Repressions against UOC discussed at OSCE meeting

An OSCE meeting in Warsaw. Photo: protiktor

On 5-6 October 2023, Warsaw hosted a meeting of the OSCE Human Dimension Conference during which the head of the human rights organization with consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Public Advocacy, Oleh Denisov, addressed the leadership of the OSCE and the diplomatic missions of its member states with a statement on the facts of violation of UOC believers’ rights, as reported on the NGO Public Advocacy website.

To his appeal, Denisov attached a statement by the Kyiv Theological Academy and Seminary (KDAiS) regarding the unlawful deprivation of educational premises, statements by UOC eparchies about the seizure of churches and numerous decisions by local self-government bodies to deprive UOC religious organisations of their rights to land plots, including those under already built churches. He also included information about decisions on the "UOC ban", open criminal cases against UOC hierarchs, and the draft law "On the prohibition of the UOC" and the "Renaming Law".

Denisov told the session participants: "We have collected detailed information about the facts of violations of the UOC believers’ rights," which is confirmed by written appeals signed by the heads of eparchies and religious organizations of the UOC, numerous reports in the media, and testimonies of victims.

"Unfortunately, we do not see any real actions by the Ukrainian state authorities to protect the UOC believers. On the contrary, from time to time, new aggressive impulses towards this confession arise, for example, in the statements of government representatives and impunity for crimes against the UOC," Denisov said.

He expressed the opinion that "numerous appeals to international institutions will reduce pressure on the UOC because in this case, international publicity about the 'UOC case' will make it inconvenient to persecute UOC believers since human rights violations negatively affect the international image of Ukraine's political leadership".

During the OSCE meeting, Denisov stated that the criminal prosecutions of the UOC Metropolitans Pavel, Feodosiy, Jonathan and Longin "are largely based on their rhetoric regarding the non-compliance with church canons by representatives of other denominations."

The human rights defender pointed out that against the backdrop of liberalisation in international practice regarding responsibility for statements, "the sentences to the UOC bishops for their statements look like a political order against the UOC".

He emphasized that the actions of the authorities against the UOC hierarchs indicate double standards in Ukrainian justice because "there is no criminal case for aggressive statements against UOC believers, including calls for violent actions against this confession".

Denisov reminded the participants that there are many examples of hostile rhetoric against the UOC.

"Only our organization in 2017-2021 sent several dozen statements to law enforcement agencies about the initiation of criminal proceedings for such statements. If we consider the entire UOC, we can find facts of hundreds of statements by the believers of this denomination about crimes committed against them under Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. This article is mentioned in the accusations against the UOC bishops," the lawyer stressed, saying that law enforcers "have never appointed a psycholinguistic expertise of the statements against UOC believers".

Denisov expressed hope that "the President of Ukraine and other responsible politicians will draw the right conclusions because all that UOC believers are asking for now is to allow them to confess their faith in the churches that belong to them and stop criminal prosecutions on unfounded and fabricated charges."

"All that is needed for this is to cancel the political order for the persecution of the UOC and stop the heated discussions about the UOC in the corridors of power, leaving religious issues to the believers themselves," concluded the human rights defender.

As previously reported, the required number of signatures for the ban on the UOC was collected in the Verkhovna Rada.

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