Source: http://nomokanon.de/urteile/eughmr070405b.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 12:57:45+00:00

Document:
1. The case originated in an application (no. 18147/02) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by the Church of Scientology of the city of Moscow ("the applicant"), on 24 April 2002.
2. The applicant was represented before the Court by Mr P. Hodkin, a lawyer practising in East Grinstead, the United Kingdom, and Ms G. Krylova and Mr M. Kuzmichev, lawyers practising in Moscow. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented by Mr P. Laptev, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
7. On 1 October 1997 a new Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations ("the Religions Act") entered into force. It required all religious associations that had previously been granted legal-entity status to bring their articles of association into conformity with the Act and obtain re-registration from the competent Justice Department.
11. On 28 January 2000 the deputy head of the Moscow Justice Department informed the applicant that the second application had been refused. He wrote that the applicant had adopted a "new version of the Charter", rather than "amendments to the Charter", and had indicated that by the charter, the applicant "may have", instead of "shall be entitled to have", attached representative offices of foreign religious organisations. He also claimed that there had been other (unspecified) violations of Russian laws.
22. On 8 December 2000 the Nikulinskiy District Court of Moscow gave judgment, finding that the Justice Department's decision of 28 January 2000 had not had any basis in law. It established that the wordings used in the applicant's charter were in fact identical to those contained in the Religions Act and held that religious associations should not "be required to reproduce the text of the law verbatim in their charter". The court stressed that the Justice Department could have suggested an editorial revision of the charter without refusing the application as a whole.
"Hence, the justice authorities' avoidance of re-registration of the Church of Scientology of Moscow under far-fetched pretexts contradicts the above mentioned laws of the Russian Federation and the international law."
29. On an unspecified date the Moscow Justice Department asked the Moscow City prosecutor to lodge an application for supervisory review which he did. The prosecutor's application was granted by the Presidium of the Moscow City Court. On 29 March 2001 the Presidium quashed the judgment of 8 December 2000 by way of supervisory review. In doing so, it relied on the following grounds. Concerning the lawfulness of the decision of 28 January 2000, the Presidium criticised the District Court for the failure to verify the compliance of the amendments to the charter submitted for re-registration on 29 December 1999 with the law. As to the refusal of 29 June 2000, the Presidium opined that the book Scientology: The Theology and Practice of a Contemporary Religion (Russian edition) did not provide sufficient information on "the basic tenets of creed and practices of the religion" as required by section 11.5 of the Religions Act and that the set of documents was therefore incomplete. The Presidium remitted the matter for a new examination by the District Court.
30. On 7 August 2001 the Nikulinskiy District Court gave a new judgment. The District Court ruled in favour of the Moscow Justice Department and dismissed the complaint about the refusal to re-register the applicant. It found that the applicant had not complied with section 11 of the Religions Act in that (i) the application for re-registration only included copies, rather than originals, of the charter and registration certificate; (ii) the book submitted by the applicant did not qualify to be the "information on the basic tenets of creed and practices of the religion", and (iii) the document indicating the legal address of the applicant was missing.
31. Before the court the plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued that the Moscow Justice Department had had in its possession the original charter and registration certificate, as well as the applicant's legal address, as these documents had been included in the first application for re-registration and the Moscow Justice Department had never returned them. The District Court concluded, nevertheless, that "the fact that some documents were [physically] in the building of the Department did not relieve the applicant of the obligation to submit a complete set of documents for registration". It affirmed that "all required documents were to be submitted simultaneously".
33. On 16 January 2002 the applicant submitted a seventh application for re-registration. In observance with the domestic courts' judgments the application included (i) the original charter and registration certificate; (ii) "information about the basic tenets of creed and practices" in the form of a four-page document instead of a book; and (iii) a new document confirming the legal address.
"...a situation exits when, on one hand, the action of the [Moscow Justice Department] seeking dissolution of your religious organisation has been refused, and, on the other hand, the very same court has upheld as lawful our decisions to leave the applications and documents for re-registration of this organisation unexamined, whereas the time-limit for re-registration established by law has expired."
