The Serbian Ministry of Religions Vojislav Milovanovic

Belgrade, August 5 - The Serbian Ministry of Religions has drawn up a draft law on religious freedom, guaranteeing the freedom of conscience and religion to everybody, declaring there was no state religion and proclaiming all the religious communities equal.

The Religions Minister Vojislav Milovanovic told the Tanjug news agency that the draft law was "one of the most democratic solutions to assert, for the first time in 60 years, the religious freedom as the basic human right, that solution being proposed to the Serbian government by the Ministry of Religions following 180 days of work on it."

The draft law incorporates the norms and standards which have been integral parts of the legislation in other European countries for years, taking into account the specific circumstances of Serbian multireligious environment.

The Minister of Religions pointed out that the Law on Religious Freedom would put a stop to the discrimination of churches and religious communities and remedy the loophole created in 1993 by revoking the 1997 Law on religious communities.

He reiterated that a speedy economic progress and development of democracy were only possible if accompanied by a moral regeneration. Respecting the role religion plays in the preservation of the tradition and cultural and spiritual values, the authors of the draft law have proposed the Byzantine form of the separation of state and church, with mutual co-ordination in the interest of all citizens.