, on the territory of the Moscow State University. MV Lomonosov created and operates the courtyard of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia - the house church of the Holy Martyr Tatiana; house churches function in the buildings of the Holy Synod and the Senate, assigned on the right of operational management to the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation. In such cases, a state authority, a local self-government body, a military unit, a state (municipal) organization only provide premises (part of the territory) for the creation and operation of a religious association, however, the administration and employees of the relevant body (institution) are not entitled to be among the founders of such a religious association. Association, as well as in the composition of its governing bodies " .

The law introduced two different forms, in which religious associations can be created, giving them names - religious Group and religious organization(Art. 6, paragraph 2). In the Law "On freedom of religion" there was one term - "religious associations", which denoted associations that had the right of a legal entity, and did not. In the current Law, the main difference between the forms of associations is their legal personality, the presence or absence of a legal entity.

religious group, according to article 7, a voluntary association of citizens is recognized, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith, carrying out activities without state registration and acquiring the legal capacity of a legal entity. Premises and property necessary for the activities of a religious group shall be provided for the use of the group by its members.

A religious group is a form of direct realization of the constitutional rights guaranteed by Art. 28 of the Constitution (on joint confession and dissemination of faith) and Art. 30 of the Constitution (the right to association), - without prior notice, without mandatory registration, without obtaining permission to create a religious group or notifying any authority of its creation.

In the wording of the first paragraph of Art. 7 refers only to the association of "citizens", without mentioning persons who do not have Russian citizenship. This gives rise to the possibility of several interpretations of the norm. Either the named persons do not have the right to unite at all for the joint confession and dissemination of faith (but such an interpretation contradicts Article 28 of the Constitution and the definition of a religious association given in Article 6, paragraph 1), or their actual association is not recognized by the commented Law as a religious group, either they must form a religious group only together with Russian citizens, or a religious group can still be formed by persons who do not have Russian citizenship. Taking into account the provisions of paragraph 3 of Article 2 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…”, it should be concluded that the Law does not directly establish the exclusive right of citizens of the Russian Federation to form religious groups, and, therefore, a religious group can also be formed by persons who do not have Russian citizenship.

The law does not regulate the procedure for the formation of a religious group, as a result of which it remains unclear the question of from what point in time and on what formal grounds it is possible to unambiguously state the fact of the emergence of a religious group. For comparison: the Federal Law "On Public Associations" dated May 19, 1995 No. 82-FZ in Article 18 establishes that "a public association is considered to have been created from the moment of acceptance at a congress (conference) or general meeting decisions on the creation of a public association, on the approval of its charter and on the formation of governing and control and audit bodies". Without these mandatory procedures, a public association cannot “actually” arise, even if there is a group of citizens jointly and regularly engaged in some kind of non-commercial activity in order to achieve common goals.

Unlike the above example, the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…” does not answer the question: is it enough to recognize the fact of the formation of a religious group that there is a set of objective signs, that is, the existence of a group of persons engaged in activities of joint confession and dissemination of faith and possessing those listed in paragraph 1 of Art. 6 signs (religion; worship, other religious rites and ceremonies; teaching religion and religious education of their followers)? Or, as in the case of the creation of a public association, objective signs of the emergence of a religious group must necessarily be accompanied by the subjective intention of its members to form (create) a religious association, formally expressed in holding a constituent assembly?

In the wording of Art. 7 uses the expression "voluntary association .., educated…”, “citizens, formed…", and Art. 6 uses, in relation to all religious associations, as a synonym for "education", the term "creation". The formation (creation) of an association cannot take place otherwise than in the presence of the subjective intention of the participants to form (create) an association. As a comparison with the Federal Law “On Public Associations” shows, the mere fact that several persons carry out joint actions aimed at achieving a common goal cannot be considered as the creation of an association. The actual participation of an individual in the joint confession and dissemination of faith with other persons cannot be identified with the expression of a conscious intention to act as the founder of the association.

Thus, believers have the right both to carry out joint activities for the confession and dissemination of faith without the formation of a religious group, and to establish a religious group by conscious expression of will in the form of a constituent assembly.

An alternative interpretation, according to which a religious group is recognized as having arisen in the presence of objective signs defined in Article 6, including without the presence of a formally expressed will of the participants to form (create) a religious association, is contrary to the norm of Art. 30 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, according to part 2 of which "no one can be forced to join or stay in any association." With this approach, the law enforcer recognizes believers as “members of a religious group” against their will, forcibly.

In addition, the application of the principle of "recognizing the fact of the emergence of a religious group without a formal institution" entails a number of insurmountable practical problems.

The law did not define the formal quantitative criteria by which the presence of a religious group is recognized - the number of participants, the frequency of events, as well as the way to reliably determine who is recognized as a member of the group (in the absence of a charter for the group and in the absence of voluntary self-identification of the individual as a member of the group). For example, is a believing family that practices corporate prayer recognized as a religious group? Or will it become so by trying to convert an unbelieving family member (“spreading the faith”)? Or from the moment of joining the joint performance of religious rites of persons who are not family members? In fact, “recognition as a religious group of a group of persons who do not call themselves such” with this approach is carried out at the discretion of the law enforcer within a very wide range of signs of a religious association listed in paragraph 1 of Art. 6. Such recognition of the existence of a religious group only on objective grounds does not entail any legal consequences, except in the special cases discussed below.

The creation of religious associations (including in the form of religious groups) is prohibited by paragraph 3 of Art. 6 "in state authorities, other state bodies, state institutions and local governments, military units, state and municipal organizations." Thus, if we recognize as a religious group any group of citizens who jointly perform a religious cult that has the objective signs of a religious association listed in Article 6, then all the hundreds of groups of prisoners who gather in places of deprivation of liberty to conduct worship, study the Law of God, and receive the Sacrament of Baptism ( "spread of faith"), all groups of believing servicemen, for whom the institution of the military clergy is now being created, are all subject to a ban on the creation of religious associations in the relevant state institutions and military units.

An association may be “compulsorily” recognized as religious in accordance with objective criteria (apart from the consent of its members to consider themselves a religious association (group)) in the cases provided for by paragraph 2 of Article 14 of the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience ...”, when the court decides to ban the activities of a religious association (group). associations. (See further commentary on Article 14 on the question of the prohibition of the activities of a religious group.)

The absence of statutory requirements for the minimum quantitative composition of a religious group, combined with the principles of interpretation of legislation established by paragraph 3 of Art. 2 of the commented Law, allows us to conclude that in order to create a religious group by holding a constituent assembly, two individuals who have reached the age of 18 are sufficient (by virtue of the provisions of Part 1 of Article 21 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) (on the issue of citizenship of the founders of a religious group, see above ). The law does not establish the obligatory adoption of a charter and the formation of bodies of a religious group, in contrast to the procedure for creating a public association. The established religious group must have the purpose and characteristics provided for in paragraph 1 of Art. 6.

