By voting to ban the UOC, MPs violate a number of international laws - Amsterdam

The head of the international human rights company Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Robert Amsterdam, who represents the legal interests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, has said that by banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian MPs violate a large number of international laws, which will inevitably lead to personal sanctions against them. He said in a commentary to «Strana.UA».

«The United States regularly imposes sanctions on individuals responsible for serious human rights violations around the world, in accordance with the Global Magnitsky Act. This authority to impose sanctions for extraterritorial human rights violations is contained in Executive Order 13818, the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act (22 USC 2656), and the Magnitsky Global Sanctions Regulations (31 CFR 583). A number of other countries have broadly similar sanctions authority. I express my legal opinion that Rada’s conduct may well fall within these countries’ authority to sanction human rights violations», — Amsterdam said.

The human rights activist argues that in the long term, the adoption of the bill #8371 could negatively affect Ukraine’s EU accession process.

«The bill contradicts both Article 35 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. These documents guarantee freedom of religion. Any restrictions on this freedom must be necessary to protect public order, health or morals. Banning the UOC is not necessary. If, God forbid, there were traitors to national interests within the UOC, they could certainly be properly identified and given a fair trial. But instead, the authorities prefer to engage in collective punishment. The disproportionate, discriminatory collective punishment envisioned by this bill is simply incompatible with Ukraine’s international legal obligations. Furthermore, this proposed law contradicts Ukraine’s own constitution, which also guarantees freedom of religion in Article 35. In the long term, the Ukrainian authorities’ attack on the UOC and its gross violation of freedom of religion may well block its accession to the EU based on the requirements of the Copenhagen Criteria for the Protection of Human Rights», — the UOC lawyer believes.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that the Committee for Humanitarian Policy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine was in a real uproar over the activities of the head of the international human rights company Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Robert Amsterdam, who represents the legal interests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The committee members claim that the human rights defender is exerting pressure on MPs to disrupt the vote for the bill No. 8371 aimed at banning the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.