LEGAL FRAMEWORK

The constitution provides for freedom of conscience and religion; the right to practice or not practice a religion, individually or jointly with other persons; and the right to refuse to express one’s religious views. It prohibits actions inciting religious hatred.

The constitution establishes the separation of religion and state. It prohibits the establishment of religiously based political parties and the pursuit of political goals by religious groups. The constitution prohibits the establishment of any religion as a state or mandatory religion.

The law states all religions and religious groups are equal. It prohibits “persistent actions aimed at converting followers of one religion to another” and “illegal missionary activity,” defined as missionary activity of groups not registered with the SCRA, a government organization composed of presidential appointees that is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the law’s provisions on religion. The law also prohibits the involvement of minors in organized, proselytizing religious groups unless a parent grants written consent. The law prohibits the distribution of religious literature, including printed, audio, and video materials, in public places, including streets, apartment buildings, children’s institutions, and schools.

The law requires all religious groups and religiously affiliated schools to register with the SCRA. The law prohibits activities by unregistered religious groups, including renting space and holding religious services, including in private homes. Failure to register can lead to a fine of 7,500 som ($84) for individuals and 23,000 som ($260) for legal entities. Groups applying for registration must submit an application that includes an organizational charter, minutes of the organizing meeting, and a list of founding members. Each congregation of a religious group must register separately and must have at least 200 resident founding citizens. Foreign religious organizations are required to renew their registrations with the SCRA annually. Although a 2016 Supreme Court decision nullified the requirement that religious groups register with local councils to establish new places of worship, in practice, the SCRA still maintains this requirement.

The SCRA is legally authorized to deny the registration of a religious group if it does not comply with the law or is considered a threat to national security, social stability, interethnic and interdenominational harmony, public order, health, or morality. The SCRA may also deny or postpone the registration of a particular religious group if it deems the proposed activities of the group are not religious in character. Denied applicants may reapply at any time or may appeal to the courts.

After the SCRA approves a group’s registration as a religious entity, the group must register with the Ministry of Justice to obtain status as a legal entity in order to own property, open bank accounts, or otherwise engage in contractual activities. The organization must submit an application to the ministry that includes a group charter with an administrative structure and a list of board and founding members. By law, religious groups are designated as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) exempt from taxes on their religious activities. If a religious group engages in a commercial activity, it is required to pay taxes on that activity.

The law gives the SCRA authority to ban a religious group in cases in which courts concur that a religious organization has undermined the security of the state; undertaken actions aimed at forcibly changing the foundations of the constitutional system; created armed forces or propaganda advocating war or terrorism; engaged in the encroachment on the rights of citizens or obstruction of compulsory education of children; coerced members to remit their property to the religious group; or encouraged citizens to refuse to fulfil their civil obligations and break the law. The affected religious group may appeal the decision in the courts.

The constitution prohibits religious groups from “involvement in organizational activities aimed at inciting ethnic, racial, or religious hatred.” A conviction for inciting ethnic, racial, or religious hatred may lead to a prison term of three to eight years, while a conviction for creating an organization aimed at inciting ethnic, racial, or religious hatred may lead to a prison term of five to 10 years. Conviction for murder committed on the grounds of religious hatred is punishable by up to life imprisonment.

The law mandates separate prison facilities for prisoners convicted of terrorism and “extremism.” The law also allows for revoking the citizenship of any Kyrgyz national found to have trained outside the country to acquire skills to commit terrorist or extremist crimes. The law defines “extremist activity” as including the violent overthrow of the constitutional order; undermining the security of the country; violence or inciting violence on racial, national, or religious grounds; propagating the symbols or paraphernalia of an extremist organization; carrying out mass riots or vandalism based on ideological, political, racial, national, or religious hatred or enmity; and hate speech or hostility toward any social group.

According to the law, only individuals representing registered religious organizations may conduct missionary activity. If a foreign missionary represents an organization approved by the SCRA, the individual must apply for a visa with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Visas are valid for up to one year, and a missionary is allowed to work three consecutive years in the country. All foreign religious entities, including missionaries, must operate within these restrictions and must reregister annually. Representatives of religious groups acting inconsistently with the law may be fined or deported. Violations of the law may result in fines of 1,000 som ($11), and deportation in the case of foreign missionaries.

The law provides for the right of registered religious groups to produce, import, export, and distribute religious literature and materials in accordance with established procedures, which may include examination by state experts. The law does not require government examination of religious materials (such as literature and other printed or audio or video materials), and it does not define the criteria for state religious experts. The law prohibits the distribution of religious literature and materials in public locations or in visits to individual households, schools, or other institutions. The law specifies fines based on the nature of the violations and requires law enforcement officials to demonstrate an intent to distribute extremist materials before arresting a suspect.

