Opposition Introduces to Parliament Bill on Religious Rites

Deputies from Batkivshchyna and one from Svoboda registered in the Verkhovna Rada a draft law amending the Article 21 of the Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” (regarding the right of religious organizations and citizens to freely conduct religious rites and ceremonies, UNIAN informs.

The bill proposes to amend Art. 21 of the law under which worship, religious rites, ceremonies and processions are held freely in religious buildings and surrounding areas, in places of pilgrimage, institutions of religious organizations, cemeteries, places of individual burials and crematoria, apartments and houses of citizens, in the places of peaceful assemblies of citizens, as well as in institutions, organizations, and enterprises on the initiative of their employees and the consent of the administration and at meetings with MPs on the initiative of deputies.

The proposed changes also envisage that “in other cases, public worship, religious rites, ceremonies and processions can be held only by informing the local state administration, the executive body of village, town, or city council no later than 48 hours beforehand (now they are held each time with the permission of the local state administration, the executive bodies of the village, town, or city council).”

In addition, the amended law states that a petition for the issuance of a permit shall be submitted no later than 10 days before the planned worship, ritual, ceremony or procession, except in cases of urgency.