Court opens proceedings in the case of Kiev Metropolis against MinCulture

The District Administrative Court of Kiev opened proceedings in the case of the UOC’s lawsuit against the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine

The District Administrative Court of Kiev opened proceedings in the case of the UOC’s lawsuit against the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture over the requirement to rename and reregister itself as affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The production is open in the case of the claim from the Kiev Metropolis of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church against the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture to cancel the order on the approval of religious expertise to establish a list of religious organizations (associations) that fall under the provisions of part 7 and part 8 of article 12 of the Ukrainian law ‘On the freedom of conscience and religious organizations", reports the press service of the District Administrative Court of the city of Kiev.

The court noted that the UOC requested to recognize as illegal the Ministry of Culture’s publishing on its official website and in a government newspaper “Uriadovy Kuryer” a list of religious organizations required to change their name, including the UOC.

“The question of opening administrative proceedings in this case is now being resolved,” the court added.

As the UOJ reported, on December 20, 2018, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law that was then signed by President Petro Poroshenko whereby the canonical Ukrainian Church, and a handful of other churches, would be deprived of its rightful name and forced to reregister as the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. In turn, the UOC announced their intention to appeal bill No 5309 in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine. The Ministry of Culture believes that the implementation of the norms of the law on the renaming of religious organizations is a “test” for the UOC for conscious obedience or disobedience to the law.

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