Ukrainian MPs submit 1,200 amendments to bill banning Moscow-linked religious organizations

08.11.2023 11:36

Ukrinform

The Verkhovna Rada's Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy is planning to prepare for consideration at second reading by the end of the year a bill that bans religious organizations associated with the Russian Federation.

Yevheniia Kravchuk, deputy head of the committee and deputy head of the Servant of the People faction, said this in a comment to Ukrinform.

She said the deadline for submitting amendments before the second reading of the bill had already expired. According to Kravchuk, Ukrainian lawmakers submitted 1,200 amendments to the document, with two-thirds of them actually having signs of spam.

"We have already started work on the draft law in the committee and held the first working meeting. We listened to the members of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, who were co-authors of other similar bills and submitted their amendments in order to integrate the best ideas from them into the government bill. Those present were representatives of the State Service for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience and its head Viktor Yelensky," Kravchuk said.

She also added that the authors of the amendments, members of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, and employees of the Ministry of Justice would be involved in drafting the bill before it is considered at second reading.

"Now these are working discussions, the committee has not made any decisions yet, but we will work quite intensively on the relevant draft law. We are not afraid of such a number of amendments. Moreover, some of them were submitted by committee members," the MP said.

Kravchuk emphasized that members of the humanitarian parliamentary committee "wanted to prepare this bill for consideration in the parliament's session hall by the end of this year, if there is such an opportunity."

She said that the committee would do everything possible to quickly process the submitted amendments, and then the Conciliation Council must make a decision to put the document to a vote in the Verkhovna Rada hall.

On October 19, the Verkhovna Rada adopted at first reading the government bill that bans the activities of religious organizations associated with the Russian Federation in Ukraine.