FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND CONSCIENCE IN CHINA AND RUSSIA: SEARCHING FORNEW COMMONS

Abstract

The main hypothesis of this article is a possibility of creating a new conventionbyChina and Russia for protecting the fundamental human right to freedom of religion and conscience on a new international level, independent from the West. The need of developing such a convention or even a new international organization is conditioned by the withdrawal of Russia from the Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights. We suggest that this cooperation can be beneficial for both parties because it should help secure their sovereignty and improve the implementation of national legislations. The aim of our research is to propose measures of increasing the efficiency of realization of freedom of religion and conscience in China in Russia. In oder to reach it, we employed such methods of legal comparativistics as functional, normative and external comparative analysis andstudiedthe Chinese and Russianspecifics of the legal recognition and protectionof this right. The findingsof our studysuggest that theexisting limitations of itshould be seen as a response to challenges China and Russia have been facing as developing multicultural and policonfessional states. We also discovered that despite its cultural, ideological and political differences, Russia and China share a number of almost identical mechanisms for the realisation of religious liberty.