State Committee Prepares Proposals to Settle Problem of “Dual” Registration of Religious Organizations in Ukraine

KYIV — The State Committee of Ukraine on Nationalities and Religions forwarded a letter to the State Committee of Ukraine on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship with proposals regarding the regulation of the question of entering information on religious organizations into the Unified State Register of legal persons.  Both agencies plan to prepare a joint letter to the state registrars containing recommendations and proposals to be used during registration of religious organizations, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

In answer to the letter of the State Committee on Entrepreneurship regarding the settlement of the issue of “dual” registration of religious organizations, the State Committee on Nationalities and Religions put forward a number of its own proposals.

It is envisaged that in order to be included in the Unified State Register, a religious organization upon acquiring the status of a legal person, according to Article 14 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations,” should submit to the state registrar copies of the statutes and certificate of its registration  (originals of the documents are also submitted), extract from the order of the registering authority on matters of religions of registration of the statutes, registration card (Form 6: the inclusion) which is to be filled by the religious organization only in the parts within its capacity, after that the state registrar issues to the religious organization the certificate of state registration on the unified pattern.  

The State Committee on Nationalities and Religions also proposes that the information on the registration of alterations and addenda to the statutes (their new wordings) should be submitted to the state registrar in the order envisaged for state registration of a religious organization.  

As for the procedure of exclusion of a religious organization from the Unified State Register upon resolution by the registering authority as to stopping its activity, the State Committee on Nationalities and Religions proposes that this procedure should be executed in the order stipulated by the law of Ukraine “On state registration of legal persons and physical persons, the entrepreneurs.”

Let us note that according to Article 16 of the Law of Ukraine “On the Freedom of Worship and Religious Organizations” the activity of a religious organization can be stopped according to its own directions in connection with its reorganization (division, merging, annexation) or liquidation as well as upon a decision of a court in case of violation by the religious organization, which is a legal person, of the regulations of this law and other legislative acts of Ukraine.

Since 2005, the leaders of many churches and religious organizations have repeatedly approached the state leadership and the Supreme Council of Ukraine with a request to eliminate the obligatory “dual” registration of religious organizations, which was introduced upon the approval of the mentioned Law on state registration of legal persons.  

After the meeting between Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations in July of this year, this question found reflection in an instruction of the government, according to which document the State Committee on Nationalities and Religions and the Ministry of Justice were instructed to prepare proposals to optimize the state registration of religious organizations.