OSCE ASSEMBLED OFFICIALS AND EXPERTS IN KIEV TO TALK ABOUT RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN UKRAINE
Strengthening cooperation of the state with representatives of religious organizations is an important component of national security. This and other issues of state-confessional relations are being talked about at an international conference which is being held in Kiev on 26-27 May. It was organized by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, the Department for Issues of Religions and Nationalities, and the Bureau of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE [Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe].
Speaking at the opening, the deputy minister of culture, Andrei Vitrenko, and the deputy chief of the presidential administration, Rostislav Pavlenko, practically in unison, turned attention to the necessity of strengthening cooperation of the state with church circles in a broad spectrum of issues pertaining to national security. In particular, they talked about the peacemaking influence of churches and the possibility of preventing provocations. Rostislav Pavlenko expressed the thought that the spiritual condition of a person impacts his views as a citizen and how much he is prepared to defend his liberty and his country. And the state should work with the churches in order that enemy ideology not be spread through religious centers and so that they not be used for political manipulation.
Cooperation with religious circles is also an important part of the international policy of Ukraine. This was affirmed by representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spoke. Cooperation with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations [AUCCRO] in this sphere was also mentioned. In their turn, representatives of the AUCCRO described how they present the situation in Ukraine, including religious liberty. The current chairperson of AUCCRO, Viktor Alekseenko, the president of the Ukrainian United Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, emphasized that it is in Ukraine where there is the highest level of religious liberty among all of the post-soviet countries.
The chief participants of the meeting are representatives of structural subdivisions on religious affairs of provincial state administrations. As was emphasized by the moderator of the meeting, the director of the Department for Affairs of Religions and Nationalities of the Ministry of Culture, Dr. Andrei Yurash, this is the first such meeting after more than a five-year hiatus. And this period turned out to be tragic for subdivisions dealing with the question of state-confessional relations in the regions, since a majority of them were reduced in status or reduced to one or two persons. A. Yurash analyzed the condition of the status of these subdivisions and broke out 9 types. For example, in Vinnitsy province a board is working actively in which 9 persons are involved, while in neighboring Zhitomir province, all the work is borne by one person who works within the structure of the Department for Relations with Associations of Citizens. In some provinces, religious questions are joined with questions of culture, protection of the historical sphere, or even financial planning. Therefore A. Yurash proposed within the framework of this meeting to send to the leadership of provincial state administrations a request to regularize the work of corresponding subdivisions and to grant them an appropriate level no lower than a department.
Katazhina Yaroshevich-Vargan briefed the audience on the activity of the Bureau of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the OSCE, and Dilnoza Satarova, a specialist on issues of freedom of religion and convictions, described the project of the bureau in Ukraine.
Over the course of two days the conference will have eight sessions where representatives of the religious sphere, capital and regional officials, and Ukrainian and foreign experts will speak and present specific thematic trends. (tr. by PDS, posted 28 May 2015)
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