Amsterdam & Partners LLP Releases New Report, “Ukraine’s War on Religious Freedom”

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Save the UOC Editor

Ahead of Robert Amsterdam’s participation in a panel event at the International Religious Freedom Summit 2024 in Washington DC, Amsterdam & Partners LLP and Save the UOC are releasing a new report documenting the latest abuses inflicted upon our church by the Ukrainian government, as well as detailing the illegality of Law 3894, which aims to comprehensively ban the UOC as a form of collective punishment. This law, which has been condemned by organizations such as the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and his Holiness the Pope, represents an existential threat to religious freedom in Ukraine and must be halted immediately.

Please download a copy of “Ukraine’s Attack on Religious Freedom” here, or read a copy on Scribd. Below, an excerpt from the introduction:

Ukraine is complicit in the wholesale suppression of religious freedom. In January 2023, the Ukrainian government proposed legislation to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a major Christian denomination with roots dating back to 988. Titled Law 3894, the bill was adopted by Ukraine’s parliament—the Verkhovna Rada—and signed into law by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August 2024. The Ukrainian government aims to use Law 3894 to dismantle the UOC, seeking to unite Ukrainian Orthodoxy under a single state-backed church—the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU). This represents a profound breach of international law and is contrary to the wishes of the millions who belong to the UOC. At the same time, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) is arresting and detaining UOC priests on false and spurious grounds. Supporters of the OCU are illegally seizing UOC holy sites, often in violent circumstances and with the tacit support of local authorities, which have become emboldened by the adoption of Law 3894. Ukraine’s active suppression of the UOC demonstrates a callous disregard for democratic norms and the rule of law, and it is wholly unbefitting of a country aspiring to membership of the European Union.

Read the full report here.

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