Refusal of registration of amendments to the founding documents of a religious organisation restricts the rights of the organisation, and, as a consequence, those of its members, to determine independently the legal conditions of its existence and functioning."
"We report, that after the court proceedings between [the applicant] and [the Moscow Justice Department] have completed (that is, after the judgment has entered into legal force), this organisation may apply again for registration of the newspaper Religion, Law and Freedom."
55. On 1 October 1997 the Federal Law on the Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations (no. 125-FZ of 26 September 1997 - "the Religions Act") entered into force.
- document on payment of the State duty."
- the founder(s) has (have) no capacity to act."
Under such circumstances legislators could not deprive a certain segment of religious organisations that had been formed and maintained full legal capacity of the rights belonging to them, solely on the basis that they did not have confirmation that they had existed for 15 years. In relation to religious organisations created earlier, that would be incompatible with the principle of equality enshrined in Article 13 § 4, Article 14 § 2 and Article 19 §§ 1 and 2 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and would be an impermissible restriction on freedom of religion (Article 28) and the freedom of [voluntary] associations to form and to carry out their activities (Article 30)..."
ii. the federal Ministry of Justice become more proactive in resolving disputes between its local/regional officials and religious organisations before disputes are brought before the courts, by taking remedial action within the ministry in case of corruption and/or incorrect implementation of the law on religion, thus rendering it unnecessary to take such cases to the courts..."
65. The Government considered that there was no interference with the applicant's right to freedom of association because it had not been liquidated and retained the full capacity of a legal entity. On 10 August 2002 it had been entered on the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and continued its religious activities. In refusing the Moscow Justice Department's action for dissolution, the Nikulinskiy District Court founded its judgment of 30 April 2002 on the evidence showing that the applicant had on-going financial and economic activities, such as the applicant's balance sheets and permission to stage events in municipal districts of Moscow. The Government maintained that the applicant could not claim to be a "victim" of any violation solely because it was not willing to bring its founding documents in compliance with the existing law.
66. The Government further submitted that there was no violation of the applicant's right to freedom of religion or any restriction on that right. The penalty imposed on the applicant "was not harsh and was not motivated by religious factors, but by a failure to submit to the Religions Act and violation of the administrative procedure". The refusal of re-registration of the applicant did not entail a ban on its activity. Members of the applicant continued to profess their faith, hold services of worship and ceremonies, and guide their followers.
68. The applicant challenged the Government's assertions that the applicant "possessed the full capacity as a legal entity" and that it "exercised financial, economic and other activity in full measure" as untrue. The result of the obstruction of the Moscow Justice Department, as upheld by the Presnenskiy District Court on 1 September 2003, was that the applicant had been "frozen in time" and deprived of a possibility to modify its founding documents - and, accordingly, its aims, structure and internal organisation - in accordance with the law and its changing needs. For example, the applicant had been barred from introducing into its charter the right to establish places of worship and new procedures for election and dismissal of its president. Furthermore, the Press Ministry had denied registration of its newspaper for no other reason than the on-going uncertainty as regards the applicant's rights created by the refusal of re-registration. In that context, the entering of the applicant on the Unified State Register of Legal Entities had been made due to internal administrative reforms and did not constitute re-registration for the purposes of the Religions Act.
69. The applicant further contended that the Government's claim about their "unwillingness" to amend the founding documents was, at best, disingenuous. Having submitted ten applications for re-registration to the Moscow Justice Department, the applicant not once refused to comply with the requirements imposed on it, whether "prescribed by law" or otherwise. The expiry of the time-limit without re-registration was directly linked to the Moscow Justice Department's persistent refusal to give any concrete explanation for rejection of applications. Furthermore, its refusal to comply with a writ of execution was a particularly serious abuse in that the Ministry of Justice is itself in charge of the court bailiffs service and enforcement proceedings. No "convincing and compelling" reasons were given by the Government for the on-going refusal to re-register the applicant, while the grounds relied upon in the judgment of 7 August 2001 were not "prescribed by law" as the law required neither simultaneous production of the documents nor any special form in which the information on "basic tenets of creed" was to be submitted.
