On March 16, at the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, the working group convenes for the first time to prepare bills in the area of freedom of religion.
The meeting was attended by authorized representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the State Committee of Ukraine on Nationalities and Religions, members of the Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, and experts from the Institute of Religious Freedom.
The participants discussed questions of further improving the regulatory and legal basis of church-state relations, in particular the new wording of the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” and draft law of Ukraine “On restitution of religious buildings to religious organizations.”
Representatives of the churches voiced their principled positions on approaches of work on the mentioned legislative changes.
Protopriest Oleksa Petriv of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church noted that the restitution of church property, which Ukraine assumed as an obligation to the Council of Europe, should not be limited only to religious buildings.
He noted that it is not about restitution of lands or forests that belonged to the churches. However, according to him, the bill omits the question of restitution to the churches of objects of religious use and does not propose any compensation mechanisms, in particular, regarding religious buildings that cannot be returned to their historic owners for various reasons.
The Secretary of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyivan Patriarchate, Bishop Yevstratii (Zoria), stressed that in the present social and political conditions, the work on the new wording of the law on religious freedom is premature. He reminded that the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations has repeatedly called the leadership of the state to remove the question from the agenda.
The bishop voiced the main fear of the confessions, namely, that even the best bill can be altered in the parliamentary offices of the legislative process, which means there is a risk of the status of religious freedom in Ukraine deteriorating.
After the discussion, the members of the working group agreed to prepare their vision and proposals regarding the development of the law in the area of church-state relations.
In addition, Yurii Bohutskyi instructed the representatives of State Committee on Nationalities and Religions to prepare for the members of the working group information about the character of obligations of Ukraine to the Council of Europe in the area of freedom of religion.
The working group was set as a result of the Frebruary 17 meeting of representatives of the authorities with the members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, which was headed by the Minister of Culture, Mykhailo Kulyniak.