U.S. Department of State sees persecution of UOC

Photo: UOJ

Every year, the U.S. State Department publishes a Report on International Religious Freedom. The 2023 Report on Ukraine contains many interesting points. We will not consider the violations noted by the State Department in relation to Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other religious groups here. Instead, we will focus on the violations of the rights of UOC believers and summarize the main information into several cases for convenience.

Case 1: Anti-Church Bill 8371

The State Department recorded that this bill has already passed its first reading in the Verkhovna Rada. Although the State Department's report does not provide its own assessment of the bill, it is clear that the State Department believes it violates the right to freedom of religion. This is evident from the report stating that the bill is positively assessed only by the government and certain religious leaders. However, it mentions far more those who consider bill 8371 as violating religious freedom. Specifically:

• "Some UOC leaders, however, termed the draft law a 'ban' on the UOC";
• "Metropolitan Klyment (of Nizhyn and Pryluky – Ed.) described the bill as 'a truly scandalous draft law containing many provocative provisions that contradict the constitution'";
•  "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk expressed his concern that the restrictions proposed in the draft law would infringe on freedom of religion and international human rights law";
• "Some experts on religion stated that the government already had sufficient legal basis under existing laws to address religion-related security issues and there was no need to pass additional legislation";
• Even "Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, warned the government against outlawing Orthodox communities linked to Moscow."

Case 2: Seizure of churches

The State Department tried to present this case fairly neutrally, portraying it as a dispute between two denominations. For example: “The UOC again reported violent threats and attacks on some of its parishes and buildings, accusing the OCU of seizing UOC churches. The OCU stated that parishioners, not the OCU, initiated the transfer of affiliation under the provisions of the law.”

When discussing the seizures of UOC churches and illegal re-registrations, the Report refers to statements from the UOC itself. For instance:

• “The UOC continued to assert that the OCU is taking possession of its property”;
• “The UOC continued to report cases of ‘illegal’ re-registration of parishes from the UOC to the OCU by some local authorities”;
• “UOC representatives continued to challenge the re-registration of parishes, stating that some local officials violated the law by allowing individuals not affiliated with the UOC to vote at meetings to change the affiliation of local parishes to the OCU”;
• “According to the UOC, some local authorities transferred parish affiliations against the will of the parishioners. The UOC also stated that officials allowed OCU supporters to take possession of disputed properties before the official registration of the change in affiliation.”

Nevertheless, the Report clearly states that the disputed transitions or seizures only occur in one direction: from the UOC to the OCU. This means that UOC believers are not taking anything from anyone or re-registering anything. The Report specifically mentions that UOC believers are trying to defend their rights in court.

An interesting mention in the Report is a specific case of an attempted church seizure during which an OCU supporter fell dead. "On April 8, OCU and UOC supporters clashed during a dispute over the ownership of a UOC church in the village of Lypovets, Kyiv region. During the scuffle, an OCU member died. The police reported that the man had a heart attack, which, according to the victim's daughter, was a result of the conflict," the Report states. It is unfortunate that the State Department officials did not mention that this man died just seconds after attempting to tear the cross off the UOC priest. There is a rather detailed video of this incident.

Despite the effort to maintain neutrality in reporting on church seizures, some cases in the Report are described in detail with vivid accounts of UOC believers being beaten. For example, the misconduct of OCU members in Cherkasy. "According to the OCU, on August 10, parishioners of the UOC Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cherkasy unanimously voted to join the OCU, although the UOC stated that this action was determined by non-community members. When the parishioners who voted to join the OCU attempted to enter the church on November 16, UOC members allegedly attacked them, which the UOC denies. The UOC claimed that dozens of OCU supporters entered the monastery on November 20, assaulted those filming or trying to stop them, and injured a priest and several parishioners, including two who required hospitalization. The OCU reportedly stated that its members acted in self-defense, and while local police claimed they tried to prevent violence, some UOC members criticized the police for inaction."

The fact that OCU supporters engage in violence during church seizures is also confirmed by a November 21 statement by members of a certain "well-known grassroots OCU initiative", who said that "the use of physical violence during the transfer of churches to the OCU is unacceptable," and "we call for an end to any attempts at forcible seizure of buildings and ask the OCU leadership to condemn them".

Additionally, the report states that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights "documented that law enforcement agencies did not take adequate measures to prevent and respond to violence related to conflicts involving the UOC, particularly in connection with incidents in March and April 2023."

Case 3: Bans on the UOC at the local level

The Report mentions that in 2023, decisions to ban the UOC were made by "the Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Volyn, Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, Chernivtsi and Zakarpattia regional councils, as well as several city councils...". It also notes that similar bans were enacted in 2022 in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia and Ternopil.

The State Department called these decisions "unenforceable" and "symbolic" because they exceeded the powers of local authorities. Even Viktor Yelensky, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), who is not sympathetic to the UOC, acknowledged this. In June, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission stated that such bans exceeded the authority of these state bodies. The UN Mission also "expressed concern that the cumulative impact of government actions against the UOC could be discriminatory".

Case 4: Persecution of hierarchs

The Report mentions several hierarchs who are being persecuted. Among them, the case of Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchyn and Bratslav stands out. The State Department notes significant violations by the authorities in this case, referring to the report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This Report says, "Numerous violations of fair trial principles were committed in this case, including the public dissemination of photographs taken during the search of the defendant's home, the defendant's lack of access to a lawyer during the search, and the use of pressure to force a confession and agreement to participate in a prisoner exchange."

