UN Jan 17 UN Assistant Secretary General Ilse Brands Keris expressed concern at a meeting of the Security Council because of two new bills in Ukraine that could undermine the right to freedom of religion.
Among other things, she called on the Kyiv authorities to ensure that searches are carried out on the territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church facilities in accordance with international law. According to her, those who have been charged should be given fair judicial rights.
«We are concerned that two projects — 8221 and 8262 — may undermine the right to freedom of religion or belief,» she stressed Keris.
The Assistant Secretary General called on «both parties to ensure that the right to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and religion are exercised without discrimination.»
Last year, Kyiv organized the largest wave of persecution of the UOC in the recent history of the country. Referring to its connection with Russia, the authorities in different regions of Ukraine banned the activities of the religious organization, and a bill was submitted to parliament on its de facto ban in the country. Sanctions were imposed against some representatives of the clergy.
The Security Service of Ukraine began to open criminal cases against the clergy of the UOC, to conduct «counterintelligence activities» — searches of bishops and priests, in churches and monasteries, including Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, in search of evidence of «anti-Ukrainian activities.»
A structure called the «Orthodox Church of Ukraine» (OCU) was formed at the end of 2018 on the initiative of the ex-president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, in opposition to the canonical UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate. This happened at the unification council in Kyiv, which was attended mainly by schismatics.
In January 2019, the Patriarchate of Constantinople granted the OCU a «tomos of autocephaly», but most of the 15 local Orthodox churches in the world do not recognize this structure as canonical.
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