Military service for 12 months is obligatory for men, and members of religious groups are not automatically exempt, although they can pay to opt out of military service. According to the law, religion is grounds for conscientious objection to and may claim exemption from military service. Conscientious objectors must pay a fee of 18,000 som ($200) to opt out of military service and must do so before turning 27 years of age. Failure to pay by the age limit requires the person to perform 108 hours of community service or pay a fine of 25,000 som ($280). If males are unable to serve due to family circumstances, such as being the sole breadwinner or having a large number of children, and have not paid by the age limit, they must pay 18,000 som ($200). Draft-eligible men who evade military service and do not fall under an exemption are subject to a fine or imprisonment of up to two years.

The law allows public schools the option to offer religion courses that discuss the history and character of religions, as long as the subject of such teaching is not religious doctrine and does not promote any particular religion. Private religious schools need to register with the SCRA to operate as such. Public schools offer a course on the “History of the Development of Religions” for all students in grades 7-9. The course covers the history of world religions and their impact on national identity.

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

GOVERNMENT PRACTICES

The government maintained bans on 21 “religiously oriented” groups it considered to be extremist: al-Qa’ida, the Taliban, Islamic Movement of Eastern Turkistan, Kurdish Peoples’ Congress, Organization for the Release of Eastern Turkistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Union of Islamic Jihad, Islamic Party of Turkistan, Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Unification Church), Takfir Jihadist, Jaysh al-Mahdi, Jund al-Khilafah, Ansarullah, al-Takfir Val-Hidjra, Akromiya, ISIS, Djabhat an-Nusra, Katibat al-Imam al-Buhari, Jannat Oshiqlari, Jamaat al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, and Yakyn Inkar. Authorities also continued to ban all materials or activities connected to the Chechen Islamist militant leader A.A. Tihomirov (also known as Said Buryatsky), whose activities and materials the Bishkek District Court deemed to be extremist in 2014. According to the law, banned groups may not conduct any activities within the country, including publishing material online.

The government continued to arrest members of the pan-Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir on extremism charges. According to local press, the government arrested at least 43 individuals it said were members of Hizb ut-Tahrir during the year, compared with nine the previous year. The 43 were detained under suspicion of distributing banned religious materials, either through in-person meetings or via social media networks, or for holding leadership positions in the organization. In most cases, those arrested were held in the State Committee for National Security’s (GKNB) pretrial detention center that housed individuals characterized by the government as violent extremists.

From March through June, local media reported that a total of 25 Yakyn Inkar members were arrested in raids in Bishkek and in the Chui and Jalalabad regions. According to the security services, four Yakyn Inkar members were charged with financing the organization’s activities. Police said that during the raids, they confiscated books, flyers, copybooks with notes, and computer data-storage devices containing material that they said promoted the Islamic group’s ideology. In statements, the government said that Yakyn Inkar members denied their children a secular lifestyle by prohibiting them from attending public schools, as well as from receiving vaccinations and other medical procedures.

In March, SCRA representatives, security personnel from the GKNB, and the Talas police department raided St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Talas after a Sunday evening Mass. Persons leaving the state-registered church were forced back into the church by officers, some of whom were carrying weapons. Security personnel accused two Slovak nuns of “illegal missionary activities” and did not allow congregants to depart the church until the two nuns had signed a statement admitting illegal missionary activities” and “spreading their ideology.” The SCRA fined the nuns 7,500 soms ($84) for carrying out religious activities without SCRA registration. The Catholic Apostolic Administration appealed the fines.

Three days after the raid on St Nicholas Church, the SCRA wrote a letter to the Catholic Apostolic Administration in Bishkek stating that the SCRA would “take action against the Apostolic Administration in Kyrgyzstan for its liquidation” if more violations occurred.

In June, two foreign citizens at a registered Protestant church in Bishkek were fined for “illegal missionary activity” after a raid by state officials.

In June, authorities fined a Christian religious organization for conducting its services with the participation of foreign missionaries who did not have permission to conduct religious activities. One of the missionaries subsequently applied for a registration with SCRA, which rejected the application. Police then detained a local representative of the organization for allegedly offering a bribe to a GKNB employee to solve the registration issue.

In June, international religious freedom NGO Forum 18 reported that representatives from the security services, as well as SCRA officials, raided the wedding rehearsal of a couple belonging to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON). The rehearsal was taking place in the apartment of another ISKCON follower. Authorities fined the individual 7,500 Soms ($84) and cancelled the student visas of the Indian students present.

In August, the government, including representatives from the SCRA and security services, conducted raids on houses of worship in the southern Osh region, and shut down 39 mosques and 21 madrassahs. An additional 48 mosques and 40 madrassahs received an administrative fine. In the southern Batken region, the government conducted similar raids and shut down 32 mosques and 5 madrassahs. An additional 55 mosques and 6 madrassahs received an administrative fine.

