Freedom of Religion Must Prevail in Ukraine, Even as War Drags On, Senior UN Human Rights Official Tells Security Council
UN Agency Documents Tension, Violence between Rival Orthodox Worshippers
Everyone in Ukraine must have complete freedom to manifest and practice their religion or belief, a senior UN official told the Security Council today as she detailed restrictions on religious freedom and threats to the safety of religious communities in the country and called on both Ukraine and the Russian Federation to ensure that fundamental human right.
“Concerns regarding the enjoyment of freedom of religion in Ukraine, including in occupied territory, have increased since February 2022,” said Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), noting growing tensions between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
“Restoring peace and respect for the United Nations Charter and international law is urgent. While the war and occupation persist, we call on all parties to ensure that all people in Ukraine have full freedom to manifest and practice their religion or belief, in line with international human rights law.”
Since February 2022, OHCHR has documented 10 cases of physical violence and six cases of threatened violence resulting from disputes between parishioners of different Orthodox communities, she said. Ukrainian law enforcement’s response in these cases has failed to sufficiently investigate incidents and take action to protect members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, she added.
She drew attention to the Ukraine Parliament’s first-reading approval of draft amendments to the law on religious organizations, which, if adopted, would establish a procedure to dissolve “religious organizations affiliated with influence centres, the management of which is located in a country, which carries out armed aggression against Ukraine”. Lawmakers must clearly define the specific legitimate aim of the proposed restrictions and ensure their necessity and proportionality and revise the text accordingly, she said.
Meanwhile, although international humanitarian law obliges an occupying Power to respect the laws in force in the country, the Russian Federation is applying its own laws in occupied territory, she said. Elaborating, she detailed restrictions on religious minorities and cases of alleged torture of clergy.
Vakhtang Kipshidze, Vice-Chairman of Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, Moscow Patriarchate, who also briefed the Council, said: “An analysis of the situation leads us to the assessment that the authorities of the country have an objective of completely annihilating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” Believers who do not want to convert to the Orthodox Church [of Ukraine], established by current Ukrainian authorities in 2018, will be stripped of their rights, he said.
“The first step to the restoration of peace in Ukraine is the end to persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he said, calling on Council members to abandon political differences for the sake of the principle of religious freedom and adopt effective measures to protect worshipers in Ukraine.
During the debate that followed, the Russian Federation’s representative, said that the Ukraine Parliament’s draft legislation would completely ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Kyiv regime is trying to justify the purge of the country’s religious field and free the hands of radicals to violence and lawlessness, he added, pointing to seizures of churches and forced illegal legal liquidation of their communities under the guise of supposedly “voluntary transitions” to other faiths, since 2019. Despite OHCHR documenting 10 cases of physical violence and six cases of threats after conflicts between parishioners of different Orthodox Christian communities, the Council’s Western members continue to ignore this, he said, pointing to “an attempt to reform the consciousness of tens of millions of Ukrainians”.
The United States’ delegate, however, said that the Russian Federation’s use of the Council to further disinformation was additional evidence that it does not respect freedom of expression and belief around the world. He also expressed alarm that the Russian Federation is trying to justify its invasion by framing the war as a holy war between good and evil. “We should all see through this façade” and focus on the well-documented and systematic policy of religious oppression in the territories under Russian Federation occupation, he said.
Malta’s representative similarly criticized the Russian Federation for yet again attempting to divert attention from its aggression against Ukraine by requesting today’s meeting. France’s delegate said that Moscow must comply with Council resolution 2347 (2017), which states that a deliberate attack on a religious site is a war crime. Ecuador’s representative noted that the Geneva Conventions prohibit acts of hostility against places of worship, which constitute the cultural or spiritual heritage of peoples.
“Efforts to instrumentalize religion or use it for political goals is an adventurous enterprise and may prove dangerous,” said Albania’s representative, who joined others in calling on the Russian Federation to stop the war and withdraw its troops from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. Mozambique’s representative, meanwhile, said both Ukrainian and Russian clergy and religious leaders could be influential advocates for compassion and compromise.
Ukraine’s representative, speaking at the end of the meeting, said that the Russian Orthodox Church itself has taken part in occupation and pursued annexation of her country’s territory. It has also been responsible for providing ideological support of Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. The Russian authorities in the occupied territories of Ukraine have harassed, intimidated, prosecuted or imprisoned hundreds of those belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Protestant churches and Muslim religious communities, as well as Greek Catholics, Roman Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of other religious groups, she said. Ukraine’s draft law discussed today has a very clear goal — to counter the attempts of the aggressor State to instrumentalize religious organizations in Ukraine for the purposes of aggression, she added.
THREATS TO INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY
Briefings
ILZE BRANDS KEHRIS, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), speaking via video-teleconference on behalf of the High Commissioner, said that to date, the Office has recorded nearly 10,000 civilians killed and more than 18,000 injured, as well as extensive damage to Ukrainian civilian infrastructure. Humanitarian needs will be magnified as winter approaches and temperatures drop below freezing. OHCHR is monitoring the situation of freedom of religion across Ukraine, in both territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine and territory occupied by the Russian Federation. “Tensions between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which has historic links to the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which obtained autocephaly under the Constantinople Patriarchate in 2019, including over ownership of land and buildings, increased following the Russian Federation’s full-scale armed attack in February 2022, in some cases manifesting in violent incidents,” she reported.
