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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHSL #0100/01 0471721
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 161721Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRATISLAVA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0693
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRATISLAVA 000100 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV SOCI LO
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM FACES SETBACK IN SLOVAKIA 
 
REF: A. 06 BRATISLAVA 862 
     ¶B. 06 BRATISLAVA 99 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Slovakia, which has the strictest 
requirements in the OSCE for registration of a religious 
organization, plans to tighten those requirements. 
Parliament is set to pass an amendment to the religious 
registration law changing the necessary 20,000 petition 
signatures from those of sympathizers to those of members of 
the faith.  The GOS cabinet gave its support to the plan. 
Two main issues underlie the strict requirement: the 
obligation of the government to provide subsidies to 
registered religions and anti-Muslim undercurrent amongst the 
general public and government officials.  The Embassy will 
focus its advocacy efforts on interim steps that the GOS can 
take to ease the logistical and administrative difficulties 
faced by unregistered religious groups, since a complete 
turnabout by the Slovaks on this issue seems unrealistic for 
the time being.  In addition, we are focusing resources on 
our long-term mission goal of fostering greater tolerance for 
diversity in Slovak society.  END SUMMARY. 
 
RAISING THE (ALREADY TOO HIGH) THRESHOLD 
---------------------------------------- 
¶2. (U) On February 6, parliament overwhelmingly passed the 
first reading (of three required readings) of an amendment to 
change the 20,000 signatures of resident adult sympathizers 
for a religious organization to register to 20,000 signatures 
of resident adult members of that faith.  Out of the 150-seat 
parliament, 111 voted for the amendment, 0 (zero) voted 
against it, and 20 abstained.  The only one of the six 
political parties in parliament to have a party-line 
abstention was SMK (Party of the Hungarian Coalition), which 
sits in the opposition.  The two other opposition parties and 
all three governing parties voted for the amendment, with the 
exception of one person each from Smer and HZDS (Movement for 
a Democratic Slovakia) who abstained.  The draft amendment is 
expected to sail through parliament on its second and third 
readings.  The second reading is planned for late March, when 
the next parliamentary session opens.  On February 14 at the 
government's weekly cabinet meeting, the GOS ministers voiced 
their support for the amendment.  The Culture Minister stated 
that unregistered churches still have the right to practice 
without registration.  The Ministry of Culture is the 
responsible authority for reviewing religious registration 
applications. 
 
¶3. (U) The only government figure to oppose the onerous 
20,000 signature requirement is the General Prosecutor (GP) 
who filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court in April 
2004 that the existing threshold violated constitutional 
rights.  At the request of the Constitutional Court, the GP 
submitted a more detailed claim in January 2007.  However, 
the Constitutional Court, with a majority of judges recently 
appointed by the government, is unlikely to rule in the GP's 
favor. 
 
WHY NOW? 
-------- 
¶4. (SBU) The impetus for increasing the barrier to religious 
registration appears to be the public announcement by the 
Muslim community that they intend to register.  This 
announcement came shortly after the Mormons showed that a 
small group of people could rally 20,000 sympathizers to sign 
a petition in order to register (ref A).  Numerous elected 
public officials and other public figures have expressed 
blatantly anti-Muslim sentiments to Emboffs in private. 
Publicly, they say they oppose the registration of "dangerous 
sects" who may be able to get enough petition signatures 
because "young people will sign anything." 
 
¶5. (SBU) Several sources have alluded to an unwritten 
agreement between Smer and the Catholic Church not to open 
controversial issues with religious undertones.  A media 
report indicated that in return for the Catholic Church not 
raising the conscientious objection law stemming from a 
treaty with the Vatican (an issue which brought down the 
previous government, ref B), the current government will 
support strict religious registration.  The article also 
claimed that in return for the Catholic Church and the 
opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) not pushing 
for a ban on abortion, the GOS will refrain from proposing 
the legalization of gay marriage.  A Smer MP had described 
similar arrangements to Emboffs last December. 
 
 
HOW LACK OF REGISTRATION HINDERS FULL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
¶6. (U) Religious organizations are not required to register, 
but Slovakia's all-or-nothing registration system means that 
only registered religious groups can receive the benefits of 
state recognition, most importantly significant subsidies. 
 
BRATISLAVA 00000100  002 OF 002 
 
 
The other benefits, which some unregistered religious groups 
tell us they desire more than the subsidies, include the 
right to become a legal entity (and therefore have the 
ability to open a bank account, rent a building, etc. in the 
name of the religious group), open a school, offer a religion 
class to fill the legal requirement that all students take 
either religious or ethics classes, have state-recognized 
wedding ceremonies, have clergy visit members in prison or 
hospitals, participate in government-religious sector 
discussions, and so on.  Members of unregistered religious 
groups are not prevented from nor persecuted for practicing 
their religion in Slovakia. 
 
 
¶7. (SBU) Buoyed by the success of the Mormons but anxious 
about the support for the draft amendment, the Bahai 
community, which has a few hundred members in Slovakia, is 
trying to gather 20,000 signatures as soon as possible in 
order to register before the new law is passed.  Though this 
religious group opened its registration application in 
January, the one piece of the application that is missing is 
a completed petition of signatures.  They have called in 
believers from nearby countries to help gather signatures and 
currently have about half the required amount.  It is not 
expected that a newly amended law would allow for a 
"grandfathering" of already-opened applications. 
 
 
NOT LISTENING TO REASON 
----------------------- 
¶8. (SBU) One of the two co-sponsors of the draft amendment 
told Emboffs that she wanted to protect Slovaks from and 
preclude the state from funding dangerous religious sects and 
cults that hurt their own members or others.  She shrugged 
aside all concrete examples of unregistered groups facing 
difficulties as one-off incidents.  She told a member of one 
of the smaller religious communities that the unregistered 
religions can acquire legal entity status through the civic 
association law, despite the fact that that law (and the 
Ministry of Interior, which administers the law) specifically 
denies religious organizations from registering as civic 
associations. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶9. (SBU) The two main factors in this negative development 
are the obligatory state funding of registered religions and 
a general anti-Muslim bias.  Years of advocating for the 
Slovaks to lower their threshold of signatures required for 
registration and to consider other models of registration has 
produced no result.  Post will now focus its advocacy on 
interim improvements in religious freedom, such as a system 
that will allow religious groups to attain some type of legal 
entity status with or without religious recognition.  The 
longer-term goal of full religious freedom will remain part 
of the mission's strategic plan to promote greater tolerance 
for diversity within Slovak society. 
 
VALLEE