In the western Talas region, government inspections found 172 mosques and namazkanas (prayer rooms) violated fire safety regulations and 107 violated sanitary and hygienic standards. In addition, 5 mosques and 29 religious entities were operating without official SCRA registration. According to government statements following the raids, the mosques that were closed did not have official documents or registration and were built in violation of established architectural and construction standards.

NGOs reported that the government continued to arrest social media users who posted digital content that the government considered extremist, especially religious literature connected to banned groups. The government defined extremist activity as membership in a banned, “religiously oriented” organization, distribution of literature associated with a banned organization, or proselytizing on behalf of, or financing, a banned organization. According to the latest statistics available, in 2022, the government initiated at least 246 cases under charges of “preparing or distributing extremist material,” including the distribution of material over the internet, compared to 467 cases in 2020. NGOs also noted, as in past years, that the number of arrests was higher among ethnic Uzbek communities in the south, and that police continued to target and harass ethnic Uzbeks, usually in connection with the possession of banned religious literature or support of banned organizations. NGOs said some cases of harassment and arrests were based on false testimony or planted evidence.

The criminal case that followed a 2021 raid on the Jehovah’s Witnesses office in Bishkek remained open.

Jehovah’s Witnesses reported that the SCRA continued to refuse to register their local houses of worship in the south of the country, although the organization is registered in Bishkek. In June, the Supreme Court ruled to uphold previous decisions by the Constitutional Court in November 2022. The SCRA denied the registration of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ congregations in the Osh, Naryn, and Jalalabad regions, based on the SCRA continuing to interpret the law as requiring religious groups to register with local councils to establish new places of worship. The SCRA continued to impose the requirement despite a finding by the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2019 that it was in violation of Article 18 of the ICCPR, which covers religious freedom, as well as in violation of both the Kyrgyz Constitution and a 2016 Supreme Court ruling stipulating that the requirement was unconstitutional. According to Jehovah’s Witnesses, the SCRA stated that the UNHRC was not an international tribunal and that its views must only be considered, not implemented.

Jehovah’s Witnesses representatives stated that, following unsuccessful attempts in 2019 and 2020, they did not file any new registration applications in 2023 and were reluctant to take any more action while the criminal case against them from the March 2021 government raid remained open.

Minority religious groups continued to report the SCRA registration process was cumbersome, pointing in particular to the requirement to collect 200 signatures from citizens who identify as adherents. According to the Baptist Union, community members who opposed the establishment of Christian groups continued to pressure adherents not to provide their signatures. Christian activists continued to say that obtaining the formal approval of local governments remained an obstacle to registration, since local governments often rejected Christian organizations without a legal justification by asserting without evidence that area residents opposed the spread of Christianity to their communities.

Without registration, Tengrists remained unable to worship publicly or distribute religious material. The Tengrinists last attempted to register as a religious group in 2018. In 2021, an SCRA official stated that the SCRA viewed Tengrism as a collection of traditional beliefs, rather than a religion.

While the law does not require examination by authorities of all religious literature and materials, religious groups, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, again stated that the SCRA required they submit 100 percent of their imported religious material for review. According to Jehovah’s Witness representatives, the SCRA continued its practice of having individuals designated by the SCRA as experts examine imported religious materials submitted for review by religious organizations, although the law did not mandate such a review. The SCRA denied the Jehovah’s Witnesses permission to import a number of religious booklets, such as one published annually in 302 languages, including Kyrgyz.

There continued to be no specified procedure used by the SCRA for hiring or evaluating the experts who examined religious literature that groups intended to distribute within their places of worship. According to religious studies academics, the SCRA continued to choose its own employees and religious scholars whom the agency contracted to serve as experts. Attorneys for religious groups continued to state the experts chosen by the SCRA were biased in favor of prosecutors and were not formal experts under the criminal procedure code. The State Forensic Service, with support from SCRA on religious matters, screened the content of websites, printed material, and other forms of media for extremist content.

NGOs continued to report that prisoners considered to be violent extremists were not always separated from inmates incarcerated for nonviolent activities linked to religion, as required by law. Such nonviolent offenses included simple possession of materials from one of the 21 banned “religiously oriented” organizations the government considered extremist. NGOs said this grouping of inmates together could lead to broader radicalization of the prison population. NGOs again reported that prison authorities required Islamic religious literature other than the Quran or hadith (sayings or customs of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions) to be approved by the muftiate. NGOs continued to report that the government did not always provide religious materials to prisoners convicted of affiliation with banned religious groups.

According to representatives of religious groups, refusal either to serve or to pay a fee to opt out of military service continued to subject conscientious objectors to hardship, because military service remained a prerequisite for employment in the government and with many private employers.

According to Christian activists, non-Muslim religious minorities continued to face difficulties arranging for burial of their dead in public cemeteries. Although the SCRA stated a government policy was in place to ensure that all religious groups would have burial space in public cemeteries, religious scholars stated the policy was not implemented in all local jurisdictions and that the SCRA was reluctant to advocate implementation without the explicit support of local communities.