The practical significance of the formal establishment of a religious group exists in the case provided for in paragraph 2 of the commented article. The holding of the constituent assembly does not entail any other legal consequences.

According to paragraph 2 of Art. 7 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ...", "citizens who have formed a religious group with the intention to further transform it into a religious organization, notify local governments of its creation and the beginning of its activities."

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 9 and with paragraph 5 of Art. 11 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ...", for the state registration of a local religious organization, the founders are required to submit either confirmation of its existence in this territory for at least fifteen years (in the form of a religious group), issued by local governments, or a confirmation of entry into the structure of a centralized religious organization of the same religion, issued by the specified organization.

If the registered religious organization will be part of the structure of a centralized religious organization, it does not have to provide confirmation of its existence in the given territory for at least fifteen years, issued by local governments. Therefore, the religious group, on the basis of which such a local religious organization is established and registered, is not obliged to notify the local self-government bodies of the creation and commencement of activities. (A religious group in this case may be formed and exist for an indefinitely long period until its members make a decision to establish and register a religious organization. It is also possible that the religious association did not exist until the founding meeting of the local religious organization being created. In this case formally, between the date of the constituent assembly and the date of state registration of a local religious organization, a religious group temporarily exists, and it is also not obliged to notify the local self-government bodies of the creation and commencement of activities.)

If citizens who have formed a religious group with the intention of later transforming it into a religious organization assume that this local religious organization will not be part of the structure of a centralized religious organization, they should take measures that will ensure, after due time, confirmation of its existence on this territory for at least fifteen years (in the form of a religious group), issued by local authorities. To this end, they notify local self-government bodies of the creation and commencement of activities of a religious group.

The law does not regulate the procedure for registering religious groups with local self-government bodies, the form of notification. Proof of the creation of a religious group may be the minutes of the constituent assembly. In order to be able to subsequently identify a religious group before issuing confirmation of its 15-year existence, the notification must also contain information about the name and religious affiliation of the religious group. Although when holding a constituent assembly of a local religious organization into which a religious group is transformed, there must be at least 10 founders (in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 1 of Article 9), the law does not establish a minimum number of a religious group from the moment of formation and for a period of 15 years period prior to its transformation into a local religious organization. As shown above, in the absence of such special requirements, two founders are sufficient to form a religious group.

According to paragraph 3 of Art. 7 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ...", "religious groups have the right to perform worship, other religious rites and ceremonies, as well as to teach religion and religious education of their followers."

Strictly speaking, this paragraph refers to the right that belongs to participants religious group, since a religious group, not being a subject of law, cannot have rights and obligations.

The listed activities are, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 6 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ...", essential features of a religious association. Religious groups not only have the right to do these things, but are in some way "obliged" to do them, otherwise the group may not be recognized as religious.

The decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) dated May 12, 2009 in the case “Masaev v. Moldova” dealt with the complaint of a Muslim fined for participating in collective prayer with other Muslims in a private home. The fine was imposed on the basis of the provisions of the law punishing the "professing of beliefs or rituals" without prior recognition of a religious denomination by the state. The court stated that the requirement to register a religious denomination in itself does not contradict Art. 9 and 11 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. But it is incompatible with the ECHR “to punish individual members of an unregistered denomination for praying or otherwise manifesting their religious beliefs. The opposite view would mean that an exception to the right to freedom of conscience is made for the religious beliefs of minorities not formally registered by the state” .

Without being subjects of law, religious groups cannot enter into legal relations and carry out activities that require civil legal personality (for example, establish media outlets, educational institutions). Without its own property, a religious group cannot carry out charitable activities; only members of a religious group can act as philanthropists. Members of a religious group fully benefit from the guaranteed Art. 28 of the Constitution, the right to distribute their religious associations among an indefinitely wide circle of people, and not only among the “followers” of a religious group (the meaning of the term “follower” is not defined by the commented Law).

One of the fundamental differences between the current Law and the Law of the RSFSR "On Freedom of Religion" is the complication of the procedure for a religious association to acquire the status of a legal entity and the corresponding legal personality. The concept of regulation of this issue by the Law can be expressed approximately as follows. The realization of the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, requiring the opportunity to unite and act in accordance with one's convictions without receiving any special state sanction for this, can be carried out within the framework of a religious group. But in order for a religious association to acquire the rights of a legal entity, the ability to enter into legal relations as a whole, state registration is necessary. Such a requirement is dictated as a general rule of art. 51 Civil Code, according to which state registration is mandatory when creating any legal entities, and the need to verify the religious the nature of the organization being created, that the legal capacity acquired by it will not be used to the detriment of the interests of the companies .

According to article 8, religious organization a voluntary association of citizens of the Russian Federation, other persons permanently and legally residing on the territory of the Russian Federation, formed for the purpose of joint confession and dissemination of faith and registered as a legal entity in the manner prescribed by law, is recognized.

According to paragraph 2 of Article 8 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…”, “religious organizations, depending on the territorial scope of their activities, are divided into local and centralized».

Despite this wording of the Law, the territorial sphere of activity cannot be considered as basic a criterion for distinguishing between a local and a centralized religious organization. Of course, as a rule, the territorial sphere of activity of a centralized religious organization is wider; it can extend to the entire Russian Federation. At the same time, the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience…” does not establish any limits on the size of the territorial sphere of activity for a local religious organization.

In the Determination of the Judicial Board on civil affairs of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 6, 2004 No. 60-G04-3 states that

“the special Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations”, in contrast to the Federal Law of May 19, 1995 No. 82-FZ “On Public Associations”, does not establish conditions according to which the activities of a local religious organization are limited to the territory of one municipality (...) The arguments of the cassation appeal that ... a local religious organization has the right to carry out its activities only within the territory of one municipality and does not have the right to carry out activities within the entire territory of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation cannot be recognized as justified.

Article 10 of the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience…” does not require mandatory indication of the territorial sphere of activity of a religious organization. The legislation also does not establish a ban on the activities of a religious organization outside the territorial sphere and does not provide for the application of any sanctions in these cases.

During the development of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…”, the initial version of the bill provided for the classification of religious organizations into several types depending on the territorial scope of activity (all-Russian, regional, local). Centralized religious organizations would be referred to as all-Russian or regional, depending on the number of subjects of the Russian Federation in which there are local religious organizations included in their structure. Accordingly, the right to carry out their activities for them would be limited to the appropriate territorial framework. However, this version of the classification was not included in the final text of the Law.

The most significant difference between a local and a centralized religious organization is another sign than the territorial sphere of activity. Local religious organizations can be created exclusively by individuals(citizens). Creation of centralized religious organizations impossible without the participation of legal entities(local religious organizations), which either act as the founders of a centralized religious organization, or are included in the composition of the centralized organization being created, the founder of which is an already existing (superior) centralized religious organization, the subordination of which is provided for by the charters of local religious organizations.

Paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." established that

“A local religious organization is a religious organization consisting of at least ten members who have reached the age of eighteen and permanently reside in the same locality or in the same urban or rural settlement.”

requirement for permanent residence the minimum composition of members of a local religious organization in one locality or in one urban or rural settlement was first introduced in the Federal Law "On Freedom of Conscience ...". The previous Law of the RSFSR "On Freedom of Religion" did not provide for requirements for the place of residence of members of a religious association. The meaning of the requirement is that a religious organization must have a real opportunity to carry out its activities for the joint confession and dissemination of faith. If the members of a local religious organization lived at a considerable distance from each other, in different regions, they would not have the appropriate physical ability. At the same time, the absence of this restriction would open up the possibility of creating fictitious local religious organizations.

However, the Law does not establish requirements for the minimum intensity of worship services, other types of religious activities for a local religious organization. Therefore, its participants, even living at a considerable distance from each other, have the theoretical opportunity to meet regularly to carry out religious activities. The problem comes down to the amount of travel expenses. Thus, the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…” restricts the rights of citizens who do not permanently reside in one locality or in one urban or rural settlement to create a local religious organization.

The law does not directly establish that reducing the number of participants in an organization to less than 10 is grounds for its liquidation. We can assume that an insufficient number of participants is a violation of the norms of paragraph 3 of Art. 8 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ...", giving grounds for the liquidation of the organization in accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. 14. However, the absence of a precise legal definition of the term “participant” casts doubt on the outcome of the relevant litigation. The statutes of local religious organizations, taking advantage of the discretion granted by the legislator in determining the status of “participants”, sometimes do not use this term at all (See, for example, the Model Statute of the Orthodox parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2009. At the same time, its clause 7.2 establishes that the number members of the collective body parish - Parish meeting - can not be less than ten people).

In the Ruling of the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 6, 2004 No. 60-G04-3, already mentioned above, it was recognized as correct to expand the concept of “locality” to the subject of the Russian Federation: “the court made the correct conclusion that all the founders of the organization live in one locality (Kamchatka region), that is, on one part of the territory, characterized by a commonality of natural, historical, cultural and other features.

In the Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of January 25, 2012 No. 115-O-O, on the complaint of the local religious organization of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in the city of Mytishchi “Biblical Mission”, a definition of “locality” is also given, which is not unambiguously connected with the boundaries of any administrative- territorial formation:

“within the meaning of paragraph 3 of Article 8 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience and on Religious Associations”, in conjunction with its Article 6, one locality should be recognized as part of the territory of the Russian Federation, living within the boundaries of which provides the possibility of joint confession and dissemination of faith through the performance of religious rites and ceremonies ". ====In practice, disputes often arise as to whether the requirements regarding the place of residence imposed by law on founders local religious organization, apply to all of its participants(members). Registration authorities in a number of regions, including Moscow and the Moscow Region, believe that they should all live in the same locality. Deputy Director of the Department for Non-Commercial Organizations of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation T.V. Vagina argues that “Permanent residence in one locality or in one urban or rural settlement is a prerequisite for membership in a local religious organization in accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 8 of the Federal Law "On freedom of conscience ..." .

However, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the above-cited ruling of 01/25/2012 took a different position: “the contested legal provision (clause 3, article 8 of the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience ...”. - M.Sh.) … does not imply that living in one municipality is a prerequisite for membership in a local religious organization.”

In practice, a dispute regarding the right of a citizen to be a member (participant) of a local religious organization can only arise if we are talking about fixed membership, i.e., the documentary record of all its members (participants) provided for by the charter of the organization or the inclusion of a citizen in any of the bodies of this organization. For example, problems may arise if a citizen living in another subject of the Federation is elected chairman or member of the audit commission of a local religious organization. (In relation to a person residing in another city within the same subject of the Federation, as is clear from the above, there are no obstacles).

If, on the other hand, a citizen residing outside the subject of the Federation, in which the local religious organization is located, constantly comes to it to participate in worship services, in the performance of religious rites, but is not listed in any lists of members (participants) of this organization, then there is no violations of the law. Let us recall that the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience…” does not contain any definitions of the concepts “member”, “participant” of a religious organization. If the question of who is a member (participant) of a local religious organization is not resolved in its charter, if it does not have a fixed membership, then there are no formal legal criteria to distinguish between a “member” of an organization who comes to pray from another region, from the "visitor" of worship.

Clause 4 of Article 8 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…” established that “a centralized religious organization is a religious organization that, in accordance with its charter, consists of at least three local religious organizations.”

The wording "consisting of..." suggests that the centralized religious organization is related to the corresponding local religious organizations as a whole and the parts of which it is composed. However, the law provides religious organizations with considerable freedom to choose options for legal relations between centralized and local religious organizations. The latter can be members of a centralized religious organization, which they jointly establish as an association (union), and jointly participate in its management. It is also possible that local religious organizations are not members of a centralized religious organization, but are included in its composition (structure) with the enshrining in their charters of rights and obligations (or only obligations) in relation to a centralized religious organization.

In addition to local religious organizations, the centralized religious organization also includes individuals. Members (participants) of the relevant local religious organizations can be considered as such indirectly (and if provided for by the charter - directly). Their activities of joint confession and dissemination of faith within the framework of local religious organizations can be simultaneously considered as participation in the activities of a centralized religious organization that unites locals. Members (participants) of a centralized religious organization may be individuals holding positions in the bodies of this organization.

The law provides for in paragraph 6 of article 8 another type of religious organizations: this an institution or organization created by a centralized religious organization, including governing or coordinating bodies, as well as professional religious education institutions. They must have the signs of a religious association, established in Art. 6, paragraph 1 of the Law.

This norm takes into account the variety of structures created to ensure religious life, which actually function for many years, but do not fall under the definitions of a local and centralized organization. This type includes: the Moscow Patriarchate - the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), its Department for External Church Relations and other synodal departments, theological academies, seminaries and schools, and many others. Strictly speaking, all of them, like centralized religious organizations, do not quite correspond to the basic definition of a religious association given in Art. 6, since they are not "voluntary associations of citizens", being created by legal entities, although by nature they are undoubtedly religious. This illustrates how difficult the task of legal regulation of the activities of religious organizations is.

The law regulates the right of centralized religious organizations to use the words "Russia", "Russian" and derivatives from them in their names, establishing in paragraph 5 of Article 8 that this is possible if the structures of such organizations acted on the territory of the Russian Federation on legal grounds at least 50 years old until the said organization applies for state registration. This norm is theoretically capable of giving rise to many problems related to the disclosure of the concept of "structure", with the position of organizations that legally operated in the tsarist, but not in Soviet Russia, with the correlation of the concepts "Russia" and "Russian Federation". In practice, religious organizations registered before the entry into force of the Law retained the right to be called “Russian” regardless of the current period, which was explained by the Constitutional Court in ruling No. 46-O dated April 13, 2000 on the complaint of the religious association “Independent Russian Region of the Society of Jesus” (Order of the Jesuits).

