PACE discussing government pressure on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

The Opposition Bloc will demand that the Ukrainian power inviolately fulfill PACE resolutions, including those on ensuring the right to freedom of religion for the state citizens. It was reported on April 25 by MP from the Opposition Bloc, member of the Ukrainian Parliamentary Organization in PACE Vadim Novinskiy in his commentary to journalists.

“The Opposition Bloc as the only systemic opposition in our country will demand the Ukrainian authorities inviolately fulfill this resolution relating to the rights and freedoms of our citizens: in terms of the right to freedom of speech, rights of the opposition, freedom of conscience and religion, as well as the prevention of the state from intruding into the mass media activity and free use by national minorities of their native tongue.

What can we see instead? The state uses its strong arm towards local mass media; the opposition is persecuted due to political motives and subjected to litigations; the government comes down hard on the Church and thus violates the Constitution; lately there have cropped up several bills restricting the use of one’s native language.

We will require be all means from the power to put a stop to all that, to let our citizens enjoy a full scope of their rights and freedoms in compliance with the Resolution,” emphasized Vadim Novinskiy.

He also wrote on his Facebook page that “together with his PA colleagues he discussed the problem of pressure from our public authorities on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and their inaction with regard to raiding of the UOC temples by Ukrainian radicals.”