Rada bans Russian church in Ukraine
20 August 2024 13:12
The Verkhovna Rada has passed a bill banning the activities of religious organisations associated with Russia in Ukraine. This was reported by MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, according to "Komersant Ukrainian"
“The Rada adopted as a whole the revised bill No. 8371 on the prohibition of the activities of religious organisations in Ukraine, in particular those associated with Russia. The law banning the Moscow church is popularly known as the law on the ban of the Moscow church),” he wrote.
According to him, 265 MPs voted in favour in the second reading, 29 voted against, and 4 abstained.
Voting by faction:
- Servant of the People – 173
- European Solidarity – 25
- Batkivshchyna – 17
- Platform for Life and Peace – 1
- For the future – 9
- Voice – 18
- Trust – 11
- Restoration of Ukraine – 0
- Non-factional – 11 votes.
Zheleznyak added that the law will come into force 30 days after its publication. However, there is one clause in the law that gives the UOC-MP communities nine months to break ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.
MP Oleksiy Honcharenko said that the bill provides for the ban of the ROC in Ukraine as a religious organisation.
Thus, the law establishes
- restrictions on religious organisations to have ties with the Russian Orthodox Church, whose activities in Ukraine are prohibited;
- defines what exactly is meant by such ties;
- provides a time limit within which Ukrainian organisations must break these ties;
- defines the procedure for state supervision over compliance with this requirement;
- gives state authorities the authority to interact with religious organisations that were unable or unwilling to comply with the law.
On 23 July, MPs blocked the rostrum in the Verkhovna Rada , demanding consideration of a bill to completely ban the UOC-MP in Ukraine. Parliamentary sessions scheduled for next week were cancelled.
The State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Consciencecalls on the Verkhovna Rada to eliminate legislative spam and other nonsense in the draft law banning the activities of religious organisations affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine before the second reading.
Banning the UOC-MP
on 19 October 2023, the Verkhovna Rada supported a bill to ban the UOC-MP in the first reading. At that time, 267 MPs voted in favour. The bill in question is draft law No. 8371 on the ban on religious organisations associated with Russia.
It provides for the impossibility of religious organisations operating in Ukraine that are managed from the aggressor country. The amendments give the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience additional powers:
- ensuring the implementation of the state policy on religions and the church by conducting religious studies expertise of the activities of religious organisations to identify subordination in canonical and organisational matters with the centres of influence of a religious organisation (association) whose governing centre (management) is located outside Ukraine in a state that carries out armed aggression against Ukraine
- issuing orders to eliminate violations identified as a result of a religious expertise within one month from the date of issuance of such an order
- filing a claim with the court to terminate the activities of a religious organisation in case of its failure to comply with the orders to eliminate violations identified as a result of religious expertise.
