UOC Will Inform Foreign Ambassadors and Human Rights Activists About Discrimination of Believers

A briefing began in Kiev-Pechersk Lavra for the Ambassadors of European states and the USA, as well as human rights organizations, on violation of the believers’ rights in Ukraine. According to the UOJ correspondent, the reason to hold the briefing was greater attention of the diplomatic corps, the UNO and OSCE to the situation regarding the respect for the rights of citizens to freedom of conscience in Ukraine.

The briefing is chaired by head of the Synodal Department of the UOC Bishop Kliment (Vecheria), head of the UOC Law Department Archpriest Alexandr Bahov and deputy chief of the UOC Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Nikolay Danilevich.

Particular attention was paid to three important issues.

Firstly, only for the last year 40 UOC temples have been seized in Ukraine in favor of the Kiev Patriarchate. The latest incident took place on September 14 (church seizure in Kuty village, Ternopol region). Such raids often occur with the support of local authorities under the excuse of changing registration of the community’s charter.

Secondly, a range of draft laws (№№ 4128 и 4511) raise concerns, as they are openly discriminative, foresee interference into internal affairs of religious communities, and are conducive to raiding in the religious sphere in Ukraine.

Thirdly, there is a problem in Ukraine of registration delay of newly created UOC communities on the part of the Ministry of Culture (only 3 charters out of 14 submitted have been registered over the current year).