Administrative conviction of Jehovah’s Witnesses for unlawful religious activity

Facts

The five authors of the communications are Jehovah’s Witnesses from Uzbekistan. All of them were subjected to substantial administrative fines of between 20 and 100 times the minimum wage for illegally producing, processing or distributing religious materials. In all five cases, the authors’ homes were searched by the police without search warrants on the pretext of taking “extensive measures”, “passport checks” and “anonymous calls” and their religious literature and personal belongings were seized and destroyed. All the authors were subsequently charged with offences under the Code of Administrative Responsibility and were held guilty of illegal possession of religious materials based on the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses were not registered as religious organizations and were sentenced to hefty fines.

All the appeals filed by the authors were rejected, the decisions of the supervisory reviews are still pending for over a year and there is no direct appeal to the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan. Hence the present communications were filed claiming violations under articles 17, 18, 19, 21 and 22 of the Covenant on the grounds that the police unlawfully entered their homes and confiscated their religious literature, they searched and seized their belongings, and they were prevented from exercising their right to peaceful assembly and freedom of association.

Admissibility

The Committee noted that the authors have exhausted all the domestic remedies, and the State party has not contested the admissibility of the communications due to nonexhaustion. The Committee considered that the authors had substantiated their claims under articles 17, 18, 19, 21 and 22 of the Covenant.

Merits

Contrary to the submissions by the State party, the Committee noted that even though in two cases there was an authorization to search provided by the prosecutor, there was no such authorization shown at the time of the search. Additionally, there was no information provided about the threat to public safety that prompted the police to enter and search the authors’ homes. Therefore, it was concluded that the search of the authors’ homes was disproportionate to the threat of harm allegedly associated with the possession of religious literature and was a violation of the authors’ rights under article 17 (1) of the Covenant. Concerning article 18, the Committee was of the view that the punishment in the form of substantial fines of between 20 and 100 times the minimum wage amounts to a disproportionate limitation of their right to manifest their religion under article 18. The Committee did not deem it necessary to examine the same facts for violation of articles 19, 21 and 22 of the Covenant.

Recommendations

The State party is obligated to:

a) Provide the authors with adequate compensation, including reimbursement of any legal costs they have incurred and of the fines paid;

b) Take all steps necessary to prevent similar violations from occurring in the future.

Implementation

Deadline for implementation: 13 April 2024