"For the time being there remains the vital question of conducting in Ukraine one indiscriminate policy in the sphere of religion and on the attitude to various churches, as is defined by the current legislation"

On July 1, 2010, the Supreme Council passed the Law of Ukraine On the Foundations of Domestic and Foreign Policy, which was signed on July 15 by President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

According to the preamble of the mentioned law, the law “defines the foundations of domestic policy in Ukraine in the spheres of building statehood, developing the local self-government, and stimulating the development of the regions, forming institutes of civil society, national safety and protection in the economic, social, and humanitarian spheres, in the ecological sphere and sphere of technological safety, and also the basis of foreign policy in Ukraine.”

Article 1 of the law stipulates that “the foundations of domestic and foreign policy are defined by principles and priorities of the state policy in corresponding spheres.” In Article 2 it is noted that “the foundations of domestic and foreign policy are based on the unconditional adherence to the Constitution of Ukraine, which provides for the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen and guarantees rights and freedoms proclaimed in the Constitution of Ukraine, on the universally recognized principles and norms of international rights, …the strengthening of democratic foundations of the social and state life, provided for by the rule of law…” Among the principles, on which the domestic and foreign policy is grounded, the following, in particular, is mentioned:

• rule of law, the guarantee of the realization of the rights and freedoms of a person and citizen, respect to the dignity of every person;
• openness and transparency in the processes of preparing and accepting resolutions of the bodies of the state government and bodies of local self-government;
• respect to the rights of a person and her fundamental freedoms.

Religious Aspect

In the Law of Ukraine On the Foundations of Domestic and Foreign Policy is a series of statues that have to do with religious rights and freedoms.

According to Article 10 of this law the main foundations of the domestic policy in the humanitarian sphere, which concern the freedom of conscience and religious conviction, are defined as:

• renewing the full-fledged dialogue between representatives of various social and ethnic groups, cultures, and religious denominations;
• providing the conditions for forming a tolerant society, guaranteeing the freedom of conscience and religion.

It is worth noting that legislative statutes about “renewing the full-fledged dialogue between representatives …religious denominations” provoke a certain level of amazement because already for many years in Ukraine the interdenominational dialogue has been actively developing in various formats. In particular, this concerns the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, the Council of Representatives of Christian Churches of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Bible Society, the Council of Evangelic Protestant Churches of Ukraine, and other interchurch organizations – the activity of which is known widely among the public of the country and far beyond its borders.

Regarding the aspect “guaranteeing the freedom of conscience and religion,” then for the time being there remains the vital question of conducting in Ukraine one indiscriminate policy in the sphere of religion and on the attitude to various churches, as is defined by the current legislation. The goal of this is to eliminate the regional differences in policy in the sphere of freedom of religion. It is worth remembering that the Constitution of Ukraine guarantees all citizens equal rights, as well as the opportunity to freely confess one’s religious views. Therefore, realizing one national policy in providing rights and freedom of religion is one of the most important duties of the state in this sphere.

Together with this, the question on the possibility of introducing changes to the legislation about the freedom of conscience and religious organizations in the context of the plan of the work on the bills for 2010 is important. In the opinion of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations introducing changes should happen in the following order: first the law on the Conception of Church-State Relations should be passed, and then, work on the changes to the Law of Ukraine on the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations. Representatives of the denominations believe that important preconditions of this process should be the fixed dialogue between the churches and the government, as well as the general support of these initiatives in the Supreme Council of Ukraine.

In Article 10 of the Law of Ukraine On the Foundations of Domestic and Foreign Policy another foundation is defined as “creating conditions to consolidate the society on the basis of the national system of spiritual values, which is centered around a person, her development, her rights and freedoms, and the fullest guarantee of her needs.”

This creates hope that with the passing of this law, the system of values will be formed by the appropriate bodies of the state government, which will prevent in the future such unpleasant things as passive support by the representatives of the Ukrainian government of amoral initiatives at the level of international organizations (for example, the result of this years April’s session of PACE regarding “same-sex partnerships,” and so forth).

In addition, point 2 of Article 11 of this law on the main foundations in the sphere of foreign policy refers to “creating favorable foreign political conditions for developing the Ukrainian nation, its economic potential, historical conscience, national dignity of Ukrainians, as well as the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious originality of the citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities.” The closing formulation is a somewhat changed variation of Article 11 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

Also according to Article 5 of the mentioned law, among the main foundations of domestic policy in the sphere of forming institutes of the civil society are:

• strengthening the influence of associations of citizens in accepting socially important resolutions;
• conducting regular consultations with the community on important questions of life of the society and the state.

In the context of these foundations of the law one wants to hope that in the future the appropriate government bodies will more actively conduct consultations with the public and with churches and religious organizations, especially, to work out the resolutions for important questions in the development of the society. Such negative examples as representatives of the government ignoring the public in regards to legislative initiatives concerning peaceful gatherings, imperfection of the legislation on registering legal persons and others, needs to be a thing of the past.