Department for External Church Relations
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Statements on discrimination against the Church in Ukraine and North Macedonia were made at UN forum
At the high-level political forum of the Organization of United Nations for sustainable development (HLPF), which was held at the UN headquarters from July 6 to 15, 2021, in New York, human rights advocates of the Public Advocacy organization made a written statement on the discrimination against the Orthodox Church in such countries, as Ukraine and North Macedonia, reports the Union of Orthodox Journalists with reference to the Public Advocacy press service. This public organization noted that the forum held in New York was a basic platform for the UN in its further work and in monitoring the agenda in the field of sustainable development in the period till 2030.
The human rights advocates called on the HLPF to make its own contribution to the support of inter-confessional peace in the above-mentioned countries. “It is inadmissible that states, on the level of their central power bodies, should pursue a policy of inequality on national, ethnic or religious grounds. Regrettably, this kind of policy is used today against religious communities in Ukraine, North Macedonia and, earlier, in Montenegro. In these countries, the state interferes in the religious affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church, creating conditions for the emergence of alternative religious structures directly encouraged by the authorities”, reads the statement the full text of which is published on the UN forum site under No. 303.
The document states, “We repeat that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is a union of millions of Ukrainians of various ethnic backgrounds united by Orthodoxy. They have a right to confess freely their faith and to enjoy equal conditions with other confessions. At this forum, we once again call upon Ukraine to ensure respect for the rights of the UOC faithful and to reject the discriminatory policy with regard to this confession”.
Commenting on this statement, the Public Advocacy head Oleg Denisov noted, “In spite of the UN’s inertia in matters concerning the rights of Orthodox communities in Ukraine, North Macedonia and Montenegro, we continue doing all that is possible for us to make the problems of Orthodox Churches not forgotten by international human right advocacy structures”.
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