Amsterdam: Initiators of Bill 8371 will be held accountable

Opponents of the UOC in the Rada. Photo: Facebook

American lawyer Robert Amsterdam, head of the international human rights firm Amsterdam & Partners LLP and an advocate for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), stated that international lawyers representing the UOC intend to use all available means to hold those supporting Bill 8371, which aims to ban the UOC's activities in the country, accountable. He made this statement in a press release published on the https://savetheuoc.com/blog/ website.

He noted that once President Volodymyr Zelensky signs Bill 8371 into law, it will mark a new dark chapter for human rights in Ukraine.

"Since last October we have warned Ukraine’s allies of this egregious law, which seeks to impose collective punishment against an entire religious denomination in violation of every known international law, and today, we have seen the majority of Verkhovna Rada cave in to nationalist pressure and step into lawlessness," Amsterdam said. "We will continue our fight to protect our client and its parishioners from these violations of their rights, and seek to hold those accountable who sponsored this reprehensible religious cleansing law before every available international legal venue," the lawyer emphasized.

He pointed out that Draft Law 8371 had been formulated in a way that means DESS will determine that the UOC and ROC are affiliated. Several of the grounds contained in the law relate to factors over which the UOC has absolutely no control, namely the statutory documents, actions, and decisions of the ROC. This is patently unfair. The enactment of Draft Law 8371 dooms the UOC to termination, and there are no changes that the UOC can make that will eliminate this drastic result..

The American advocate for the UOC also stated that DESS entirely overlooks the specific actions taken by the UOC to dissociates from the ROC. He listed these actions: since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UOC has declared its independence, building on the rights of self-administration and broad autonomy that it acquired in 1990. The UOC has amended its statute to remove references to the ROC. It has established its own parishes abroad to serve the needs of Ukrainian refugees. It has restored the production of chrism (holy myrrh) to Kyiv. It has changed the liturgical practice of its priests and bishops, who now only offer prayers to local Ukrainian bishops and Metropolitan Onufriy, the head of the UOC. In addition, the UOC has provided significant financial and moral support to the Ukrainian state and people during the war.

According to Amsterdam, the Ukrainian government’s efforts to suppress the UOC is only sowing division at a time when the country desperately needs unity. As the Church of England has observed, “Draft Law 8371 threatens Ukraine’s social cohesion at a time when it needs a unified societal response to Russian aggression. It encourages an ethno-religious nationalism that will be detrimental to Ukraine’s long term Western trajectory.”

As the UOJ previously reported, Amsterdam questioned why supporters of Bill 8371, which proposes banning the UOC's activities, would continue to lie about it if they claim it to be a well-reasoned law.

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