LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution specifies the country is a secular state, prohibits religious discrimination, and provides for freedom of thought, conscience, and belief, as well as the right to enjoy, practice, profess, maintain, and promote any religion. It also specifies, “No persons may be discriminated against on the grounds of sex, race, color, ethnic origin, religion, creed, or social or economic status.” These rights may be subject to “reasonable restrictions” justified by interests such as “the sovereignty and integrity of Namibia, national security, public order, decency, or morality.”

The law allows recognition of any religious group as a voluntary association. Religious groups may also register as nonprofit organizations (an “association without gain”) with the Ministry of Industrialization and Trade. Religious groups registered as nonprofit organizations or formed as voluntary associations are exempt from paying taxes. If a religious group registers as a welfare organization, it may seek to purchase communal land, sometimes at reduced rates, subject to the discretion of traditional authorities and community land councils responsible for the allocation of communal land.

The constitution permits religious groups to establish private schools, provided no student is denied admission based on creed. The government school curriculum contains a nonsectarian “religious and moral education” component that includes education on moral principles and human rights and introduces students to a variety of African traditions and religions, as well as to world religions such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, the Baha’i Faith, and Rastafarianism.

Since September, the government’s Financial Intelligence Center (FIC) requires any nonprofit organization operating in the country to comply with new registration requirements intended to strengthen the country’s existing laws and regulations against money laundering and terrorism finance. The new regulations require administrators of religious and other civil society groups to disclose the personal financial details of their founders, beneficial owners (individuals with greater than 20 percent ownership or controlling interest in an enterprise), board members, and donors of any funds exceeding 5,000 Namibian dollars ($270). The regulations further require details on the organizations’ “control structure, governance, management, administration, and operations,” as well as the submission of annual financial statements to the FIC for auditing purposes. Potential penalties for noncompliance include 10-30 years imprisonment and fines of 10 million to 100 million Namibian dollars ($543,000 to $5.4 million). The requirements and penalties are the same for religious and nonreligious organizations.

A still active preindependence proclamation with legal effect on witchcraft suppression (WSP) sets punishments for anyone convicted of accusing someone of being a wizard or a witch; accusing someone of using “non-natural means in causing any disease in any person or property, or in causing injury to any person or property;” compelling someone else to accuse an individual of being a witch; or claiming themselves to practice witchcraft. These punishments include imprisonment with or without hard labor for up to five years, a fine, or both.

Like other foreigners seeking to work in the country, religious workers must obtain a work visa. There is no separate religious worker visa.

The country is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

Following the issuance of the new FIC registration requirements for nonprofit organizations, representatives of civil society groups and the media stated the new requirements were an attempt to suppress and intimidate nonprofit organizations, including churches. The leader of a large faith-based organization said some smaller member churches had only one or two employees and found the reporting requirements too burdensome, adding that some did not have access to computers to file the applications, some were unaware of the need to comply, and some had their bank accounts frozen as a result of failure to comply. The government issued the requirements following the 2021 release of a government publication regarding the risks of noncompliance with international standards against money laundering, terrorist financing, and proliferation financing. The publication stated that some churches in the country were implicated in financial crimes. The new registration requirements sought to mitigate those risks, according to government officials, in light of the arrests of multiple church leaders implicated in international financial or trafficking crimes. One local religious official said that some churches’ involvement in financial or trafficking crimes was a known problem in the community.

The government periodically included religious leaders in discussions regarding issues affecting the country. The government, including President Hage Geingob, the Minister of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication, and Child Welfare, the Minister of Home Affairs, Immigration, and State Security (MHAISS), and representatives from the Ministry of Labor, met with leaders of major religious groups and the Interfaith Council (representing the Evangelical Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, and Roman Catholic Churches, and the Muslim, Jewish, and Baha’i communities) to strengthen government-interfaith community cooperation. During the year, these meetings addressed humanitarian assistance for landless minority groups, the rights of workers in mining and other natural resource-focused industries, strategies to combat gender-based violence, opportunities for collaboration with parliament, and other human rights matters.

Religious leaders continued to state they occasionally faced problems with the government regarding visas, but they viewed this as caused by general visa difficulties for foreign workers, rather than by specific opposition to foreign religious workers.

In July, media reported that Chief Inspector of NAMPOL Christina van Dunem DaFonsech met with traditional healers, Pentecostal church leaders, and village headmen in Outapi in the Omusati region. At the meeting, she said some traditional healers and charismatic church pastors were “enriching themselves by taking advantage of vulnerable members of society by crafting witchcraft accusations” against others. Reminding her audience that the WSP was still in effect, DaFonsech urged healers and church leaders to stop accusing others of witchcraft; she said 27 persons across the country had committed suicide in 2022 after being accused of witchcraft. She also said church leaders and traditional healers should stop abusing their congregations by having sexual relations with some members and telling members not to take modern medicine for illnesses.

Some of the churches closed by the previous inspector general of NAMPOL in 2022 reopened, and there were no similar church closures by the government during the year. The inspector general had directed officers to charge some pastors with the practice of witchcraft under the WSP in order to shut down what police officials deemed to be “fake churches.” Closure of these churches in 2022 had been triggered by allegations from local communities, NGOs, and local government institutions that some were promoting civil unrest, inciting violence, engaging in unsafe health practices, and committing fraud.

The Council of Churches (which includes the Lutheran and Catholic Churches as well as many smaller churches), and the broader Interfaith Council continued to meet regularly and advocate that the government address the socioeconomic needs of its congregations, such as by supporting the impoverished and the landless, using natural resources prudently as a source of employment opportunities, and combating gender-based violence. These councils also engaged with the government to seek opportunities for partnership, such as training in ethics for parliamentarians.