International Partnership for Human Rights' (IPHR) new report, Who Is Your God? Religious Terror in the Temporarily Occupied Territories examines the systematic persecution of religious communities, clergy, and people of faith who refuse to submit to Russian political and religious influence or to associate themselves with Russia’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda and affiliated religious structures, in particular the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).
Building on the already growing body of documentation and, through survivor and witness testimony, it provides further evidence of the scale and brutality of religious persecution carried out by Russian occupying forces.
Based on 12 testimonies from survivors and 21 testimonies from witnesses from Kharkiv, Kherson, and Luhansk oblasts and Crimea, the report documents control and censorship of religious services, searches and pillaging of religious property, the seizure or destruction of places of worship, searches, robbery, arbitrary detention, imprisonment, torture, sexual violence, and other forms of cruel and inhuman treatment on account of religious beliefs and perceived opposition to the occupation.
The authors demonstrate that these practices form part of a consistent and systematic pattern of repression rather than a series of isolated incidents. They document how such acts violate Russia’s international legal obligations and constitute serious violations of the rights to freedom of religion or belief and freedom of expression of the victims and affected religious communities, and in some cases may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.
The report aims at amplifying survivors’ voices and at shedding light on how by targeting religious communities and those who provide them with moral and spiritual leadership, Russian occupying forces seek not only to suppress freedom of religion and belief, but also to undermine community cohesion, Ukrainian identity, and resistance to occupation.
The report is available both in English and in Ukrainian.