The III International Congress on Freedom of Religion and Belief was held in Barcelona on 28–30 January 2026. The event was organised by the Chair of Religious Freedom and Freedom of Conscience of Catalonia and the Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture. The previous, second Congress was held in June 2025.
The three main areas of focus for the current congress are:
1. Presentation of best regional or international practices in the field of managing religious diversity and promoting freedom of religion and other beliefs.
2. Analysing the effectiveness of standardised international assessments of the implementation of the right to freedom of religion and other beliefs, together with the prevention of violations of this right.
3. Organising a discussion among experts and representatives of international organisations on the general international situation and specific trends in the field of freedom of religion and conscience; reflection on the situation with the methodologies, categories and indicators used to analyse the reality of religious freedom and the concept of religion in a post-secular world.
On the first day of the Congress, there was a solemn opening ceremony and a one-and-a-half-hour round table discussion. On the second day, participants took part in parallel sessions held in four languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, and French. On the third day, the remaining parallel sessions were held, along with the closing ceremony.
The situation in the religious sphere of Ukrainian life was outlined in a report by religious scholar and media analyst Tetiana Derkatch. Among Ms Derkatch’s main points were the following observations:
– The split that occurred between the two Orthodox jurisdictions after Ukraine gained independence in 1991 was a reaction to the processes of political liberalisation and the formation of a new national identity.
– Over time, given the mutually incompatible exclusivist nature of each of the two structures, this split between the UOC and the UOC-KP became increasingly politicised and radicalised.
– After Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew granted autocephaly to the newly created OCU in 2019, initial hopes for the unification of all Orthodox Christians in Ukraine did not materialise. Tetiana Derkach sees three reasons for this state of affairs: 1) the decisive opposition of the UOC under the influence of the Russian Federation and the Russian Orthodox Church; 2) personal rivalry between the primates of the two Orthodox jurisdictions (the UOC and the OCU); 3) the OCU’s attempts not so much to unite with the UOC as to institutionally absorb it.
– The situation of inter-jurisdictional confrontation has further deepened against the backdrop of not always transparent transfers of parishes from the UOC to the OCU, sometimes accompanied by external pressure, conflict situations and forceful decisions.
– Law No. 3894-IX, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, which prohibits the activities of the Russian Church in Ukraine and related religious organisations, is controversial and problematic from a human rights perspective.
The full version of Tetiana Derkatch`s report is available on the website of the Sophia Brotherhood NGO: https://sofiyske-bratstvo.org/mizhpravoslavni-vidnosyny-mizh-upcz-ta-pczu-ta-yihnij-vplyv-na-religijnu-svobodu-v-konteksti-vijny/ (in Ukrainian)
