Human rights activist: bills № 4128, 4511 are failure to state-church relations reform

Bills # 4128, 4511 represent an attempt to reform a failed model of church-state relations, writes on his Facebook page the head of public organization "Public Advocacy" Oleg Denisov.

"There is no doubt that both of these bills are discriminatory to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and contrary to international law," says the human rights activist. According to him, bill #4128 aims to blur the maximum criteria of membership in a religious organization. If adopted, the raiders will seize churches, drawing on of this new law and saying they identify themselves with a particular community. "With this bill it's clear for any lawyer or just a sensible man that it can’t be adopted. If this bill is passed and becomes law, it will give grounds to conclude that the legislative body has lost the remnants of legal competence," says Denisov.

Regarding bill #4511, with its adoption the institution of concordat, i.e. the contractual form of relations between the state and church organizations, will be introduced in Ukraine. This form of relationship exists in some Western countries and the Vatican.

The expert believes it is theoretically possible "if the authors, and to a greater extent, the bill performers are really ready to bring to the consensus every contract with every religious organization that falls under this law. But who guarantees that this will be a consensus, rather than forcing communities to conclude a "model" top-down agreement? Ukraine is far from having tested and proved technology of negotiations between the state and religious organizations," analyzes Denisov.

"Based on the logic of bill #4511 developers, it aims in any way to restrict the rights of denominations closely linked with the Russian Federation. But actually trying to legalize political pressure on such religious organizations, the authors of the bill have made illogical and erroneous cocktail of legal norms, the use of which is impossible in practice," says the human rights activist.

As a result of detailed analysis Denisov does not recommend the Supreme Council of Ukraine to take "odious and anti-European bills № 4218 or № 4511, but to develop a truly high-quality legal model of church-state relations, aimed at reducing conflicts in the religious sphere, based on the law of those EU countries that most efficiently regulate the relationship."

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