Robert Amsterdam Accuses UK Government of Ignoring Persecution of the UOC

International lawyer Robert Amsterdam has published an article sharply criticizing the UK government for ignoring evidence of religious persecution in Ukraine. He accused London of “shameful silence” in the face of widespread violations of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), including church seizures, politically motivated arrests of clergy, and legislative efforts such as Draft Law No. 3894 aimed at banning the Church. The article appeared on the website of the British magazine The Critic.

Particular attention is given to Stephen Doughty, Minister for Europe, North America, and the Overseas Territories. According to Amsterdam, the minister’s responses to parliamentary inquiries by Sir Iain Duncan Smith on religious freedom show a “lack of awareness and deliberate blindness.” Doughty expressed support for Bill No. 3894 and accepted the Ukrainian government’s assurances without question.

Amsterdam notes that Doughty relied on the position of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches, without acknowledging that the UOC has effectively been excluded from this platform and thus lost the opportunity to directly communicate its concerns about persecution to foreign partners.

The article highlights that the UOC condemned the Russian invasion, severed ties with the Moscow Patriarchate, provided humanitarian aid, and opened parishes abroad for refugees. Nevertheless, Amsterdam writes, the Church is being targeted with baseless accusations, clergy are being arrested, churches seized, and Metropolitan Onufriy has even been stripped of Ukrainian citizenship.

The human rights lawyer reminded that actions against the UOC have been condemned by Pope Francis, the UN, the OSCE, Human Rights Watch, the World Council of Churches, and other international authorities. However, persecution of the UOC remains largely ignored by Western governments.

In conclusion, Amsterdam urged the UK to take the issue of religious freedom in Ukraine seriously. In his view, persecuting the Church during wartime undermines the very values that Ukraine claims to defend.

Earlier we reported that the international lawyer of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Robert Amsterdam, sharply criticized the statement of the head of the OCU, Epiphaniy Dumenko, made during a meeting with the US Chargé d’Affaires in Ukraine, Julie Davis. During this meeting, Dumenko assured the American diplomat that all reports of persecution of the UOC are allegedly “Russian disinformation.”