Human Rights Activists Notice Negative Trends in Religious Freedom in 2013

The situation in the field of guaranteeing freedom of thought, conscience, and religion has not changed, although there has been an increase in state regulation and limitation of religious freedom, human rights activists published in the Annual Report on Human Rights in Ukraine in 2013, reports the Institute for Religious Freedom.

In the past year, there have been a number of dangerous legislative initiatives on the part of pro-government factions of the parliament, but they have not been considered.

According to human rights activists, it’s not uncommon for there to be conflicts in religious sphere, but they are solved by using the well-established practices. Citizens of all faiths have sufficient freedom to worship.

According to Volodymyr Yavorsky, a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union and author of the study, 2012-2013 differed because the central government provided certain privileges to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), for example in leasing premises, allocating funds from the state budget for the restoration of religious buildings, and other activities to support it.

According to the expert, observing the principle of separation and neutrality of the state toward religious organizations is one of the biggest problems in the administrative practice of the authorities, which often support the dominant religion in the area and discriminate against religious minorities.

The Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" contrary to Article 39 of the Constitution establishes the authorization procedure for religious assembly. In practice, holding peaceful public religious events is fraught with even more problems.

However, despite the outdated and sometimes tough law, some of its shortcomings are largely offset by positive administrative practice of the authorities. While it is clear that in the absence of clear legal guarantees of religious freedom, the situation remains fragile and unpredictable and a lot depends on government policy.

According to the Institute for Religious Freedom, in 2013 the Parliament was to consider about 30 bills that to some extent related to freedom of religion. However, most of initiatives aimed at expanding the legal right to freedom of religion did not find adequate support from the relevant committees.

In their report, the human rights activists outline a series of recommendations for improving the legislation of Ukraine in the field of freedom of conscience and religion. In particular, they propose that religious organizations should automatically gain non-profit status after they register with the state and to increase the validity of temporary residence permits in Ukraine for foreign religious workers.