OSCE has received a report on the violations of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate)

February 13, 2016. Ukrainian human rights organization “Public Advocacy» provided the OSCE (Department of Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) the report on the violations of the rights of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in western Ukraine, as the website uoj reports.

As it is indicated in the report, a significant part of the offenses, including those which are aimed at inciting hatred committed by clerics and activists of the Kiev Patriarchate.

In particular, lawyers, and observers from the “Public Advocacy” NGO conducted a monitoring of human rights and religious freedoms in Ternopil, Rivne, Volyn, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev regions and in the Carpathian region in the period 2014 – 2015.

“In all these regions have been identified violations of the rights of religious organizations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church,” – the document says.

The report listed violations of the rights of believers of the UOC, including quotes, statements, adherents and clergy of some denominations, photo, video evidence and eyewitness testimonies.

They are recorded 44 conflict situations. At the same time, as noted in the report, the faithful of the UOC are not allowed to have access to the temple, or there are clashes between parishioners and the supporters of the Kiev Patriarchate.

“The rhetoric of hate is widely used in the capture of the UOC iconic buildings, is in the nature of propaganda and aimed at destabilizing the socio-political situation in Ukraine”, concluded the lawyers and monitors “the Public human rights protection.”

Documents and materials are also channeled through TANDIS system to be included in the annual reports of the OSCE and the ODIHR human rights violations. Also the material is transferred to international organizations that monitor the violations.