Kazakhstan: New department may lead to tighter controls

Kazakhstan | 28 September 2016

On 14 September 2016 Fides reported that Kazakhstan"s President Nursultan Nazarbayev had recently signed a decree ordering the establishment of a Ministry for Religious and Civil Affairs. The new department will also have the task of caring for relations with religious communities and ensure the rights of citizens to freedom of conscience. The new body will be given the powers previously exercised by both the Ministries of Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Education and Science. Former presidential adviser Nurlan Yermekbayev has been placed at the head of the new ministry. Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, considers the establishment of a special ministry for religious affairs in Kazakhstan as both remarkable and possibly dangerous: Remarkable, because Kazakhstan is a secular country in which state and religion have been strictly separated. In its 2015 International Religious Freedom report, the US State Department says: "˜The constitution defines the country as a secular state and provides for freedom of religion and belief, as well as for the freedom to decline religious affiliation. These rights may be limited only by laws and only to the extent necessary for protection of the constitutional system, defense of the public order, human rights and freedoms, and the health and morality of the population." So if there is a strict separation between state and religion why form a special ministry for religious affairs? It is also possibly dangerous because this could be the first step towards much tighter control over religion in Kazakhstan. So far, the country was relatively mild in its treatment of Christians - much milder than Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan, for instance. Country observers will be keeping an eye on what is going on in Kazakhstan. It is hoped that Christians are not on the brink of a more difficult future."