ANNUAL REPORTOF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
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International humanitarian law requires the State to register children immediately after birth, as this will
ensure that the child is in touch with the State and prevent statelessness. Lack of registration deprives
such persons of access to medical, educational and social services, and they may become victims of
abduction, sale or trafficking.
In 2018, PACE called on Ukraine to introduce administrative procedures for the civil registration of citizens
living in the temporarily occupied territories56.
Violation of the right to freedom of religion by the occupation administration
Findings from the analytical report Freedom of Religion in Focus published by the Institute for Religious
Freedoms (hereafter the IRF)57, indicate that the occupying power uses the concept of the ‘Russian
world’ to strengthen its authority, exemplified by methods of terror used against pro-Ukrainian religious
organizations and communities to destroy any oppositional thought in society.
According to the IRF, most church institutions and religious communities in the Russian-occupied
Autonomous Republic of Crimea have ceased operations or are operating underground. In particular,
for most denominations it has become impossible to hold services in their own temples or houses of
worship. The main reason is the seizure of religious buildings by the occupying power or the threat of
identification of parishioners of a particular religious community and their further persecution.
In addition, media monitoring by the Commissioner recorded information about the seizure of the
Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin from representatives of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
(Kyiv Patriarchate) in the village of Perevalne of Simferopol district, and the Church of the Holy Martyr
Clement of Rome in the city of Sevastopol58.
CHAPTER 5
According to the instruction of the Russian Federation, in the temporarily occupied territory of the
Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, most religious associations have been
subject to unfounded accusations of extremism, espionage in favour of Ukraine or the United States,
sabotage, and so on. These allegations have been accompanied by illegal arrests and confiscation of
church property.
In addition, the Russian Federation is still not implementing the decision of the Council of Europe 59 of 3
May 2017 CM/Del/Dec (2017) 1285/2.1bisb on lifting the ban on the Crimean Tatar People’s Mejlis as an
extremist organization.
56
Resolution 2198 (2018) of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe “Humanitarian Consequences of the War in Ukraine.”
57
http://irf.in.ua/files/publications/2018.10.24-IRF-Report-UKR.pdf.
58
http://ua.krymr.com/a/25406219.html.
59
http://search.coe.int/cm/Pages/result_details.aspx?ObjectId=090000168070ec02.
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