Today, December 27, during the session, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine recognized as constitutional the law according to which the UOC of the Moscow Patriarchate should change its name, as it indicates its affiliation to Russia. This was reported by the press service of CCU.
"The Constitutional Court of Ukraine made a decision in the case about the full name of religious organizations, concluding that the changes to Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine "On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations" are constitutional," the message said.
It is noted that the CCU made a decision in the case of the constitutional submission of 49 people's deputies. They wanted to clarify whether the Constitution corresponds to the changes to the law on freedom of conscience regarding the name of religious organizations whose management center is located outside Ukraine.
When making its decision, the CCU took into account the conclusions of the European Court of Human Rights, which state:
"The very fact that the state requires a religious organization that wishes to be registered to take a name that makes it impossible to mislead believers and society as a whole and thanks to which it is possible to distinguish it from already existing organizations, in principle can be considered a justified restriction of its right to freely choose your name".
It is worth noting that the law adopted by the Council in 2018, which has been repeatedly opposed, provides that a religious organization whose administrative center is located in a country recognized as an aggressor must indicate this in its name.