Amnesty International documented facts of persecution of the UOC in a report on human rights in the world

The international human rights organization Amnesty International in its annual report for 2026 has reflected the facts of pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). The document contains attempts to dissolve the religious organization as a legal entity and a harsh criticism of these processes by UN expert groups.

According to the report of the international human rights organization Amnesty International, – the state authorities of Ukraine insisted on breaking the ties of the UOC with the Russian Orthodox Church, despite the statements of the UOC representatives that the necessary steps in this direction have already been taken. The human rights defenders also mentioned the court proceedings against the Kyiv diocese, which remained unresolved at the end of the reporting period.

A significant part of the report is devoted to the position of UN experts, who characterized the legislative initiatives against the Church as having “insufficient legal certainty”. International observers expressed concern that religious affiliation is actually equated with a threat to national security. The persecution of priests, lawyers and journalists was called “collective punishment” and Ukraine was urged to stop such trials.

Additionally, the Amnesty International report mentions the decision of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, according to which refusal of military service on the basis of religious beliefs under martial law is recognized as inadmissible. The experts emphasize that according to international standards, the beliefs of believers should be taken into account when determining the form of service.

We shall remind you that lawyer and attorney Andriy Domanskyy, who defends in courts the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Metropolitans Arseniy (Yakovenko) and Pavlo (Lebed), commented on the situation with the deprivation of citizenship of the Primate of the UOC Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine Onufry. The lawyer called it “nonsense” when a person born and living in Ukraine is unjustifiably deprived of citizenship.