Parliament Refuses to Liquidate Committee on Protection of Public Morality

On May 12, the Supreme Council rejected the proposal to cancel the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Purblic Morality” and to liquidate the National Expert Committee, reports the Institute of Religious Freedom.

These alterations were proposed by Bill 6532 (author: Snevchenko and others), which at its second reading was supported by only 12 votes. Deputy Marushchenko voted against the bill and the other 377 deputies refused to participate in the voting.

According to the Institute of Religious Freedom, it is obvious that the parliament completely changed its mind about the initiative for in the first reading the bill was supported by 324 deputies. Furthermore, this time around, even one of the authors of the bill refused to vote for it.

The consideration of the bill in the second reading was planned for April 21; however, it was postponed.

Notably, on that day Viktor Yanukovych met with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations. One of the main questions raised by the spiritual leaders at the meeting was the question of the role of the state in the protection of morality in the society.

The Supreme Council took into account the arguments and numerous addresses of the public and the churches, who called the president and parliament to preserve the effective mechanism of protecting public morality with a special law and the National Expert Committee.