GENEVA, August 23. /TASS/. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva has called on United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to condemn the Kiev authorities’ crackdown on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), according to the mission’s statement on Telegram.
"August 22 was designated as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief by a UN General Assembly resolution on May 28, 2019 in response to the growth of religious-based intolerance and violence," the statement reads.
"We call on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and his Office, the UNHRC special procedures, as well as the human rights treaty bodies to give a just public assessment of these deliberate violations of the rights of believers in Ukraine and condemn the repressive actions of the Kiev authorities directed against the UOC clergy and parishioners," the mission said.
The mission stressed that "the situation with the rights of believers in Ukraine is of particular concern" as "clergy and millions of parishioners of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church constantly face persecution."
"Since 2014, Ukraine, which is referred to as a "democratic country" in the West, regularly practices searches, detentions, arrests, interrogations of clergy, dispossessions of their property, revocations of citizenship, psychological pressure and even physical elimination," the Russian mission emphasized.
"After Russia had launched its special military operation, the Ukrainian authorities (with an approval from their Western patrons and in absence of any retaliation from the international human rights mechanisms) commenced an onslaught against the UOC, resorting to large-scale repressions against its clergy and parishioners. In fact, we are talking about an actual ban on the canonical Orthodoxy in Ukraine," the statement said.
"Sadly, we are witnessing how hate speech and intolerance continue to spread around the world, as well as physical violence brought upon individuals or entire population groups solely because of their religious beliefs. A striking example is the growing Islamophobia in European countries, where public burnings of the Quran are now a regular occurrence held with permission and under patronage of the authorities," the Russian mission noted.