On November 17, 2023, a meeting of the UN Security Council was held in New York on the topic of the religious situation in Ukraine. This meeting was convened at the initiative of the Russian Federation, and therefore the speeches of the representative of the Russian Federation Vasily Nebenzya, as well as the representative of the Russian Orthodox Church Vakhtang Kipshidze, took a significant part of the time of this meeting. At the same time, during the meeting, representatives of 14 countries, in particular of the United Kingdom and the United States, expressed their position.
The main impetus for this meeting was the likely legislative ban of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and its structures in Ukraine. Despite the importance of the topic, the representative of Russia in his speech clearly disparaged the Ukrainian state and its representatives. In particular, he spoke about the “Kyiv regime”, about “Kyiv and its Western curators”, he called President Zelensky a “Ukrainian dictator” and a “new persecutor of Christians”.
The representative of the Russian Orthodox Church was more concentrated on the essence, speaking about the possibility of the “total destruction of the UOC”, about the need to “protect ordinary believers from repressions” and about the general principle that “it is impossible to write off the repressions of believers to the war”.
Important part at this meeting was the speech of the representative of Ukraine, adviser to the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the UN Natalia Mudrenko. She rightly noted that the current war, ideologically supported by the top leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church, inflicted and continues to inflict significant destruction on churches of various religious denominations of Ukraine. Ms. Mudrenko cited statistics that more than 500 religious objects in Ukraine were damaged, 100 of them were completely destroyed. To this we can add that according to statistics, about half of all damaged and destroyed churches belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
In her explanation of law no. 8371, which is conventionally called “on the prohibition of the UOC”, the representative of the Ukrainian state used the vague term “affiliated”, which can be used to the detriment of interfaith peace in Ukraine, and, accordingly, to the detriment of the national security of Ukraine.
The most balanced position about the religious situation in Ukraine was one of Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations for Human Rights. In particular, the following theses were important in her speech:
– Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church with the Moscow Patriarchate are historical (and not administrative).
– There are many examples of conflict cases at the parish level (16 were clearly tracked), when “Ukrainian law enforcement’s response … has been inadequate, failing to sufficiently investigate incidents and take action to protect members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church”.
– Statistics obtained from the Ukrainian authorities testifies that only 1% criminal cases brought against individuals for collaboration and other conflict-related crimes in Ukraine, have involved Ukrainian Orthodox Church clergy members (68 out of 6,600). Accordingly, among the clergy of the UOC, attempts at collaboration are not mass in nature, and therefore do not give grounds for a legislative ban on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as a structure.
– There are a significant number of “cases involving UOC clergy members where there have been identified concerns regarding the fairness of the criminal proceedings”. In these cases, officials on behalf of the Ukrainian state acted in violation of the laws and procedures established by the state.
– Through the adoption of Law no. 8371 “legislative developments in Ukraine may impact enjoyment of freedom of religion” and “the cumulative impact of Government’s actions targeting UOC could be discriminatory”.
– Current attempts to pass the law mentioned are not “necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others”.
The text of Mrs. Kehris’ speech can be found at the link https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/11/asg-brands-kehris-briefs-security-council-ukraine