An important provision for state-confessional relations is enshrined in paragraph 7 of Article 8. According to it, state authorities, when considering issues affecting the activities of religious organizations in society, take into account the territorial sphere of activity of a religious organization and provide the relevant religious organizations with the opportunity to participate in the consideration of these issues. This norm is being implemented with the active assistance of structures that ensure the interaction of authorities with religious organizations, through consultations with representatives of religious organizations by authorities before making decisions. For example, representatives of the largest Russian religious organizations regularly participate in the preparation of draft laws regulating the activities of religious associations.

At the same time, this norm establishes a certain hierarchy of contacts, although not explicitly expressed. It can be interpreted in such a way that the federal authorities, considering issues relating to the life of the country as a whole, should provide an opportunity to participate in their discussion only to those religious organizations whose activities extend to the entire Russian Federation. However, federal regulations may significantly affect the interests of those religious organizations that operate in individual subjects of the Federation and do not have an all-Russian structure. Therefore, the question of when and which religious organizations have the right to take part in the discussion of issues affecting their activities is not simple enough.

The law does not disclose the concept of "issues affecting the activities of a religious organization", which creates additional difficulties. For example, if, when deciding whether to open a Protestant prayer house or build a mosque, local authorities seek the opinion of an Orthodox bishop, the latter may consider that such a decision will adversely affect the activities of neighboring Orthodox parishes. Should the interests of some confessions be taken into account when making decisions related to the activities of others, and how can the authorities maintain objectivity and impartiality at the same time? To date, law enforcement practice has not given an unambiguous answer to these questions.

According to the requirements of paragraph 8 of Article 8,

“The name of a religious organization must contain information about its religion. A religious organization is obliged to indicate its full name when carrying out activities.”

However, “the Law does not explain how religion should be indicated in the name of a religious organization. For example, if we are talking about a religious organization of a Christian denomination, is it enough to mention Christianity in general, or is it necessary to indicate the type of dogma (Orthodox, Anglican, Baptist, etc.)? Legislation does not contain clarifications in this regard. .

In accordance with the provisions of paragraph 9 of Article 8,

“a religious organization is obliged to inform the body that made the decision on its state registration about changes in the information specified in paragraph 1 of Article 5 of Federal Law No. 129-FZ of 08.08. received licenses, within three days from the date of such changes.

A complete list of information included in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRLE):

a) full name. If in the constituent documents of a legal entity its name is indicated in one of the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation and (or) in a foreign language, in state register the name of the legal entity in these languages is also indicated;

b) organizational and legal form;

c) the address (location) of the permanent executive body of the legal entity (in the absence of a permanent executive body of the legal entity - another body or person entitled to act on behalf of the legal entity without a power of attorney), which is used to communicate with the legal entity;

d) method of formation of a legal entity (creation or reorganization);

e) information about the founders of the legal entity;

f) copies of constituent documents of the legal entity;

g) information on succession - for legal entities established as a result of the reorganization of other legal entities, for legal entities whose constituent documents are amended in connection with the reorganization, as well as for legal entities that have terminated their activities as a result of the reorganization;

h) the date of registration of changes made to founding documents legal entity, or in cases established by law, the date of receipt by the registration authority of a notification of changes made to the constituent documents;

i) method of terminating the activities of a legal entity (by reorganization or liquidation);

j) last name, first name, patronymic and position of a person entitled to act on behalf of a legal entity without a power of attorney, as well as passport data of such a person or data of other identification documents in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, and taxpayer identification number, if any;

k) information about licenses obtained by a legal entity”. According to the same paragraph 9 of Art. 8 Law, a religious organization is also obliged to annually inform the body that made the decision on its state registration about the continuation of its activities.

The Federal Law "On non-profit organizations" establishes in Art. 32 that non-profit, including religious, organizations “are obliged to submit to the authorized body documents containing a report on their activities, on the personal composition of the governing bodies, as well as documents on the expenditure of funds and on the use of other property, including those received from international and foreign organizations, foreign citizens and stateless persons”.

Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of April 15, 2006 No. 212 established that the deadline for submitting the report is no later than April 15 of the year following the reporting year.

In accordance with paragraph 3.1 of Art. 32 of this law, non-profit (including religious) organizations that meet the following three criteria are exempted from submitting a report:

their founders (participants, members) are not foreign citizens and (or) organizations or stateless persons,

they had no receipts of property and funds from international or foreign organizations, foreign citizens, stateless persons during the year,

receipts of property and funds of such non-profit organizations during the year amounted to three million rubles.

Such religious organizations submit to the Ministry of Justice or its territorial body statement, confirming their compliance with this paragraph, and information in any form about the continuation of their activities annually, no later than April 15 of the year following the reporting year.

The form of the report of religious organizations was approved by order of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated March 29, 2010 No. 72.

Order No. 252 of October 7, 2010 of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation imposed on religious organizations the obligation to post their reports or information about the continuation of their activities on the Internet. Reports and messages are posted on the information resources of the Ministry of Justice of Russia on the Internet, intended for posting reports and messages, access to which is carried out through the official website of the Ministry of Justice of Russia (www.minjust.ru) and the official websites of its territorial bodies on the Internet (hereinafter - information resources Ministry of Justice of Russia on the Internet).

Currently, the question remains unregulated as to whether a religious organization that has submitted report on their activities in accordance with the requirements of Art. 32 of the Federal Law "On non-profit organizations", additionally inform the bodies of the Ministry of Justice on the continuation of their activities In accordance with the requirements of Art. 8, paragraph 9 of the Federal Law “On freedom of conscience…” (This problem does not arise in relation to those religious organizations that, for the above reasons, are exempted from the obligation to submit an annual report and are limited to informing about the continuation of their activities.) From a formal point of view, “a report on the activities ” and “information on the continuation of activities” are two different documents. However, in practice, the bodies of the Ministry of Justice do not require additional information about the continuation of activities from the religious organization that submitted the report.

In the event that a religious organization has ceased to provide the above information due to the actual termination of its activities, the Law provides that

“Repeated failure by a religious organization to submit within the established period of updated information necessary to make changes to the unified state register of legal entities is the basis for the appeal of the body that made the decision on the state registration of a religious organization to the court with a demand to recognize this organization as having ceased its activities as a legal entity. person and on its exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

This is the provision of paragraph 9 of Art. 8 corresponds to paragraph 1 of Art. 14 of the Law, which indicates the possibility of liquidating a religious organization by a court decision in the case provided for in paragraph 9 of Art. 8. (See further comments to Article 14 of the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…”.) The Federal Law “On Non-Commercial Organizations” also established in paragraph 10 of Article 32 that

“repeated failure by a non-profit organization to provide the information provided for in this article within the prescribed period is the basis for applying authorized body or its territorial body to the court with an application for the liquidation of this non-profit organization.

