Ombudsman Lutkovska Draws Attentions to Violations of Freedom of Religion
Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights drew particular attention to issues of registration of religious organizations and the re-registration of their statuses.
This is stated in the annual report on human and citizens’ rights and freedoms, which ombudsman Valeriya Lutkovska presented on June 5, 2013, at the meeting of the Parliament, reports the Institute for Religious Freedom.
Two pages of the 267-page report (Paragraph 5.3 of Chapter 5, "Nondiscrimination") are devoted to the area of freedom of conscience and religion. The major focus is on the complex two-step procedure for registering religious organizations.
Changes to bill 10221 introduced a double registration process for religious organizations seeking to receive legal status or amend the articles of the association. The main problem is that these two steps are not coordinated with each other. Therefore, there is no interaction between the agencies responsible for policy on religion and registration of statuses of religious organizations and for civil registrars. In this case, the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Culture has prepared a bill to correct these rules.
“This complicated procedure for registering religious organizations is unreasonable and violates the right to freedom of conscience and religion guaranteed by Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 9 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms,” reads the ombudsman’s report.
In this regard, the commissioner stresses the need to immediately make changes to the law "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" to annul the said changes on the registration process for religious organizations.
In the annual report of the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights there is also an example of the violation of the rights of believers by the Lviv regional state administration, which is connected with the transfer of a house of worship to a newly formed Orthodox community, which declared a change in its religious affiliation.
