The Constitutional Court of Ukraine passed a judgment in the case of the full name of religious organizations, concluding that the amendments to Article 12 of Law “On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations” are constitutional. Now, religious associations are obliged to reflect their affiliation with a religious organization (association) located outside of Ukraine, to which it is member, by reproducing the full statutory name of such religious organization in its title.
This is reported by the CCU Communications and Legal Monitoring Department.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine found the disputed Law to be in accordance with the Constitution.
Now the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in unity with the Moscow Patriarchate shall state in its title that it belongs to the “Moscow Patriarchate”.
Serhiy Holovatyi and Oleksandr Petryshyn were co-rapporteur judges in the said case.
Also, this Law establishes restrictions on the access of clerics, preachers, and mentors of religious organizations, the management center of which is located outside Ukraine in a state recognized by law as the one which has carried out military aggression against Ukraine and/or is temporarily occupying part of the Ukrainian territory, in wartime conditions, to units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations, as well as provides for other limitations.
When passing the judgment, the Constitutional Court took into account the decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Ilyin and others v. Ukraine, which specifically states that “the mere fact of a State requiring a religious organisation which is seeking registration to take on a name which is not liable to mislead believers and the general public and which enables it to be distinguished from already existing organisations can in principle be seen as a justified limitation on its right to choose its name freely.”
The decision and its extract will be published on the official website of the Constitutional Court on December 28. In addition, on Wednesday, the judges who were co-rapporteurs will hold a briefing.
Earlier, the head of the State Service for Ethnopoltics and Freedom of Conscience, Viktor Yelensky, stated that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church had not, in fact, sever ties with the Moscow Patriarchate as it claimed.