However, if a religious organization actually continues its activities and does not commit violations of the law (except for the timely submission of the above information), liquidation cannot be used as a sanction, i.e., as a form of “punishment” for such a religious organization. Ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated February 7, 2002 No. 7-O states that it is possible to resolve the issue of terminating the activities of a religious organization

“only if it is properly proved that it has ceased its activities or is carrying out illegal activities incompatible with the obligations of a religious organization as a legal entity arising from the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Wherein court, when deciding on the liquidation of a religious organization as not re-registered within the specified period, including due to the termination of its activities, cannot be limited to establishing formal conditions for the application of the provisions paragraph 4 of Art. 27 (failure to re-register within the specified period) and paragraph 9 of Art. 8 (failure to provide required information) named Federal Law "(my italics. - M.Sh.).

Legislation establishes administrative responsibility for non-performance (improper performance) by a religious organization of the obligation to submit the above information to the authorized body. Article 19.7 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation provides for non-submission or untimely submission to a state body (official) of data (information), the submission of which is provided for by law and is necessary for the implementation of this body (official) of its legal activities, as well as submission to a state body (official) such information (information) in an incomplete volume or in a distorted form, the imposition of an administrative fine on citizens in the amount of one hundred to three hundred rubles; on officials - from three hundred to five hundred rubles; for legal entities - from three to five thousand rubles.

Article 9 regulates the procedure for the creation of religious organizations. The founders of a local religious organization must be at least ten citizens of the Russian Federation. Thus, persons who are not Russian citizens cannot act as founders of an organization. However, such persons permanently and legally residing in Russia may be members (participants) of the organization and even its leaders.

According to the scheme laid down in the law, the social adaptation in Russia of a new religious movement should take place as follows: first, the followers of the new faith form a religious group and notify the local government of its creation. Then a 15-year period must pass, during which a clear idea of the nature of the activity of this group is formed, confidence appears in the absence of offenses in it, public danger. After that, the group receives state registration and becomes a local religious organization. At least two other religious groups should follow the same path. Only after that, three local religious organizations will be able to establish a centralized one and a further increase in the number of religious organizations of a given confession will occur without time limits.

The European Court of Human Rights in its Judgment of October 1, 2009 in the case of Kimlya and Others v. Russia recognized the restrictions established by the “15-year rule” as violating Article 9 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Thus, after the adoption of this Judgment by the ECtHR, the “rule of 15 years”, in fact, ceased to apply, although changes to the legislation have not yet been made.

The ECHR indicated in the above-mentioned Judgment that the state is obliged to take measures aimed at excluding refusals to register religious organizations on the grounds of non-compliance with the requirement that a religious association have existed for at least 15 years as a religious group.

Thus, after the said Judgment of the ECtHR came into force, the Ministry of Justice of Russia and its territorial bodies not entitled to justify the refusal of the state registration of a religious organization or leaving the corresponding application without consideration, refer to the absence (non-submission) of a document confirming the existence of a religious group for at least 15 years.

In this regard, the very norm of the commented article on the need to provide for state registration of a local religious organization a confirmation of the existence of a religious group in this territory for at least 15 years, issued by the local government, requires adjustment. .

A centralized religious organization may be formed if there are at least three local organizations. The Law does not directly state that local organizations that are part of the centralized structure must belong to the same religion, however, this indirectly follows from the provisions established in Art. 6 sign of the religious nature of the organization - the presence of religion.

For local religious organizations, a minimum of ten founding citizens was established by the Law on Freedom of Religion instead of the twenty required in Soviet time. This was taken as one of the steps to liberalize the legislation. This figure (10) was not substantiated by any sociological data, practical or legal considerations.

Sometimes opinions are expressed about the advisability of increasing the minimum number of founders, although, we note, the number of real participants in the organization may turn out to be in practice both more and less than the number of founders. One hundred to two hundred people belonging to a religious group can act as the founders of a religious organization in its entirety, or they can choose only the necessary ten members for this. At the same time, an increase in the minimum number of founders can encourage believers to make up for their lack by attracting friends and acquaintances who are ready to assist them in registration, but who are not practicing members of a religious association.

Realistically counteracting such practices will not be easy; formally, it contradicts the Law, but how to check whether all the founders participate in divine services, in religious activities, and how often? As we can see, in this case restrictive measures are unreasonable and can lead to results opposite to those desired.

Another interesting problem is how many local organizations can be founded by the same citizen. A. E. Sebentsov believes that only one . Soviet legislation contained an even stricter rule: "Each citizen can be a member of only one religious association (society or group)" . But there are no grounds for such a restriction in the current Law. It is impossible even to unequivocally answer whether one citizen can act as a founder of local organizations of different faiths. If his own religious beliefs allow him to identify his beliefs with several confessions, it is difficult to see this as a violation of the law. Another thing is how this position of a citizen will be considered by the religious organizations themselves, the founders of which he acts. But this is already beyond the legal regulation.

The question of centralized religious organizations is somewhat different. The extremely low number of local religious organizations capable of forming a centralized one indirectly contributed to the fact that disintegration processes noticeably accelerated in a number of confessions, during which a number of centralized religious organizations were formed, challenging each other for the right to represent the interests of believers in the region or in the country as a whole. But at the same time, an increase in the qualification will lead to the fact that the Law will actually act as an instrument for maintaining “internal church discipline”, a means of fighting the leadership of large denominations against “schismatics” and oppositionists. The latter will experience much b about Greater difficulties in creating an alternative centralized religious organization. Bills providing for an increase in the minimum number of local religious organizations necessary for the formation of the CRO were repeatedly submitted to the State Duma, but did not receive the support of legislators.

Article 10 determines the basic requirements for the content of the charter of a religious organization, which is its founding document. According to paragraph 2 of Art. 10, the charter of a religious organization specifies:

“name, location, type of religious organization, religion and, in case of belonging to an existing centralized religious organization, its name;

goals, objectives and main forms of activity;

the procedure for the creation and termination of activities;

the structure of the organization, its management bodies, the procedure for their formation and competence;

sources of formation of funds and other property of the organization;

the procedure for introducing amendments and additions to the charter;

the procedure for disposing of property in the event of termination of activities;

other information relating to the specifics of the activities of this religious organization.

Article 11 The law deals with the state registration of religious organizations. It defines that decision-making on state registration is carried out by the federal executive body authorized in the field of state registration of public associations or its territorial body (hereinafter referred to as the state registration body). At present, this function is performed by the Ministry of Justice and its territorial departments in the subjects of the Federation. The administrative regulations for the provision by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of the state service for making a decision on the state registration of non-profit organizations was approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation dated December 30, 2011 No. 455.

