Hierarch of UOC takes part in the OSCE Meeting

Bishop Victor (Kotsaba). Photo: news.church.ua

On April 26-27, 2021, the Head of the Representation of the UOC to European International Organizations, Bishop Victor of Baryshevka, took part in the OSCE meeting "Democratic Law-Making: Ensuring Participation – Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM) II 2021", according to the Information and Education Department of the UOC.

The online meeting was attended by representatives of the OSCE participating States, Director of the European Commission for Democracy through Law Simona Granata-Menghini, representatives of diplomatic, human rights and academic circles.

Bishop Victor drew the attention of the meeting participants to the fact of the adoption in Ukraine of the law of December 20, 2018 No. 2662-VIII, which actually requires the religious organizations of the UOC to change their historical names, which does not correspond to the norms of international law and European practice.

Another problem pointed out by the hierarch is that since the adoption of this law, religious organizations of the UOC have been unable to acquire and exercise their rights. In fact, more than 12,000 religious communities of the country's largest confession have been removed from the legal field of the state and deprived of civil legal personality.

Making his follow-up remarks, Bishop Victor drew the attention of all participants to the fact that the European Commission for Democracy through Law has the opportunity to consider the issue of compliance of legislative acts with international law and European standards in the course of relevant examinations.

The Head of the Representative Office of the UOC called on the international human rights community to find and leverage legal procedures for the examination of this law and the protection of the rights of believers of the UOC in international judicial institutions.

Earlier, Bishop Victor said that the faithful of the UOC are tired of injustices against their Church and are ready to defend the Church by all legal methods.

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