EDITORIAL: Religious liberty: a passing grade (08/13/00)

EDITORIAL

Religious liberty: a passing grade

In a report on religious liberty recently released on Capitol Hill by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe - the Helsinki Commission - Ukraine received a comfortable passing grade. The report, which compared laws concerning religious liberty in 12 countries of Eastern and Western Europe and the United States, noted that Ukraine, which has 22,000 registered religious congregations, has fulfilled "major international obligations" with regard to guaranteeing an environment in which religious freedom can flourish, that the state does not support one religion over another, and does not get involved in the internal affairs of religious groups.

However, due to some vagueness in the laws on religious liberty, the Ukrainian government's largest problems lie in making sure that the laws of the land regarding religious freedom are consistently implemented throughout the country - for example, not allowing local political leaders to favor one confession over another, or using the court system, instead of decrees by local executives, to resolve inter-denominational conflicts.

The current situation is a dramatic improvement over the situation of only 10 years ago, when the Soviet system of state control over religion was still in full force in Ukraine (and the Ukrainian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches were considered to be illegal). It is even, according to the report, a big improvement over the early period of independence, when the state, often out of habit still left over from Soviet times, would get involved in inter-denominational strife, tried to control internal policies within the faiths, opposed evangelization by new, often Protestant, faiths, and dragged out the return of religious properties.

According to Orest Deychakiwsky, a senior staff member at the Helsinki Commission who commented on the report's recent findings, "With respect to religious freedom, Ukraine compares favorably with many other post-Communist states, and, in some respects, even with a number of West European countries." He added: "However, despite the progress, efforts need to continue towards promoting greater tolerance within denominations as well as to non-traditional religions and to restitution of religious properties."

This ongoing tension between the denominations and between the government and religious groups regarding property can be attributed, in large part, to the lingering legacy of the policies of Soviet communism. According to Dr. Peter Roudik, senior legal specialist at the Law Library of the Library of Congress, "the long practice of official atheism and numerous types of bans on religion by the state left a negative impact on the current relations between the state and the Church."

In his statement delivered at the Helsinki Commission briefing on July 17, he also noted that in 1999 President Leonid Kuchma issued a special statement on religion, a kind of state apology to religious believers, in which he officially condemned the policy of force that had been applied against religion. The president's statement was a compromise between acknowledgment of the great harm done by the state to religion over the course of several decades, as well as a genuine desire to offer restitution for the harm, and the reality that the state did not have the resources to compensate for the losses suffered during the Communist regime. This inability to compensate, whether via the return of land or restoration of property, continues to cause tension both between the state and religious denominations, and, in particular, between denominations and even within confessions.

Despite the problems, the progress that has been made in Ukraine cannot be underestimated. Under tsarist and Soviet regimes, religious repression was a staple of life in Ukraine. Throughout its history, Ukraine has been plagued by religious conflict, both imposed as well as self-inflicted. Predictions of religious wars and bloodshed accompanied Ukraine's entry into independence. This report, however, supports the claim made by many Ukrainians that Ukrainians - if left alone and not used as pawns in other interests - are basically a tolerant people, as well as the claim by Ukraine's government that, despite enormous difficulties, it is committed to building a tolerant and stable democracy.

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