Legal framework
Constitutional provisions
The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, of 29 July 1994, prescribes and guarantees the freedom of religion. People may join together and establish autonomous religious denominations that shall enjoy the state’s support, and are forbidden to use, express or incite to religious hatred or enmity.
Primary legislation
The former Law on Religious Denominations, of 1992, contained certain restrictions that inhibited the activities of some religious groups. In May 2007, a new Law on Religious Denominations and Their Component Parts was adopted. It guarantees freedom of [thought, conscience and] religion and enumerates permissible restrictions – which must be based on law, serve a legitimate purpose and represent, in a democratic society, public safety measures needed to maintain public order, health and morals, or to protect the rights and freedoms of individuals. The state must provide alternative service for people who cannot perform military service due to confessional reasons; guarantee the observance of recognized religious holidays; and abstain from interfering with the religious activities of denominations. Religious denominations are set up on a voluntary basis by at least 100 citizens of the Republic of Moldova with full legal capacity for the purpose of jointly practicing their faith. Currently, there are 22 registered religious groups in the Republic of Moldova. The state and its institutions can cooperate and conclude, as appropriate, cooperation agreements or arrangements with any religious denomination or its component parts. The state recognizes the special importance and leading role of the Christian Orthodox religion and, respectively, of the Moldovan Orthodox Church in the life, history and culture of the people of Moldova. All religious denominations have the exclusive right to create press services for believers, to edit, purchase, import, export and disseminate religious literature, produce and commercialize specific objects of worship. Moreover, they may establish theological institutions of any degree, with separate or extended status. Religious denominations’ component parts that possess places of worship and the land on which they are constructed are exempt from the real estate and land taxes, under the Tax Code.
The Law on the Rights of National Minorities and Their Organizations’ Legal Status, of 2001, provides that persons belonging to national minorities are entitled under the law to freely determine their attitudes towards religion, in particular to choose their confession and to carry out, individually or together with co-members, activities of religious enlightening in their native language or in another accepted language, to perform rituals, to have religious buildings, to use religious literature and ritual objects.
Secondary legislation
After a series of recent initiatives regarding the necessity of studying religion in schools, the Government issued on 2 July 2010 a Decision on the Teaching of Religion in Educational Institutions. As provided in the document, beginning with the academic year 2010-2011 religion shall be introduced as an optional class in primary and secondary schools, to be delivered upon the request of pupils’ parents or guardians. The Ministry of Education shall be responsible for developing the curriculum and methodological guidelines, and for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of educational plans. Currently there are several public and private schools open only to members of a certain religion. Throughout the country, there are a number of theological institutes, seminaries, and other places of religious education.
Possible restrictions
The European Court of Human Rights found in Masaev v. Moldova that the provisions of Article 200 § 3 of the old Code of Administrative Offences (adopted on 29 March 1985) which made any person manifesting a not recognized religion automatically administratively liable, constituted a limitation of the right to freedom of religion and an interference which did not correspond to a pressing social need and was therefore not necessary in a democratic society. The new Moldovan Code of Administrative Offences, from 24 October 2008, provides a series of sanctions for breaches of the legislation on religious organizations. Individuals risk to be fined if they interfere in others’ freedom to belong to a particular religion, to change one’s religion or belief, to practice a religion or belief individually or jointly, in public or in private, through teaching, religious practice, or worship. Religious intolerance, performing acts of religious hatred, performing practices and rituals which are contrary to the law on religious cults, conducting religious activity by foreign citizens in public places without prior announcement of the city hall, offenses against religious feelings of individuals, infringement of the exclusive right of publishing, printing, manufacturing and marketing religious objects, as well as the disclosure or breach of confessional secrecy by religious personnel, shall also be punished with fines.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova, of 18 April 2002, prescribes sanctions for the infringement of citizens’ rights on grounds of religion, committed by official persons or resulting in considerable damages.
Case law
In the case of Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Others v. Moldova (Application no. 45701/99; Judgment of 13 December 2001) the Government had denied recognition to the Bessarabian Orthodox Church in 1992, twice in 1996, and again in 1997. The European Court noted that religious freedom also implies, inter alia, freedom to “manifest [one’s] religion” alone and in private or in community with others, in public and within the circle of those whose faith one shares. Moreover, the Court found that by considering that the applicant Church was not a new denomination and by making its recognition depend on the will of an ecclesiastical authority that had been recognized – the Metropolitan Church of Moldova – the State failed to discharge its duty of neutrality and impartiality.
In Masaev v. Moldova (Application no. 6303/05; Judgment of 12 May 2009) the Court found that it was undisputed that the fine imposed on the applicant for praying on private premises constituted an interference with his right to freedom of religion; and that it is not compatible with the Convention to sanction individual members of an unregistered religious denomination for praying or otherwise manifesting their religious beliefs. To hold otherwise would imply that the State can dictate what a person must believe.
In Biserica Adevărat Ortodoxă din Moldova and Others v. Moldova (Application no. 952/03; Judgment of 27 February 2007) the Court found that the refusal to register the applicant Church had no legal basis under Moldovan law. Consequently, and despite the adoption of judgments in favor of the applicants, the authorities’ failure to register the Church and therefore to endow it with legal personality prevented it and its followers from carrying out a number of essential functions, in violation of Art. 9 ECHR.
Analysis provided by: Dumitrita Bologan, July 2010
Hide
Homepage
Search this site
Repository (ODIHR only)
Site map
