Ukrainian Christians protest against Biometric Data Law
4/10/2011
Kiev – Hundreds of Orthodox Christians demonstrated in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev Tuesday to protest the government’s planned inclusion of biometric data in personal identification documents.
More than 200 faithful gathered next to Ukraine’s national parliament building to sing hymns and listen to speeches by priests, who called a recently passed law allowing authorities to record a citizen’s individual biological information amoral and sinful.
Some Orthodox Christians in Ukraine have long opposed government attempts to record their personal information on grounds that a person’s identity is a personal and religious, rather than government matter.
Official plans to expand government databases to include individual biometric data are seen by the protesters as a new and worse invasion of privacy.
Although the protest was peaceful, demonstrators were still blocked from getting too close to the legislature building by a new two-metre security fence completed in early August.
Ukraine’s parliament on September 21 passed laws legalizing the recording of a citizen’s biometric data by the government, and making that data a legally legitimate part of an individual’s personal identification.
Parliament speaker Volodmyr Lytvyn, shortly after the bill’s approval, said the law was necessary so that Ukraine could meet European Union standards for personal identification documents.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice has criticized the law as violating the country’s constitution and basic human rights.
Typical biometric data used by law enforcement officers to identify a individual include DNA type, iris pattern and fingerprints.
