MFA refuses to inform international organizations on violation of believers’ rights, – UOC

Authorities do not pay enough attention to violation of the believers’ rights in western regions of Ukraine, reports Chairman of the UOC Law Department protopriest Alexander Bakhov in the interview to ”Fabor” Charitable Fund.

“The authorities continually carry out studies of violation of the believers’ rights in Donbass and the Crimea. Certainly, we do not deny these facts and feel concerned about them. However, we also point to the violation of the believers’ rights in western regions – these facts are constantly silenced by the government.

When the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine was preparing a letter to international organizations on violation of believers’ rights, we proposed them to insert a passage that apart from the Crimea and uncontrolled territories in the east there is evidence of violated rights of the faithful also in Western Ukraine. We cited relevant facts – but the MFA refused to include this information into the letter. For this reason we also refused to sign it,” says father Alexander.

According to the Director of the UOC Law Department, the government always substitutes notions calling temple raids as “transitions”.

“Everybody can go and check what is going on in Ternopol, Rovno, and Volyn regions, which cannot be said about the uncontrolled territories. We have lots of photos and video plots to prove it but the state bodies pretend there aren’t any acts of discrimination of the UOC. The authorities need to do something to regulate this situation,” he added.