UOC monks not evicted from Lara at UN request - Human Rights Watch

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has said that the UOC monks were not forcibly evicted from Kiev Pechersk Lavra in March at the request of the UN, Politika Strany has reported.

“The authorities took into account the UN advocacy efforts and refrained from actions that could have led to violence and did not forcibly evict the UOC monks from the Lavra within the deadline of 29 March,” the report said.

The report also notes that violence against UOC members and supporters increased from February to May and that the actions of local authorities towards the UOC were “beyond the authority of local councils”.

“In April 2023, the IHRC documented an upsurge in ‘hate speech’ and several cases of violence against UOC members. Public officials, bloggers and opinion leaders used discriminatory and inflammatory rhetoric and openly called for violence against UOC clerics and supporters. During the reporting period, the government and law-enforcement agencies failed to effectively counteract “hate speech” incidents,” the UN noted.