Legal Dept: Draft law on banning the UOC will divide people within Ukraine

The Legal Department of the UOC made an official statement regarding the bills aimed at banning the activities of the UOC. The text is published on the website of the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

On March 22 and 26, 2022, two draft laws were successively registered at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine – No. 7204 "On the ban on the Moscow Patriarchate on the territory of Ukraine" and No. 7213 "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" regarding the organizations (associations) that are part of the structure (are part of) a religious organization (association), the leading center (administration) of which is located outside Ukraine in a state that is legally recognized as having carried out military aggression against Ukraine and / or temporarily occupied part of the territory of Ukraine.

The bills state that their main goal is to “protect the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and “protect public safety and order.” The authors of the bills believe that in order to achieve this, the activities of the “Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church”, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, should be banned on the territory of Ukraine.

“Despite the call of the President of Ukraine to stop inciting religious hatred during the war, the MPs of Ukraine decided, through legislative initiatives, to brazenly and cynically ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and deprive millions of Ukrainian citizens of the right to freedom of religion,” the UOC’s Legal Department said. The law enforcement agencies have never had claims against the UOC in terms of violating the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. However, in the explanatory note to the bill, the authors of the bill deliberately make false statements against the UOC, trying to mislead other MPs.

In its statement, the Legal Department of the UOC stressed, "Despite all the pathos, these bills are viewed as a continued religious policy of the Poroshenko era, which is one of the reasons for the horror that we are now experiencing."

The UOC is confident that the ban on the activities of the multimillion-strong Ukrainian Orthodox Church will have a painful impact on the Ukrainian state. In addition, the ban on people to remain parishioners of the UOC violates their right to freedom of religion and directly contradicts the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Ukraine.

“Please note that the religious center of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – the Kyiv Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – is located in Kyiv, registered in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, and its founder is the Council of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which includes clergy and believers living on the territory of Ukraine,” the statement of the Legal Department of the UOC underlined. “The Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kyiv and All Ukraine, called on all believers to defend our state and its territorial integrity and sovereignty; the believers of our Church stood up to defend the country; religious communities provide humanitarian assistance to soldiers, IDPs and the needy. From the first days of warfare, people showed their unity in the fight against the enemy.”

“In this regard, we declare that the legislative initiative to ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is illegal, violates the right to freedom of religion and will in no way contribute to the “protection of national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine” and “protection of public security and order”, as indicated in the bills, but on the contrary, will open a religious front on the peaceful territory of Ukraine and divide our country along religious lines in wartime conditions,” the UOC Legal Department said.

As the UOJ wrote, the Verkhovna Rada published the text of the bill to ban the UOC.