These tensions have affected freedom of religion in the territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine, she said, noting that since February 2022, OHCHR has documented 10 cases of physical violence and six cases of threatened violence resulting from disputes between parishioners of different Orthodox communities. “Regrettably, Ukrainian law enforcement’s response in these cases has been inadequate, failing to sufficiently investigate incidents and take action to protect members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” In addition, since February 2022, of the more than 6,600 criminal cases brought against individuals for collaboration and other conflict-related crimes in Ukraine, 68 have involved Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergy members, according to Ukrainian authorities, she added, noting that OHCHR is monitoring 44 of these cases. Full respect for due process and fair trial rights in these extremely sensitive cases must be ensured, she emphasized, noting that in at least 26 cases involving Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergy members, OHCHR has identified concerns regarding the fairness of the criminal proceedings.
OHCHR is closely monitoring how legislative developments in Ukraine may impact enjoyment of freedom of religion, she said, adding that the Office has previously expressed concern over the cumulative impact of Government actions targeting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that could be discriminatory. In October, Ukraine’s Parliament approved in its first reading a set of draft amendments to the law on religious organizations, which would establish a procedure for the dissolution of “religious organizations affiliated with influence centres, the management of which is located in a country, which carries out armed aggression against Ukraine.” International law permits restrictions on the freedom to manifest religion only if they are prescribed by law and necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others, she said, urging lawmakers to clearly define the specific legitimate aim of the proposed restrictions and ensure their necessity and proportionality and revise the text accordingly.
Noting serious concerns of the OHCHR about freedom of religion in Ukrainian territory occupied by the Russian Federation, she recalled that international humanitarian law obliges an occupying Power to respect the laws in force in the country. However, the Russian Federation is applying its own laws in occupied territory. She detailed restrictions on religious minorities, such as in Crimea where Russian authorities have prosecuted Jehovah’s Witnesses and Hizb-ut-Tahrir — two organizations that are prohibited in the Russian Federation, but not in Ukraine. In Simferopol, the occupying authorities evicted the Orthodox Church of Ukraine from the cathedral, depriving parishioners of their last place of worship in the city, she said, also detailing cases of alleged torture of clergy. “Concerns regarding the enjoyment of freedom of religion in Ukraine, including in occupied territory, have increased since February 2022,” she continued. “Restoring peace and respect for the United Nations Charter and international law is urgent. While the war and occupation persist, we call on all parties to ensure that all people in Ukraine have full freedom to manifest and practice their religion or belief, in line with international human rights law.”
VAKHTANG KIPSHIDZE, Vice-Chairman of Synodal Department for Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, Moscow Patriarchate, said it could never have been imagined that the history of faith-based persecution would repeat itself in our time in Ukraine. “An analysis of the situation leads us to the assessment that the authorities of the country have an objective of completely annihilating the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.” The present Ukrainian authorities, encroaching on the principle of religious freedom, decided in 2018 to establish an Orthodox Church, renouncing more than 1,000 years of regional religious history and presenting the current Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an enemy of the State. All believers who do not want to convert to the new church will be stripped of their rights, he said.
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has repeatedly turned to the Secretary-General with descriptions of violations of the rights of worshippers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, but the only response has been silence, he said. It seems the international community is indifferent to the shameless devastation of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which unites tens of millions of worshippers. The voices of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church are not heard in the Council; rather, these believers are intimidated and afraid to openly defend their rights because repression awaits them in Ukraine. “The first step to the restoration of peace in Ukraine is the end to persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” he added.
The Council needs to put aside political differences and protect ordinary worshippers from unprecedented repression, he said. Clergy and lay people, monks and bishops should not become bargaining chips in global politics. Otherwise, the mockery of peoples’ faith will continue. If warring States destroy cultural and historical ties established over centuries, then they will plunge into the abyss of barbarism. Faith needs to be upheld to ensure some space for mercy for the defenceless, prisoners and civilians in the horrors of war. He called on Council members to abandon political differences for the sake of the principle of religious freedom and adopt effective measures to protect worshipers in Ukraine.
Statements
VASSILY A. NEBENZIA (Russian Federation) said that on 19 October, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted in the first reading the act to amend certain laws to completely ban the activities of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. If adopted, this law will make it possible to prohibit in court the activities of any Ukrainian religious organization that is “affiliated with centres of influence” in the Russian Federation. Comparing the President of Ukraine to Roman emperors who persecuted Christians, he said that the only thing missing is a Colosseum with Christians torn to pieces, although the Kyiv regime is moving towards this. Ukrainian police, security forces and journalists spread groundless accusations that weapons, ammunition and provisions for the “aggressor” are stored in churches, he said, adding that the Kyiv regime is trying to justify the purge of the country’s religious field and free the hands of radicals to violence and lawlessness.
Since 2019, there have been seizures of churches and forced illegal legal liquidation of their communities under the guise of supposedly “voluntary transitions” to other faiths, he said, also recalling the expulsion of monks from the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, the oldest monastery in Ukraine and a symbol of canonical Orthodoxy. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “democratic” regime placed the elderly leader of the monastery under arrest, but released him on bail of $1 million. In the last six months, OHCHR has documented 10 cases of physical violence and six cases of threats after conflicts between parishioners of different Orthodox Christian communities, he noted, adding that this is just a drop in a bucket compared to the real facts. Western members of the Security Council continue to ignore this as they cannot criticize Zelenskyy, otherwise the question may arise to whom exactly they are supplying weapons. “In fact, we are talking about an attempt to reform the consciousness of tens of millions of Ukrainians,” he said....
https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15500.doc.htm
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