Parliament to hold hearing on church-state relations

The Supreme Council of Ukraine plans to consider a number of legislative initiatives in the area of ensuring religious freeom during the current plenary week, the Institute of Religious Freedom reports.

On Thursday, March 3, the Parliament is to consider a draft Resolution 8103 on the parliamentary hearing on “The Church-State Dialogue as an Important Factor of Interdenominational accord in Ukraine,”  which was proposed by a deputy, V. Yavorivskyi to be held on Apri 6, 2011.  

The deputy explains his initiative by the fact that “the current situation in state's religious life has become troublesome.”

According to the document, by March 10, the Cabinet of Ministers is to prepare and submit to the Supreme Council necessary information and analytical materials on the issue of the parliamentary hearing and proposals to their draft recommendations and to nominate persons to make reports on the issue. 

The organizational measures necessary to ensure the parliamentary hearing is held are to be entrusted to the Supreme Council’s Committee on Matters of Culture and Spirituality, which is headed by the author of the initiative. 

Let us remind that on March 1, the Supreme Council passed in the first reading Bill №5291, which grants physical persons the right to entrepreneurship without the identification numbers in view of their religious beliefs.