Freedom of religion and belief and interlinked human rights are under increasing threat in Kyrgyzstan. Forum 18 s survey analysis documents: increasing "legal" restrictions on the freedom of religion and belief; Ahmadi Muslims being prevented from meeting since 2011, and refusal to allow the Falun Gong spiritual movement to exist; state attempts aiming to eventually ban all Jehovah s Witness communities; state officials and imams repeatedly stopping people peacefully burying their dead under their own rites, the most recent case being against a Protestant pastor s family.
The draft Religion Law prepared by the State Commission for Religious Affairs would – if adopted in current form – continue to ban worship meetings and religious education without state permission; make registering small religious communities more difficult or impossible; and might make it impossible to register communities that do not own their own buildings. It would continue to require 200 adults to found a community and apply for compulsory registration, but would require them to live in one Region. For the first time places of worship would need registration. An Amending Law would introduce new punishments. Manas Muratbekov of the SCRA s Legal Department who prepared both draft laws refused to discuss them.
On 2 December, a Bishkek court rejected a General Prosecutor s Office suit to ban Jehovah s Witness books and videos as "extremist", saying it had been filed under the wrong procedure. The General Prosecutor s Office official who took the case to court said it will not appeal. "The repression is postponed for now," said Syinat Sultanalieva of Human Rights Watch. The NSC secret police – which backed the ban attempt – is also pushing to have Jehovah s Witnesses banned. The General Prosecutor s Office official said he is not aware of any suit being prepared. The NSC officer investigating a 2-year-old criminal case against unspecified Jehovah s Witnesses refused to give information, citing the "secrecy of the investigation".
The UN Human Rights Committee has again found that the authorities violated the rights of Jehovah s Witnesses by arbitrarily refusing their communities in Naryn, Osh and Jalal-Abad state registration. The State Commission for Religious Affairs must review the denials, provide "adequate compensation", "take all steps necessary to prevent similar violations from occurring", and inform the UN of what it has done within 180 days. The SCRA ignored a similar 2019 UN decision. Deputy Director Gulnaz Isayeva refused to say why it continues to deny these Jehovah s Witness registration applications, and whether Ahmadi Muslims, who were earlier told they could not register, would succeed in any new application.