Realizing the Right to Freedom of Conscience During a Pandemic

Abstract

In March 2020, the World Health Organization announced the beginning of the
COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, different States have taken measures of a various nature to restrict
the rights and freedoms of citizens, including the right to freedom of conscience and religion,
including bans or restrictions on visiting Orthodox churches. A number of restrictive and sanitary
measures were also adopted by the Church. The article analyzes the legality of these actions in
terms of their compliance with Russian legislation; examples of violations that took place on the
part of the heads and sanitary doctors of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation are given.
In addition, the author considers the importance of the right to freedom of conscience in
a number of other human rights, its content, possible order and purposes of its restriction. The
types of restrictive regimes that can be introduced in the event of a pandemic are given. The author
comes to the conclusion that many violations of the right to freedom of conscience that tookplace on the part of government officials after the announcement of the pandemic are largely
related to their ignorance or misunderstanding of the legislation on freedom of conscience, the
boundaries of possible and justified interference in the activities of religious organizations. She
expresses the hope that such violations will not be repeated in the future, and all issues will be
resolved within the framework of cooperation between the Church and the state to avoid discrimination
against Christians.
This article was prepared with the financial support of the Russian Federal Property Fund
in the framework of the scientific project № 18-011-00292.