Draft law No. 4128 highly criticised at AUCCRO Secretariat meeting

On June 29, 2016, a regular session of the Secretariat of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO) was held. With the blessing of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and all Ukraine, the Deputy Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (DECR UOC)  Archpriest Mykolay Danylevych took part in the work of the Secretariat.

Participants primarily discussed the Draft law No. 4128, which proposes changes to the Law of Ukraine “On freedom of conscience and religious organisations” (specifically regarding transfer of jurisdiction of religious communities). The Draft law proposes to provide the right to people who are not fully-fledged members of a given religious community to participate in processes whereby the legal jurisdiction of the community is changed, that is, those who only “self-identify′ (self-determine themselves) as belonging to a given religious community.” According to this draft law, such “self-identification” confirms “participation in the religious life of a particular religious community”. Given the diversity of religious practices in Ukraine, this formulation is ambiguous and can be interpreted differently, and is devoid of any legislative definition.

Archpriest Mykolay Danylevych ,in detailed fashion, informed the representatives of the Ukrainian denominations and religious organisations about the dangers of such a Draft Bill, emphasizing that “we are talking about such a change to religious legislation, which will generate a new wave of inter-confessional conflict.” Participants of the meeting were highly critical of  this Bill,  modeling  its hypothetical application to the realities and the internal regulations of each denomination. In particular, representatives of some Protestant denominations critically remarked that in their reality one  cannot  simply become a member of a denomination based only on the fact that one or another person independently and spontaneously ” self-identifies” (self-determines) oneself with a given religious community nor can one do so by simply coming in and listening to a few services in the church of a denomination. In order to become a fully-fledged member in these confessions, it is imperative that an individual go through a period of catechesis, be baptized or confirmed (Sacrament of Confirmation). Even after this, the right to vote in some Protestant confessions during community meetings belongs only to male members. According to Ukrainian legislation, the government is obliged by law to respect the internal charters of each denomination. Thus, the said Draft law is in direct contradiction with the religious practices of many denominations and is, in fact, proposing a transfer of jurisdiction procedure which, in general,  blatantly interferes with the internal activities of religious communities.

In the opinion of the members of the Secretariat, this Bill opens the way not only to the seizure of property belonging to religious organisations by representatives from other faiths, but also by unbelievers who engage in such raiding practices. In the opinion of the members of  AUCCRO, the adoption of this Bill will lead to the situation where religious organisations will lose control of their property  to third parties, who do not even belong to a given denomination.

As a result of discussions, it was decided to present  the concerns of the AUCCRO members to the legislative bodies in the country and also to come up with an initiative to hold additional hearings and consultations with the initiators of this controversial Bill.

During the meeting, the Secretariat  considered the current situation in the sphere of Church-State relations, and discussed changes to the tax code, especially the parts directly concerning religious organisations, also examined were initiatives connected with celebrations marking the twentieth anniversary since the creation of AUCCRO, which have been tentatively scheduled for autumn of this year.

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