Case 5: Obstruction and intimidation of pilgrims

Regarding this case, the Report states: "From August 19-25, thousands of UOC members participated in the annual pilgrimage procession from Kamianets-Podilskyi in the Khmelnytskyi region to the Pochaiv Lavra in the Ternopil region to celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos. The procession took place despite a ban imposed by the authorities of the Khmelnytskyi and Ternopil regions, who reportedly tried to prevent public order disturbances and provocations organized by Russia."

It is worth noting that the State Department points out that, firstly, this pilgrimage is traditional and takes place every year. Secondly, it involved thousands of pilgrims, indicating it was a very large event.

There is also mention of other instances where authorities illegally tried to stop pilgrims and even threatened them.

"According to the UOC, on August 18, police and SBU officials prevented a bus carrying UOC pilgrims from entering the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi. Similarly, UOC representatives stated that on August 19, law enforcement officials prevented a group of UOC pilgrims traveling by bus from the Chernivtsi region to Kamianets-Podilskyi from entering the Khmelnytskyi region. Officials warned the travelers that they would face 'problems' if they continued their trip and explained the travel ban as a result of local authorities' decision to prohibit religious processions. In mid-August, police and SBU officials in the Vinnytsia region reportedly threatened a small UOC pilgrimage procession traveling from Brailov to Pochaiv, stating that they would face 'big problems' if they did not stop their journey, forcing the pilgrims to return home," the Report says.

Case 6: The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

The Report mentions that until "2022, the UOC was the only Church with a monastic community in the Pechersk Lavra... However, in 2022, the government registered a monastic community associated with the OCU in the monastery" and also began the process of evicting UOC monks from the Lavra. The eviction targeted not only the monastic community but also the UOC's seminary and academy, with the process involving SBU and police officers.

The Report provides details on the confrontations between museum workers and law enforcement officials with UOC believers and monks. "The eviction attracted significant media attention and prompted periodic public protests and demonstrations by supporters and opponents of the UOC at the site, including some monks," the Report says.

Interestingly, the State Department's Report quotes the director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Reserve, M. Ostapenko, who stated that "those monks who serve Ukrainian shrines should continue to do so, but the illegal activities of pro-Russian forces in the Lavra must be stopped." In the US, any such statement must be backed by evidence; otherwise, the official could be taken to court. M. Ostapenko has no proof that UOC monks are pro-Russian forces or that their activities in the Lavra are illegal, meaning there is no basis for prohibiting their activities.

This is not a complete list of everything contained in the State Department Report on the UOC. A detailed analysis of this document would take dozens of pages. Therefore, to avoid tiring the readers, let's move on to the conclusions.

Conclusions

First, the mere fact that the State Department's report describes the circumstances surrounding the UOC in such detail and thoroughly is significant. It is a substantial amount of text. Although many facts are presented with phrases like "the UOC continues to report instances", "according to the UOC", and so on, their inclusion in the report indicates that the State Department pays close attention to all this.

Second, the State Department report repeatedly cites statements from UN officials about violations of the right to freedom of religion in Ukraine and the positions of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which categorically assert that numerous violations of the right to freedom of religion occur in Ukraine. When this UN High Commissioner's report first appeared, some officials, particularly from the Office of the President, said that these reports have no practical significance and no one would take them seriously. Now we see that the U.S. State Department cites this report and relies on it in its own Report on International Religious Freedom.

Third, it is impossible not to notice that the State Department report contains descriptions of specific cases of violations of religious freedom in precisely the form presented to the international community by human rights organizations defending the rights of UOC believers. This means that despite the US State Department's involvement in creating and promoting the OCU, they simply cannot ignore reports of violations of UOC rights because there are so many, they are presented in the proper form, and they have received widespread publicity. Thus, the efforts of human rights defenders who speak internationally about the persecution of the UOC are not in vain. Therefore, the violations of UOC rights need to be discussed more and more because we see how the law of dialectics about the transition from quantity to quality works.

Finally, what does all this mean? It means one thing: if a gun is hung on the stage in the first act, it must fire in the last. Similarly, here, the gun that must fire at those politicians and officials who violate the right to freedom of religion is already hung on the stage. Now, if our international partners need to make decisions that the Ukrainian authorities do not like, they can justify these decisions, including by citing the massive violations of citizens' rights to freedom of religion in Ukraine. The U.S. State Department report is an official document referenced not only by American politicians but also by many international organizations and other countries. We may soon hear accusations of violating the right to freedom of religion against specific government representatives in Ukraine. This topic may be raised in negotiations at the highest levels.

It is already clear that the Ukrainian authorities' ill-conceived anti-church policy is leading the country into a dead end. Given the level of human rights violations in Ukraine, the prospect of EU membership looks very obscure. And a very big question remains: do the Ukrainian authorities really strive to join the EU? Because if that is the case, they will have to answer for all crimes against the Church. One cannot declare that Ukraine aims to integrate into European and Euro-Atlantic structures while simultaneously banning and infringing on the rights of the country's most populous denomination.

The appearance of such a detailed description of violations of religious freedom in Ukraine in the State Department report is a positive development. However, UOC believers should not relax and hope that a just foreign authority will come and punish the wrongdoers. "Do not trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation" (Psalm 146:3). Many times in history, we have seen the truth of these words. On the contrary, "Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God" (Psalm 146:5).

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