(Herself registration all types of legal entities are carried out by the authorized state body in accordance with the Federal Law "On State Registration of Legal Entities" dated 08.08.2001 No. 129-FZ. Currently, registration of legal entities and their entry into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRLE) is carried out by the Federal Tax Service).

Thus, the state registration authority considers the application for registration of a religious organization and the submitted materials and, in the event of a positive decision, submits them to the authority that enters information on the creation of a religious organization into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.

In Art. Clause 11, paragraph 5 provides a list of documents submitted to the state registration authorities by the founders of a local religious organization:

“application for registration;

a list of persons creating a religious organization, indicating citizenship, place of residence, date of birth;

charter of a religious organization;

minutes of the constituent assembly;

a document confirming the existence of a religious group in a given territory for at least fifteen years, issued by a local government, or confirming its membership in a centralized religious organization, issued by its governing center;

information about the basics of the dogma and the practice corresponding to it, including the history of the emergence of religion and this association, the forms and methods of its activity, the attitude towards family and marriage, education, the peculiarities of the attitude towards the health of the followers of this religion, restrictions for members and ministers organizations with regard to their civil rights and obligations;

information about the address (location) of the permanent governing body of the religious organization being created, through which communication with the religious organization is carried out;

document confirming the payment of the state fee.

If the founders do not submit a document confirming the existence of a religious group in a given territory for at least fifteen years, the territorial body of the federal state registration body independently requests the specified information from the relevant local self-government body.

The last paragraph was introduced into the text of the Law in connection with the adoption of the Federal Law “On the organization of the provision of state and municipal services”, according to which, from July 1, 2011, bodies providing state and municipal services are not entitled to demand from the applicant documents and information that state bodies and organizations, local governments already have. If the applicant fails to submit the said documents, the body providing the state or municipal service must request them independently (interdepartmental exchange of information and documents).

At the same time, the legal consequences of the applicant’s failure to submit a document on a 15-year period, as well as the failure to submit this document by a local government at the request of a territorial body of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, are equivalent: the absence of a document confirming the 15-year period of existence of a religious group in a given territory, is not grounds for refusal in the state registration of a religious organization or leaving an application for its state registration without consideration.

After the establishment in 2002 of a unified procedure for registering legal entities, a state fee began to be levied when registering a religious organization. Previously, as in Soviet times, the registration of religious organizations was free of charge and was not subject to a fee. In accordance with Art. 333 33 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the amount of the state fee for state registration of a legal entity, including a religious organization, is 4,000 rubles, for registration of amendments to the constituent documents (to the charter of a religious organization) - 800 rubles.

Paragraph 9 of Article 11 establishes the right of the body that decides on registration, if the applicants do not comply with the listed requirements, to leave the application without consideration. Unlike the refusal to register, in this case it does not indicate the possibility of challenging in court the abandonment of the application without consideration. In Art. 11 also refers to the conduct, if necessary, of the state religious expertise (clause 8).

The procedure for conducting state religious expertise and the Regulations on the expert council for conducting state religious expertise were approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice dated February 18, 2009 No. 53.

An exhaustive list of grounds on which state registration of a religious organization may be denied is contained in article 12:

“the goals and activities of a religious organization are contrary to the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the legislation of the Russian Federation;

the organization being created is not recognized as a religious one;

the charter and other submitted documents do not comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation or the information contained in them is not reliable;

an organization with the same name was previously registered in the unified state register of legal entities;

the founder (founders) is not authorized”.

From a practical point of view, it is not easy to imagine an attempt to register a religious organization that openly proclaims illegal goals, but in the event of a gap in the legislation, it would be impossible for the bodies making the decision to register to justify the refusal. It is more difficult to interpret the wording of the provision on the activity of a religious organization that has not yet been established, which is contrary to the law. When it comes to violations of the law by members of a religious group about to register, it is not clear to what extent these violations can be regarded as illegal activities of a religious association as a whole.

If at least one of the signs of the religious nature of the organization, named in Art. 6, she is not religious and this entails the refusal of registration. Contradictions to the law in the charter and other documents submitted by the founders, in principle, can be eliminated with the help of lawyers. An important issue is the reliability of information about the founders, about the basics of dogma and religious practice (concealment or distortion of any odious provisions is possible). The latter is especially significant when an organization from among new religious movements is registered, which is not included in the structure of a centralized organization.

Refusal to register a religious organization, as well as evasion of registration, can be appealed in court. In this case, evasion should be understood as cases where the registration authority does not give applicants any response beyond the time limits established by law. It is possible that repeated leaving of the application without consideration under far-fetched pretexts should also be qualified as evasion. In accordance with the Decree of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated February 10, 2009 No. 2, cases on challenging the refusal of state registration, evasion of state registration of religious organizations are under the jurisdiction of courts of general jurisdiction.

According to paragraph 1 of Art. 256 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, a citizen has the right to apply to the court to challenge the decisions, actions (inactions) of public authorities within three months from the day he became aware of the violation of his rights and freedoms. Any of the founders of the religious organization being created can apply with such a statement, since the refusal affects the rights of each of the founders.

Article 13 regulates the creation and activities of representative offices of foreign religious organizations. The law defines: "A foreign religious organization is an organization established outside the Russian Federation in accordance with the legislation of a foreign state." Thus, the Catholic parish created in Russia will Russian a local religious organization, and an Orthodox parish of the Moscow Patriarchate established in Ukraine or Belarus - foreign religious organization.

Foreign religious organizations may open their representative offices in Russia, which, however, do not have the status of a religious association and may not engage in religious or other religious activities. At present, the Procedure for Registration, Opening and Closing of Representative Offices of Foreign Religious Organizations in the Russian Federation is approved by Order of the Ministry of Justice of Russia No. 62 dated March 3, 2009.

Art. 13, paragraph 5 provides that a Russian religious organization has the right to have a representative office of a foreign religious organization with it. This right is granted by law to both local and centralized organizations, therefore the above-mentioned "Registration Procedure ..." unreasonably deprives local organizations of this right, speaking of the right to have them only for centralized Russian religious organizations. However, due to the small number of representative offices of foreign religious organizations, of which there are only about ten registered in the entire Russian Federation, this problem is irrelevant.

AT article 14 the procedure for the liquidation of a religious organization and the ban on the activities of a religious association in case of violation of the law are regulated. First of all, it should be recalled that in the legal language the term "liquidation" has a different semantic coloration than in ordinary speech - this is the termination of a legal entity, including a completely voluntary one.

The law is based on the norm established in Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, indicating two possible options for the liquidation of a religious organization: - 1) by decision of the founders or a body authorized by the charter of the organization, and 2) by a court decision in the event of illegal actions of the organization or as a result of the actual termination its activities (self-decay).

