Only Orthodox Christians to be Appointed to Public Office in the “DNR”

Human rights advocates are saying that the law on the state religion violates the rights to freedom of conscience and worship.

As reported by the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KHPG), the self-proclaimed head of the “DNR,” Alexander Zakharchenko, initiated a law on the state religion of the “DNR”.

“In the draft of the declaration, it states that the right to hold public office is restricted to representatives of the state religion (in this case – the Orthodox). The ‘State’ also reserves the right to unconditionally prohibit the activities of any religious communities, as well as the ability to confiscate their property if their ideology is contrary to the policy of the ‘government’,” notes KHPG.

The right to receive large donations from individuals and legal entities (for example, for the construction of a temple) will have to be coordinated with government agencies, which are staffed by officials representing the one “state” religion.

All other Christian faiths besides Orthodoxy will likely be banned according to human rights advocates.

In their view, the law violates the right to freedom of conscience and religion, and it will be used to try to turn the Orthodox Church into something like the ruling party. 

Earlier, Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Affairs of the Crimean Tatar people, said that the provision by the Russian Federation for a quota of 300 Crimean Muslims for the pilgrimage to Mecca is illegal and violates the sovereignty of Ukraine. Therefore, Crimeans must carry out their pilgrimage only on Ukrainian passports.