“People Abroad Lost Their Ability to Distinguish between Lies and Truth”. Oleksandra Matviichuk at the International Religious Freedom Summit

On 4-5 February, the Fifth International Religious Freedom Summit was held in Washington, DC, USA. Prominent religious figures, human rights defenders and political leaders from various countries of the world attended the event. Oleksandra Matviichuk, Head of the Center for Civil Liberties, was also among its attendees. 

The Summit is a platform to discuss important issues and challenges related to principles of religious freedom among international partners. Topics of mass migration, religious pluralism, combatting plans of dictatorships and the development of the global movement of international religious freedom have been, among other things, tackled at the event. Moscow Patriarchate was discussed at a special event as a tool of persecution and Kremlin’s hybrid war. 

There were debates during other events within the Summit about how to withstand together authoritarian tactics and how the Ukrainian community could benefit from the successes of the international movement for religious freedom. Apart from Oleksandra Matviichuk, Ukraine was represented by Viktor Yelenskyi, Head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience; Olena Kovalska, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine; Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights; Fr. Cyril Hovorun and others. 

“Russia strives to represent itself as a modern place, but Russian propaganda skilfully perverts the truth… People abroad lost their ability to distinguish between lies and truth”, Oleksandra Matviichuk emphasized.