Parliament of Ukraine Passed First Reading of Discriminatory Draft Law No. 8371 Targeting Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Information and Education Department of UOC – OCP News Service – 22/08/2023

Kyiv – Ukraine: On 19 October 2023, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the Parliament of Ukraine) voted in the first reading the draft law No. 8371 ‘On the Ban of the UOC’, as it is called in the media, which has not yet been adopted and has not become a law yet. In accordance with the procedure, there is still a second reading to be held. Hence, it remains a draft law and needs to be revised, as it violates the right to freedom of religion, contains significant flaws in legal drafting methodology, and does not comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and the Constitution of Ukraine. The relevant commentary has been published by the Legal Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Information and Education Department of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church reports.

Draft law No. 8371, which, as noted, forbids the activities of religious organisations related to the aggressor state, is essentially aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and violates the rights to freedom of religion of citizens of Ukraine belonging to the UOC.

The UOC is not mentioned in the draft law itself, but its origin (the decision of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine concerning the UOC), its media and political support indicate that this law will be applied to the UOC, which is in fact a self-reliant and independent Church, and that they deliberately try to pass the UOC off as the Russian Orthodox Church and priests and believing people, who are citizens of Ukraine, have been called agents of the Russian Federation.

In order to justify the need to adopt this draft law, they refer to a religious examination, which, by the way, is not even of legal nature (paragraph 3, section 5 of the experts’ commission report), and criminal proceedings against members of the UOC, who allegedly pose a threat to the national security. According to an official message by the Security Service of Ukraine, there are 68 cases.

In fact, this draft law does not comply either with the Convention on Human Rights or the Constitution of Ukraine (article 35), as neither of those documents provides for the possibility of prohibiting the right to freedom of religion. Because this right can only be restricted, and only for the protection of public order, health and morals of the population, or for the protection the rights and freedoms of others.

Therefore, neither the religious examination, nor the criminal proceedings, nor the national security are grounds for prohibiting or restricting the right to freedom of religion.

Undoubtedly, the adoption of this draft law will attest that human rights and freedoms, for which our state is fighting too, lose their meaning.

Source:

OCP News Service