Security concerns do not justify forcing thousands of believers underground, according to Human Rights Watch
Ukraine should not implement a law which would ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) over its alleged links to the Moscow Patriarchate, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday.
The international human rights watchdog criticized legislation adopted by Kiev in late August, which bans all organizations with ties to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) in Ukraine and gives them nine months to comply. The UOC was historically part of the ROC and maintains canonical links to it, but is self-governed. The Ukrainian law considers the purely spiritual link to be sufficient to warrant prohibition, HRW said.
While Kiev cites security concerns to explain why it is targeting religious groups, “the law interferes with the right to freedom of religion and is so broad that it could violate the rights of Ukrainian Orthodox Church members,” HRW Director for Europe and Central Asia Hugh Williamson warned.
A Ukrainian professor of international relations and ecumenism, who is also a cleric, told the watchdog that some 10,000 believers from the UOC congregation may be forced to practice their faith in secrecy if the crackdown proceeds.
There have been multiple incidents in which UOC members were forcefully expelled from their churches, HRW said. The expulsions were based on decisions by local authorities, which registered communities of the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine at the same addresses.
Kiev should suspend the controversial legislation and subject it to review by foreign parties, including the Venice Commission of the European Commission and the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe, the statement urged. Ukraine is obligated under national and international law to guarantee religious freedom, it stressed.
Ukrainian law enforcement has prosecuted dozens of UOC clergymen for alleged “collaborationism,” treason, and “aiding the aggressor state,” HRW noted. Any prosecution not based on specific violations of law and based on “the adherence to a peaceful practice of faith” constitutes religious discrimination, it added. Religious affiliation is not evidence of a suspect posing a threat, Williamson stressed.
The UOC has been complaining for years of increasingly harsh persecution by the Ukrainian government. The crackdown proves that Kiev seeks to eradicate all Russian culture, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this week. Moscow previously accused international rights groups of turning a blind eye to Kiev’s actions.
