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Religious Freedom Summary* (1997) The Constitution provides for complete religious freedom, and the Government respects this right in practice. There is little religious discrimination. Roman Catholic religious instruction is no longer mandatory in state schools, and a 1994 Constitutional Court decision declared unconstitutional any official government reference to religious characterizations of the country. The Government permits proselytizing among the indigenous population, provided that it is welcome and does not induce members of indigenous communities to adopt changes that endanger their survival on traditional lands. The law on the freedom of cults provides a mechanism for religions to obtain the status of recognized legal entities. Both Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mennonite Church encountered problems because of the pacifist nature of their churches. Jehovah's Witnesses complained of inability to perform alternative service to military conscription, despite the military's own legal procedures providing for it. In April the Ministry of Education temporarily suspended a December 1996 order to close the Mennonite biblical seminary and Justapaz, a church-sponsored human rights group. By year's end, however, Mennonite seminarians still were being forced into military conscription. *Source: County Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1997, U.S. Department of State |