UPTs COMPLAINS TO O.S.C.E. AND U.N. ABOUT UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT, SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT, AND PRIME MINISTER
Religiia v Ukraine, 10 July 2018
Representatives of the "NGO Public Advocacy" [NPO Obshchestvennaia Pravozashchita], which is headed by Oleg Denisov, an advisor on legal matters of the Kiev metropolitanate of the UPTsMP, have appealed to the O.S.C.E. and a session of the Council on Human Rights of the United Nations regarding the danger of the religious situation in Ukraine, Religiia v Ukraine reports, citing the website of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UPTs).
The nongovernmental organization Public Advocacy appealed to the O.S.C.E. regarding the intervention of higher state officials of Ukraine in internal church matters, such as autocephaly. According to information of the NGO Public Advocacy, this has evoked "special concern within the O.S.C.E." In particular, the general secretary of O.S.C.E., Thomas Greminger, relayed materials of the NGO Public Advocacy and sent them to the director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the special representative of the O.S.C.E. for Freedom of Media, and the head of the special Monitoring Mission (S.M.M.) of the O.S.C.E. in Ukraine, in order to search for ways to resolve conflicts.
As NGO Public Advocacy notes, the attention of the general secretary of O.S.C.E. to problems of protection of the rights of believers of the UPTs allows one to count on reviving the dialogue along these lines.
In the opinion of rights advocates of the UPTsMP, continual interference of the Ukrainian president, head of parliament, and minister for foreign affairs in conversations on matters of the structuring of religious organizations may provoke new clashes on religious grounds.
"It is obvious that the issue of church structure must be decided only and exclusively by religious leaders, without any kind of interference or cooperation by government servants, to say nothing of the fact that questions of religious structuring must not be given a political character," rights advocates of the NGO Public Advocacy observe.
In addition, the NGO Public Advocacy raised during the 38th session of the Council for Human Rights of the U.N.O., held on 28 June to 6 July in Geneva, the question of "churches that were seized by violence in the period 2015 to 2018 in western Ukraine and also the ineffective investigation of criminal proceedings opened on the basis of believers' declarations."
At the session of the Council for Human Rights of the U.N.O., the NGO Public Advocacy issued a special statement, which spoke about the protracted conflict over the church in the village of Ptichya of Rovno oblast, which belongs to the UPTs but which was seized by court order. Since 2015 divine services have not been renewed here. Despite five judicial decision in this case, confirming the rights of the UPTsMP to the church building, it remains impounded as part of a criminal proceeding (the building is considered a means for committing a crime).
For additional consideration by the session of the Council on Human Rights of the U.N.O., Orthodox rights advocates submitted draft laws No. 4128, 4511, and 5309 of the Ukrainian parliament, which have received a negative review on the part of the RPTs, the UPTsMP, and other organizations as not in conformity with Ukrainian legislation and norms of international law. However, they still are under consideration by the lawmakers. According to these draft laws, it is proposed to give to the UPTsMP, as administratively and canonically subordinate to a church that is located within an aggressor state (Russia), a special status and to force it to sign a special agreement with state agencies to appoint clergy members with the consent of governmental structures, and the like. While such a requirement has not been established for other confessions.
The NGO Public Advocacy also called to the attention of the United Nations and member states in the session the "rhetoric of hatred in decisions of provincial councils of deputies and in news media" as a violation of the rights of believers which gives to society signals of impunity for legal offenses against the UPTsMP.
As the press service of Public Advocacy notes, these statements were made at the session "because to the present time the rights of Orthodox that have been violated in Ukraine have not been restored." (tr. by PDS, posted 11 July 2018)
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