Constitutional Court opens proceedings on the case of renaming the Church

Constitutional Court of Ukraine

By the decision of the panel of judges of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, constitutional proceedings have been opened on the case regarding compliance of the Constitution of Ukraine with the Law “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine ‘On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations’” of December 20, 2018 No. 2662-VIII. This is reported by the Legal Department of the UOC with reference to the corresponding message, published on April 19, 2019 on the official website ccu.gov.ua.

“The fact that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine opened proceedings on the renaming of religious organizations is good news and suggests that it began to consider this case,” commented Archpriest Alexander Bakhov, head of the Synodal Legal Department of the UOC. “After all, we have repeatedly stated that Law No. 2662-VIII of December 20, 2018 (on renaming) was not only adopted with violations, but also does not comply with the fundamental Law of the state – the Constitution of Ukraine. The state is not entitled to force the Church to change its name, even with the help of the law. We hope that the Constitutional Court of Ukraine will restore lawfulness, protect the right to name all religious organizations of Ukraine and put an end to this issue.”

Recall, the requirement to consider the anti-church law No. 2662 on renaming religious organizations for its compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine was filed by 49 MPs from Oppoblok (Opposition Bloc – Ed.) on January 18, 2019.

As the UOJ reported, on April 5, 2019, the Kiev District Administrative Court ruled that the actions of the head of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Parubiy were unlawful in connection with the adoption of the draft law on the forced renaming of the canonical Church. In turn, Parubiy stated that the decision of the District Administrative Court was not final and said he was going to challenge this decision with the appeal body.

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