Article 14, paragraph 1, states that religious organizations may be liquidated by decision of the founders or by a body authorized to do so by the charter of the religious organization.

The right to decide on liquidation religious institution, for example, an institution of professional religious education, is owned by its founder.

The model statute of a local religious organization - the Parish of the Russian Orthodox Church includes the provision that "in the event that the Parish meeting makes a decision on the withdrawal of the Parish from the structure and jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Parish loses its confirmation of belonging to the Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, which entails the liquidation of the Parish and deprives its right to use phrases and religious symbols in the name that indicate belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church.”

Thus, an additional ground is directly introduced here for the liquidation of a religious organization as a legal entity, which should take place “automatically”, without the adoption of an appropriate decision by the bodies of the local religious organization. This provision of the charter is intended to prevent the “flight” of a local religious organization (with all its property) from the centralized religious organization of the Russian Orthodox Church. But the registering body does not have the right to independently decide on the liquidation of a religious organization on the basis of the provisions contained in its charter. In the current situation, he may refuse to register a new charter for a local religious organization reflecting its withdrawal from the CRO, due to the fact that such a change in the charter contradicts the above statutory provision on liquidation as a mandatory consequence of leaving the CRO. But the validity of such a refusal seems to be undisputed. We don't know arbitrage practice on cases related to the liquidation of Orthodox local religious organizations that left the structure of the Russian Orthodox Church.

The most important norm of Russian legislation on religious associations, which distinguishes it from Soviet legislation, is the norm on exclusive competence judiciary take decisions on the liquidation of a religious organization (except for the above-mentioned voluntary decision on liquidation taken by the founders or a body authorized by the charter of a religious organization), on the prohibition of the activities of a religious association. In Soviet times, the right to terminate activities religious association belonged to the executive authorities. It was carried out by removing religious associations from registration by decision of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. In modern Russia, no executive authority is empowered to decide on the liquidation of a religious organization, on a ban on the activities of a religious association. An adversarial litigation, during which a religious association can provide arguments and evidence in defense of its interests, is intended to serve as protection against administrative arbitrariness of the executive branch.

Paragraph 1 of Art. 14 states that religious organizations can be liquidated

“by a court decision in the event of repeated or gross violations of the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, this Federal Law and other federal laws, or in the event of a religious organization systematically carrying out activities that contradict the goals of its creation (statutory goals);

by a court decision in the case provided for by paragraph 9 of Article 8 of this Federal Law.

This does not mean, however, that any repeated violations of laws may serve as grounds for the liquidation of a religious organization. In particular, in judicial practice such a violation of the law as repeated failure to submit a report on one's activities or information on the continuation of activities is not recognized as a sufficient basis for the liquidation of a religious organization.

The Ruling of December 14, 2010 No. 49-G10-86 of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation states:

“The Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Bashkortostan (hereinafter referred to as the Department) filed a lawsuit with statement of claim on the liquidation of the local Muslim religious organization Mahalla No. 1033 p. Kudashevo, Tatyshlinsky district of the Republic of Bashkortostan (hereinafter referred to as the Religious Organization) and its exclusion from the unified state register of legal entities.

In support of his claims, the plaintiff pointed out that during the audit it was established that the religious organization did not fulfill the obligation to annually inform the body that made the decision on its state registration about the continuation of its activities no later than April 15 of the year following the reporting one. This information is not provided by the Religious Organization for 2006–2009.

On August 28, 2009, the Office issued a warning to the defendant to eliminate this violation by September 30, 2009, which was not executed.

These circumstances, according to the plaintiff, testify to the religious organization's repeated violation of the requirements of federal laws and are grounds for its liquidation. (…)

By virtue of par. 2 p. 2 art. 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a legal entity may be liquidated by a court decision in the event of gross violations of the law committed during its creation, if these violations are irreparable, or if activities are carried out without a proper permit (license), or prohibited by law, or in violation of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, or with other repeated or gross violations of the law or other legal acts, or when a non-profit organization, including a public or religious organization (association), a charitable or other foundation, systematically carries out activities that are contrary to its statutory goals, as well as in other cases provided for by this Code .

In accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 117 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the specifics of the legal status of public and religious organizations as participants in relations regulated by the said Code are determined by law.

The liquidation of a religious organization is one of the types of liability of legal entities for committed violations, the procedure and grounds for the application of which are provided for in Art. 32 of the Federal Law of January 12, 1996 No. 7-FZ “On Non-Commercial Organizations”, art. 14 of the Federal Law of September 26, 1997 No. 125-FZ “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations” and Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

In accordance with paragraph 1 of Art. eighteen and paragraph 10 of Art. 32 of the Federal Law “On Non-Profit Organizations”, a non-profit organization may be liquidated on the basis and in the manner provided for by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, this Federal Law and other federal laws. Repeated failure by a non-profit organization to submit the information provided for by this article within the established period is the basis for the authorized body or its territorial body to apply to the court for the liquidation of this non-profit organization.

The Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation of July 18, 2003 No. 14-P on the case of checking the constitutionality of the provisions of Article 35 of the Federal Law “On Joint Stock Companies”, Articles 61 and 99 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation states that the absence in paragraph 2 of Article 61 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of a specific list of provisions , the violation of which may lead to the liquidation of a legal entity, that is, its termination without transfer of rights and obligations in the order of succession, does not mean that this sanction can be applied on only one formal basis - in connection with the repeated violations of legal acts binding on legal entities. Based on the general legal principles of legal liability (including the presence of guilt) and established by Art. 55 (Part 3) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of the criteria for restricting rights and freedoms, the observance of which is obligatory not only for the legislator, but also for the law enforcer, the contested norm assumes that repeated violations of the law in the aggregate must be so significant as to allow the court - taking into account all the circumstances of the case, including an assessment of the nature of the violations committed by the legal entity and the consequences caused by it - to decide on the liquidation of the legal entity as a measure necessary to protect the rights and legitimate interests other persons(emphasis mine. - M.Sh).

Thus, based on the constitutional and legal meaning of these norms, a legal entity, including a public a religious organization cannot be liquidated only on the basis of the formality of repeated violations of the requirements of the law, even if they are proved.

The nature of violations committed by a legal entity, as well as the consequences caused by them, must be so significant and irremovable that the restoration of legality is possible only through its liquidation.(emphasis mine. - M.Sh.).

The liquidation of a legal entity as a response to violations of the current legislation should be applied in accordance with the general legal principles of legal liability and be proportionate to the violations committed by the legal entity and the consequences they caused.

In refusing to satisfy the application of the Department, the court correctly proceeded from the fact that the violations of the current legislation that took place in the activities of the said Religious Organization, which were revealed during the audit conducted by the Department, by their nature and their consequences, cannot be a sufficient basis for the liquidation of this public organization. organizations.

