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Abstract:
This study analyzes the constitutional provisions in 44 predominantly Muslim countries addressing the relationship between religion and the state, freedom of religion or belief, and other related human rights as measured against recognized international human rights standards. The geographic diversity of the Muslim world mirrors a central finding of the study, that predominantly Muslim countries encompass a variety of constitutional arrangements - ranging from Islamic republics with Islam as the official state religion, to secular states with strict separation of religion and state. Key findings of the survey include: More than half of the world's Muslim population (estimated at over 1.3 billion) lives in countries that are neither Islamic republics nor that have declared Islam to be the state religion; countries in which Islam is the declared state religion may provide constitutional guarantees of the right to freedom of religion or belief that compare favorably with international legal standards; countries in which Islam is the declared state religion may also maintain constitutional provisions protecting the related rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly - or the rights of equality and nondiscrimination with regard to, inter alia, religion and gender - that compare favorably with international standards; and a number of constitutions of predominantly Muslim countries incorporate or otherwise reference international human rights instruments. This study is also available in Arabic.

Comparative law, constitutional law, Islam, Islamic law, sharia, Arab world, Muslim world, international human rights, freedom of religion

Abstract:
Human rights nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have become a fixture within the international system and a driving force for creating and enforcing human rights norms at international law. This essay examines the growth of human rights NGOs and argues that the industry is in urgent need of formal regulation. After assessing the failure of informal market controls for ensuring accountability within the human rights NGO sector, this paper applies a law and economics consumer protection model to underscore the need for more formal regulation. However, rather than advance a case for government intervention, this paper proposes that human rights NGOs themselves undertake to develop and implement authoritative and meaningful standards. Such standards can ultimately function to boost objectivity, accuracy and relevancy in human rights reporting, as well as safeguard against the debasement of international human rights principles.

NGO, human rights, international law, regulation, law and economics, nongovernmental, nonstate actors, united nations

Abstract:
Longtime observers of Russia increasingly have called attention to and expressed profound concern for the direction the Russian Federation has taken in recent years. In advancing President Putin's vision of "dictatorship of law" and "managed democracy," the Russian government has retreated from key democratic reforms, undermining the transition away from Soviet rule and imperiling significant gains in fundamental human rights.

It is against this backdrop that, in January 2006, President Putin ratified major amendments to the 1996 Law on Nonprofit Organizations, which regulates the creation, reorganization, activity, and liquidation of NGOs in Russia. Putin has claimed that the amendments to the NGO law are "aimed at preventing the intrusion of foreign states into Russia's internal political life and at creating favorable and transparent conditions for the financing of [NGOs]." He also has stated that the law is needed to "combat terrorism and stop foreign spies using NGOs as cover."

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of the provisions of the amended NGO law, with an eye to exposing the human rights implications of a law that is both menacingly overbroad and blatantly discriminatory in its form and content. The analysis is strengthened by interviews with key decision-makers, as well as by contextualizing the NGO law against the backdrop of Russia's historical experience and current policies.

The paper concludes that the NGO law represents one more effort on the part of President Putin's administration to assert control over Russian society, and further argues that it should be viewed as part of the overarching effort to minimize political opposition, eliminate independent media, and silence Russia's oligarchs. The paper recommends a number of measures that may be taken to confront these developments in a manner that strengthens Russian civil society and protects international human rights principles. The end result is a timely warning to legal scholars, international lawyers, policy makers, and NGO activists both in Russia and elsewhere to challenge the creeping, obfuscatory, and mostly bureaucratic nature by which a government is seeking to stifle and assert control over a vital sector of civil society.

human rights, nongovernmental organizations, NGO, Russia, international law, regulation, registration, freedom of assembly, freedom of association

Abstract:
The Russian Orthodox Church's (ROC) assertion of a constitutionally inappropriate role in affairs of state has severely compromised Russia's secular constitutional framework. This gradual but steady erosion of the barrier between church and state is evidenced by a series of contemporary developments that are inexorably linked to the Church's vision of its traditional place in Russian history.

Disturbingly, each successive post-communist regime has further enabled this behavior, and there is no indication that the political transition from President Vladimir Putin to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, will change anything.

This paper argues that the emerging pattern of collusion presents a serious challenge to Russia's constitutional order and to the country's regional and international human rights commitments - chief among these being the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief.

Russia, Putin, Medvedev, freedom of religion, constitution, human rights, church-state, international law, european convention on human rights, secular, russian orthodox church, international covenant on civil and political rights, ICCPR, universal declaration on human rights

Abstract:
This article, prepared at the request of the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law (ICNL), provides an article-by-article detailed legal analysis of key shortcomings in Tajikistan's draft law About Freedom of Conscience and Religious Unions.

Based on their analysis, the authors provide recommendations for amendments directed at ensuring that the final draft law complies with Tajikistan's international and domestic human rights obligations.

freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, religious freedom, human rights, Tajikistan, religious organizations