You're reading: Opponents of biometric passports protest at Yanukovych administration

Some 300 representatives of church organizations conducted a picket near the building of the Ukrainian presidential administration in central Kyiv on Wednesday to protest the adoption of the law on biometric passports.

The protesters were holding banners calling on people “not to change their own names for the name of antichrist.”

On November 20, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new edition of the law on the introduction of biometric passports with proposals made by President Viktor Yanukovych.

The parliament passed a law on the unified state demographic register on October 2. Specifically, the law envisions the introduction of electronic passports for people who travel abroad in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.

Representatives of the church and human rights organizations opposed the law.

The law was submitted to the president for signing on October 15, but Yanukovych vetoed the document on October 30 and sent it to the parliament along with his proposals.