At the same time, the court correctly took into account the possibility of eliminating the violations committed, as well as the explanations of the founders of the Religious Organization that the failure to provide reports is due to the fact that the imam-khatib of the mosque was replaced, and the former imam-khatib did not properly transfer the documents and any instructions regarding reporting, which indicates the absence of deliberate actions of the Religious Organization that led to the admission of these violations.

In the event of self-disintegration of a religious organization that actually ceased its activities and within three years did not inform the body that made the decision on its registration about the continuation of its activities (in accordance with Article 8, Clause 9 of the law), the organization is recognized by the court as having ceased its activities. activity and its exclusion from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. From the point of view of civil law, the liquidation (voluntary or forced) of a legal entity is a more or less lengthy process, the main content of which is to identify and satisfy the requirements of creditors, to dispose of the property of the liquidated organization. Recognition of an organization that has ceased its activities is a statement of the actual disappearance, abolition of the organization.

Paragraph 2 of Article 14 contains a list of grounds for the liquidation of a religious organization and introduces another concept - a "ban on activities", which applies to all religious associations, including those that do not have the status of a legal entity, i.e. religious groups.

These grounds are:

“violation of public safety and public order;

actions aimed at carrying out extremist activities;

coercion to destroy the family;

encroachment on the personality, rights and freedoms of citizens;

infliction of damage to the morality, health of citizens, established in accordance with the law, including the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, hypnosis in connection with their religious activities, the commission of depraved and other unlawful acts;

inducement to suicide or refusal on religious grounds to provide medical care to persons in a life-threatening and health-threatening condition;

obstruction of compulsory education;

coercion of members and followers of a religious association and other persons to alienate their property in favor of a religious association;

preventing the threat of causing harm to life, health, property, if there is a danger of its real execution or the use of violent influence, by other unlawful actions, the exit of a citizen from a religious association;

inducing citizens to refuse to fulfill their civic obligations established by law and to commit other unlawful acts.

Due to the fact that a religious group is not a legal entity, it cannot be liquidated, the court can only decide to ban the activity of a religious group.

In relation to a religious organization, the court may issue a decision combining the liquidation of a legal entity and a ban on the activities of the liquidated religious association. Thus, a religious organization liquidated by the court for the implementation of an illegal group will not be able to continue its activities in the form of a religious group.

Let us pay special attention to the fact that the Federal Law “On Freedom of Conscience…” eliminated the norm that was present in the Law of the RSFSR “On Freedom of Religion”, according to which a religious association was not responsible for violations of the law committed by its individual members. This provision made it practically impossible to impute an offense to the association as a whole. Currently, in the first place, in the case of an offense committed by specific individuals, their guilt must be established by the court. If at the same time there are sufficient grounds to see a causal relationship between the illegal actions of these citizens and instructions or orders received by them in a religious association, the case on liquidation of the relevant religious organization, ban on the activities of the religious association is already considered in civil proceedings.

Paragraph 4 of Art. 14 of the Law defines in accordance with the terminology of the Federal Law "On State Registration of Legal Entities" the procedure for state registration of a religious organization in connection with its liquidation.

Paragraph 6 of Art. 14 of the Law establishes that the above grounds and procedure for the liquidation of a religious organization by a court decision also apply to the prohibition of the activities of a religious group. Paragraph 7 says that the activities of a religious association may be suspended, a religious organization may be liquidated, and the activities of a religious association that is not a religious organization may be prohibited in the manner and on the grounds provided for by the Federal Law "On Counteracting Extremist Activities".

In accordance with the provisions of Article 10 of the Federal Law of July 25, 2002 No. 114 “On Countering Extremist Activity”, in the event that a religious organization carries out extremist activity that entails a violation of the rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen, causing harm to a person, the health of citizens, the environment , public order, public safety, property, legitimate economic interests of individuals and (or) legal entities, society and the state or creating a real threat of causing such harm, the bodies of the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and its territorial bodies from the moment they apply to the court with an application for the liquidation of a religious organization and (or) a ban on the activities of a religious association has the right to suspend the activities of a religious organization by its decision until the court considers the said application.

Bodies of the Prosecutor's Office may also suspend the activities of a religious group. Since the trial and adjudication of cases of this kind can continue for quite a long time, the suspension of the activities of a religious association helps to prevent situations when, having already been brought to trial, it would continue extremist activities until the court decides on its liquidation ( ban its activities). If the court does not satisfy the application for the liquidation of a religious organization (for a ban on the activities of a religious association), then it resumes its activities after the entry into force of the court decision.

The application of the provisions of Article 14 to ban a religious group is hampered by the absence of clear formal criteria for establishing the fact of the creation and existence of a religious group in the event that members of the alleged religious group subjectively do not consider themselves as such, if they did not formally establish a religious group (see comment above). to Article 7 of the Law). The court may conclude that an offense was committed by a group of persons and that there is a set of objective signs of a religious association in the collective activities of a group of persons who committed the offense. However, in the absence of self-identification of the perpetrators as members of a religious group, in the absence of a formal decision on the establishment of a religious group and its name, in the absence of complete list members of the group (not necessarily identical to the composition of the group of persons who committed the offense!) it is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine the specific content of the court decision to ban a religious group and the mechanism for its enforcement.

A ban on the activities of a religious group can be implemented in practice if any of the participants provides premises (a religious building has been built or equipped) and other property specially designed for the activities of the religious group to carry out its activities. In this case, the fact of violation of the ban on the activities of a religious group can be reliably established (for example, when the collective performance of religious rites is resumed in a specially equipped prayer room belonging to one of the group members). In the absence of special-purpose property, it is rather problematic to qualify the actions of members of a banned religious group as a continuation of its activities.

The practical consequence of a court decision to ban a religious group is that its members cannot carry out any activity on behalf of the banned group. But extending this ban to any joint activity of confession of faith for members of a banned religious group seems to be wrong. For example, any joint prayer of members of a banned religious group should not automatically be considered a violation of the ban. (See commentary on v. 7: all collective worship cannot be regarded as the actual emergence (or renewal) of a religious group.)

However, it should be taken into account that the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 11 of June 28, 2011 “On judicial practice in criminal cases on crimes of an extremist orientation” indicates that

“recognition of an organized group as an extremist community does not require a preliminary judicial decision to ban or liquidate a public or religious association or other organization in connection with the implementation of extremist activities.”

The resolution defines an extremist community as

"a stable group of persons who have united in advance to prepare or commit one or more extremist crimes, characterized by the presence of an organizer (leader) in its composition, the stability of the composition, and the coordination of the actions of its participants in order to implement common criminal intentions."

Thus, difficulties with the question of whether a religious group has been created and, accordingly, whether it is possible to ban its activities, do not prevent the suppression of the activities of extremist communities.

Religious associations in the Russian Federation briefly. Religious associations

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Religious associations in the Russian Federation briefly. Religious associations

Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below

Similar Documents

Legislation

Classification

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