CoE Commissioner for Human Rights is to visit Ukraine

Dunja Mijatović, Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe

On May 27, 2019, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović said that she intends to visit Ukraine in the near future and monitor violations of the rights of the laity and the clergy of the UOC, TASS reported.

“I want to assure you that I am aware of what is happening there. I have not been to Ukraine yet, but I plan to be there soon. I also intend to come to Russia <...> When it comes to human rights, the violence of believers, this falls under my mandate. I will be doing this very carefully,” she promised the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus.

Recall, on May 27, 2019, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church brought up the issue of persecution of the UOC at the Council of Europe. “I would like the Council of Europe to monitor the observance of the rights of people in the field of religious choice. I would give you specific materials that may require your participation,” he said to Mijatović.

In February 2019, Bishop Victor of Baryshevka, the head of the UOC Representation to European International Organizations, also met with the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and informed her about the persecutions of the UOC in Ukraine.

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