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December 29, 2008
Legal status of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic of Macedonia confirmed by Court in Skopje
SKOPJE, Macedonia—Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic of Macedonia were handed a decree by the Skopje II Basic Court on Wednesday, December 17, 2008. It confirms that as of November 11, 2008, Jehovah’s Witnesses were registered in the Single Court Register of churches, religious communities, and religious groups maintained by that court.
This is another important legal step in the long history of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Macedonia. Jehovah’s Witnesses were registered for the first time on September 9, 1930, in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. They were registered again in 1953 in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Macedonia in 1993 confirmed Jehovah’s Witnesses’ retention of their legal entity in the independent Republic of Macedonia.
The new Law on the Legal Status of a Church, Religious Community, and a Religious Group that was applied on May 1, 2008, requires that all churches, religious communities, and religious groups be registered at court. This law gave assurances that churches, religious communities, and religious groups that were registered until 1998 could maintain their existent legal subjectivity and status, which was now confirmed by the Skopje II Basic Court in the case of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Jovan Iliev, legal representative and member of the spiritual supervisory board of Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic of Macedonia, expressed his satisfaction: “This confirmation preserves our legal rights as a religious community, and we look forward to continuing the practice of our religious activities without legal impediments.”
There are over 1,300 Jehovah’s Witnesses in the Republic of Macedonia. They are part of an international multiracial brotherhood of 7.1 million people organized into more than 100,000 congregations in some 230 lands.
Contact: J. R. Brown, telephone: (718) 560-5600