The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom requests that Bill 8371 be sent to the Council of Europe and the UN for analysis

On April 9, 2024, a letter from the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom was sent to the State of Ukraine, represented by U.S. Ambassador Oksana Markarova. In it, representatives of the expert religious community of the United States pointed out the discriminatory clauses of the bill No. 8371, aimed at banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The US Commission on Religious Freedom believes that Ukraine should send the draft law No. 8371 to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to check its compliance with international norms in the sphere of protection of the rights of religious beliefs. This is reported by the Religion in Ukraine website.

It is reported that the Commission members were interested in the latest version of the draft law, which was prepared for the second reading by the Committee for Humanitarian and Information Policy. According to the Commission, these proposals «contain several problematic provisions with negative consequences for freedom of religion or belief». In particular, they referred to the criteria of affiliation of religious organizations with the ROC, in the presence of which the state threatens to remove violators from the register of legal entities and confiscate their property from the state budget. The Commission considers such criteria «excessively burdensome» and directed «against religious communities without requiring proof of criminal activity.»

Also, the Commission members found the description of the ideology of the «Russian World» somewhat strange, which gives grounds for the state to manually determine the corpus delicti of its disseminators.

«The Commission reasonably asks Ukraine to transfer the bill to the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe or the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion and belief, «to confirm the compliance of the bill with international law», — said in the letter.

We shall remind you that earlier we reported that an MP of the Servant of the People party admitted that the Ukrainian authorities wanted to force the clergy and believers of the UOC to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church behind the pressure and possible ban on the OCU.