CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Página 159

KRISTINE MARGARYAN
may be included in the curricula of the state educational institutions”. 66
However, no other option is available in case those teachings are against a
person’s and his/her parents’ religion and beliefs, which contradicts Article
1, according to which “[parents] may educate their children in accordance
with their religion or their attitude towards religion”. 67 The religious litera-
ture, audio and video materials must be controlled under the religion law.
The Article 22 claims that “organizations, and other natural and legal per-
sons who are not religious organizations, may produce, import, export and
freely disseminate religious literature, items and other information materi-
als”. 68 However, the right of distribution of literature is allowed only with
the permission of a relevant state body (State Committee).
Much attention was devoted to the registration of the religious organiza-
tions under the 2009 amendments. This was illustrated in Article 12, which
requires the registration of the religious organizations, otherwise they are
considered as illegal. Any manifestation of freedom of religion by more
than one person is seen illegal without state permission. The amendments
of 2011 of Article 12 went further stating that only those religious orga-
nizations having 50 founding members (not 10 members as it used to be)
could have a registration, meaning that those without this amount of mem-
bers would not be considered eligible for applying for registration. While
besides the submission of information about citizenship, dates of birth of
founding members, copies of identity cards, Article 12 also requires the re-
ligious organization to present the information about the future activities
and their methods and their objectives. However, the law does not indicate
what are the indicators of making decisions to provide the registration or
reject it. Moreover, no point about possibility to appeal the decision exists;
what Article 12 only claims is “religious organizations denied state registra-
tion shall be informed of the reasons for this, citing relevant legislative pro-
visions”. 69 The time required for making the decision is not indicated also.
Additionally, religious organizations can perform religious activities only
at legally registered address, and would face punishment if build or recon-
struct religious buildings without the consent of the State Committee.
There are also extra restrictions for Muslim community. According to
2015 amendments, Article 7 of the Law on Religion states that all Islamic
communities must “present a report on their activity” 70 with details about
their actions and fi nances. However, the law does not specify how often
an organization should present the report. Article 21 claims that non-citi-
zens of Azerbaijan and those citizens of the country who received foreign
education are prohibited to perform Islamic activities and rituals.
66
67
68
69
70
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
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