On August 2, 2023, the police dispersed believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the city of Horodenka, Ivano-Frankivsk region, who had gathered for prayer on a private plot. Information about this appeared on the official website of the Horodenka City Council. Regarding this incident, the Legal Department of the UOC published a comment, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reports.
The comment states that Gorodenko officials have violated a number of legislative requirements, in particular, Article 35 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which guarantees that everyone has the right to freedom of worldview and religion and to the unhindered performance of individual or collective religious cults and ritual rites. And also – the Law of Ukraine “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations”, which provides that the church (religious organizations) in Ukraine is separated from the state and the state does not interfere in the activities of religious organizations carried out within the limits of the law.
“According to the legislation of Ukraine, local self-government bodies are not empowered to prohibit religious services or prayers. And, according to the legislation, they cannot prohibit such actions. This can only be done in court,” the Legal Department said.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church emphasized that no law prohibits gathering and praying anywhere indoors or even in a public square, but the law prohibits interfering with such prayer.
“We call and demand from the central bodies of executive power, including the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies to take actions aimed at stopping illegal actions by officials of local self-government bodies of Ivano-Frankivsk region regarding the violation of the constitutional rights of religious residents of the region, as well as the cessation of actions aimed at inciting enmity and hatred,” concluded the Legal Department of the UOC.
