Cabinet restores the interdepartmental Committee on rights of religious organizations

The Committee for exercise of the rights of religious organizations will resume its work.

This follows from Decree 85 of the Cabinet of Ukraine as of March 4, 2015, which clarifies the management and composition of the Committee, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

The decision was adopted on the instructions of Ukrainian Prime Minister at the meeting of All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations in October 2014.

The Committee for exercise of rights of religious organizations will act as an interdepartmental body composed of deputy ministers and representatives of churches and religious organizations. The Committee’s Chairman is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Viacheslav Kyrylenko, while the Deputy Chairman of the Committeeis the First Deputy Minister of Culture.

The main Committee’s objective is to facilitatecoordination of executive bode for exercise of the rights of religious organizations and preparing proposals for formation and implementation of state policy in church-state relations.

Organizational and technical support of the Committee will be provided by the Ministry of Culture.

The Committee’s meeting was held last time in October 2012, and for threeconsecutive years the meeting was not convened.

The Committee for exercise of the rights of religious organizations was set up in 2008 as an advisory body to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.