CC refuses to open a case on law on religious communities’ subordination

The Constitutional Court of Ukraine

On March 19, 2019, the Constitutional Court adopted a resolution refusing the opening of constitutional proceedings, reports the website of the Court.

“The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine at its meeting considered the issue of opening constitutional proceedings in the case on the constitutional submission of 47 people's deputies of Ukraine regarding compliance of the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Laws of Ukraine Regarding the Subordination of Religious Organizations and the Procedure of State Registration of Religious Organizations with the Status of a Legal Entity."

The Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine adopted the Resolution on refusal to open constitutional proceedings,” the CC said in a statement.

47 deputies headed by Vadim Novinsky and Alexander Dolzhenkov submitted a request on the compliance of the law on the subordination of religious organizations and the procedure for their state registration with the Constitution of Ukraine.

In the submission, deputies referred to Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees freedom of religion. They believe that the law contains a number of norms that indicate excessive interference and overregulation of the activities of religious organizations.

In particular, the deputies pointed to the essentially complicated new procedure of registration / re-registration of the statutes of religious communities.

The deputies also saw in the law a violation of Article 36 on the freedom of association of citizens and Article 37, which excludes the prohibition on the activities of associations in an extrajudicial manner.

In addition, the submission claims that the Verkhovna Rada violated the rules when adopting the law, in particular, the vote was not personal.

We recall that that earlier the Constitutional Court refused to open proceedings on the appeal of 47 deputies about state interference in the affairs of the Church, considering the case “political”. The Constitutional Court stated that they could not assess the legality of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, which supported the appeal of President Poroshenko about the Tomos since it has a “political rather than a legal nature”.

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