Legislative changes have expanded the rights of prisoners regarding freedom of religion, and churches have been permitted to assist in their correction

In the coming days, amendments to the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine, which secure the rights of convicted persons in penal institutions, will come into force. Among them are those directly related to the activities of religious organisations and the right of convicts to freedom of religion. The corresponding law, which the Parliament adopted on 21 January, was recently signed by the President of Ukraine, the Institute for Religious Freedom reports.

These issues were reflected in the Law of Ukraine “On Amending the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine regarding the ensuring of the rights of convicted persons in penal institutions” No. 1828-VI dated 21.01.2010.

The law supplemented Article 7 of the Code with a fifth part, which prohibits discrimination against convicts “on the grounds of race, skin colour, political, religious and other beliefs, gender, ethnic and social origin, property status, place of residence, linguistic or other characteristics”.

The new version of the first part of Article 25 of the Criminal Executive Code of Ukraine determines: “Associations of citizens, religious and charitable organisations, and individual persons, in the manner established by this Code and the laws of Ukraine, may provide assistance to bodies and institutions of the execution of sentences in the correction of convicts and the conduct of social and educational work”.

However, the previous version of these provisions had a broader meaning, which provided the aforementioned entities the opportunity to “participate in the correction and resocialisation of convicts and in the conduct of social and educational work with them, and to provide assistance to bodies and institutions of the execution of sentences”.

The legislative changes also establish that “The colony administration must not show its attitude towards a specific religion or confession”. This is stated in the addition to the third part of Article 128 of the Code, which regulates the procedure for conducting divine services and religious rites in colonies.

Let us recall that pastoral care for prisoners was discussed during the International Conference “Legal Dimension of Prison Ministry”, which took place in Kyiv in June 2009 at the initiative of the UGCC in cooperation with the State Department for the Execution of Sentences, the International Catholic Commission for Prison Pastoral Care (ICCPPC), and the Christian Interdenominational Prison Ministry Mission of Ukraine. The purpose of the event was to analyse the state of legislation of European countries in order to ensure the humanisation of state penitentiary policy in Ukraine.


Institute for Religious Freedom, Kyiv