Human rights activists bring the issue of persecution of the UOC to the level of the UN Human Rights Council

The human rights organization «Public Advocacy» together with the alliance «Church against Xenophobia and Discrimination» sent a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, initiating a procedure to consider complaints about systematic and gross violations of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This step was a reaction to the ongoing persecution of the UOC by the Ukrainian authorities and is the next step after the UN Special Rapporteurs have already confirmed the facts of violations. This is reported by the Orthodox Life portal.

According to the website of «Public Advocacy», the filing of the application followed the approval by UN experts of the conclusions on violations of the rights of the UOC believers, as well as human rights defenders and journalists defending them. The head of «Public Advocacy» Oleg Denisov noted that during 2024 work was underway to inform the UN Special Procedures about the full range of violations. As a result, the official communication of the UN Special Rapporteurs to Ukraine reflected all the key problems: criminal cases against the hierarchy and believers, the law «on the ban of the UOC», seizures of churches, deprivation of congregations of rights to land plots and lawsuits for the liquidation of Church structures.

Particularly important, according to Denisov, are the comments of UN experts on the illegality of deprivation of citizenship of UOC hierarchs and criminal prosecutions for statements about the non-canonicity of other confessions. In the final press release, UN mandate holders characterized the state’s actions as «collective punishment of UOC members and those who defend them.» Since the persecution does not stop, as evidenced by the continued detention of Metropolitan Arseniy (Yakovenko) and the lawsuit to liquidate the Kyiv Metropolitanate of the UOC, human rights activists have decided to initiate a review of the cases at a higher international level.

The organization stresses that the communication of the UN Special Rapporteurs of 14 May 2025 is of great legal importance. This document can be used in ongoing legal proceedings in Ukraine and is recognized by the European Court of Human Rights as an expert position. The conclusions of the UN mandate holders allow to strengthen the defense in cases related to freedom of speech and to challenge charges based on controversial linguistic expertise under the articles on «high treason», «justification of aggression» and «incitement of religious hatred».

Metropolitan Theodosiy (Snigirev) of Cherkasy and Kanev, who signed the document on behalf of the alliance, reiterated the importance of the conclusion received from the UN. He stated the need to continue working at the international level, in particular, to raise the issue of the illegal and discriminatory decision of the Ukrainian authorities to deprive the UOC clergy of the right to defer mobilization. «Our appeal … is aimed both at strengthening the information we have previously submitted and at obtaining international solutions to the acute issue of the unequal treatment of our priests by the state, who are being forcibly mobilized … unlike clerics of all other confessions», — explained Metropolitan Theodosius.

We would like to remind you that earlier we reported that the head of the Archdiocese of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in the United States, Archbishop Elpidophoros, reiterated his concern about Ukrainian Law No. 3894, saying that it poses a threat to the religious freedom of millions of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This position was voiced in the context of a meeting of Orthodox Christians with U.S. lawmakers in Washington, DC.