70. Finally, as regards the Government's claim that the applicant is not precluded from submitting a new application for re-registration, it is, in the applicant's view, misleading and contrary to the facts. A presumed "opportunity to apply" is meaningless when the Moscow Justice Department held - on at least five occasions in the nineteen months preceding the submission of the Government's observations - that the applicant was barred from re-registering due to the expired time-limit for re-registration. The applicant submitted that even the most dispassionate review of the facts disclosed a single-minded determination on the part of the respondent State to deny re-registration to specific religious organisations, including the applicant, despite the lack of any "objective and reasonable justification" for doing so.
71. The Court refers to its settled case-law to the effect that, as enshrined in Article 9, freedom of thought, conscience and religion is one of the foundations of a "democratic society" within the meaning of the Convention. It is, in its religious dimension, one of the most vital elements that go to make up the identity of believers and their conception of life, but it is also a precious asset for atheists, agnostics, sceptics and the unconcerned. The pluralism indissociable from a democratic society, which has been dearly won over the centuries, depends on it (see Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Others v. Moldova, no. 45701/99, § 114, ECHR 2001-XII).
72. While religious freedom is primarily a matter of individual conscience, it also implies, inter alia, freedom to "manifest [one's] religion" alone and in private or in community with others, in public and within the circle of those whose faith one shares. Since religious communities traditionally exist in the form of organised structures, Article 9 must be interpreted in the light of Article 11 of the Convention, which safeguards associative life against unjustified State interference. Seen in that perspective, the right of believers to freedom of religion, which includes the right to manifest one's religion in community with others, encompasses the expectation that believers will be allowed to associate freely, without arbitrary State intervention. Indeed, the autonomous existence of religious communities is indispensable for pluralism in a democratic society and is thus an issue at the very heart of the protection which Article 9 affords. The State's duty of neutrality and impartiality, as defined in the Court's case-law, is incompatible with any power on the State's part to assess the legitimacy of religious beliefs (see Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, cited above, §§ 118 and 123, and Hasan and Chaush v. Bulgaria [GC], no. 30985/96, § 62, ECHR 2000-XI).
74. As has been stated many times in the Court's judgments, not only is political democracy a fundamental feature of the European public order but the Convention was designed to promote and maintain the ideals and values of a democratic society. Democracy, the Court has stressed, is the only political model contemplated in the Convention and the only one compatible with it. By virtue of the wording of the second paragraph of Article 11, and likewise of Articles 8, 9 and 10 of the Convention, the only necessity capable of lefting an interference with any of the rights enshrined in those Articles is one that may claim to spring from "democratic society" (see United Communist Party of Turkey and Others v. Turkey, judgment of 30 January 1998, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-I, §§ 43-45, and Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) and Others v. Turkey [GC], nos. 41340/98, 41342/98, 41343/98 and 41344/98, §§ 86-89, ECHR 2003-II).
75. The State's power to protect its institutions and citizens from associations that might jeopardise them must be used sparingly, as exceptions to the rule of freedom of association are to be construed strictly and only convincing and compelling reasons can left restrictions on that freedom. Any interference must correspond to a "pressing social need"; thus, the notion "necessary" does not have the flexibility of such expressions as "useful" or "desirable" (see Gorzelik and Others v. Poland [GC], no. 44158/98, §§ 94-95, 17 February 2004, with further references).
76. In the Government's submission, so long as the applicant had not been dissolved and had retained its legal-entity status, there had been no interference with its Convention rights and it could not therefore claim to be a "victim" of any violation.
77. The Court is not convinced by the Government's contention. It recalls that it has already examined a similar complaint by a religious association which was denied re-registration under the new Religions Act by the Russian authorities. It found that even in the absence of prejudice and damage, the religious association may claim to be a "victim" since the refusal of re-registration directly affected its legal position (see The Moscow Branch of the Salvation Army, cited above, §§ 64-65). It also found that the entering of the religious association into the Unified State Register of Legal Entities did not deprive it of its status as a "victim" so long as the domestic authorities had not acknowledged a violation of its Convention rights stemming from the refusal of re-registration (loc. cit., § 66). The Court took note of the Moscow Justice Department's submission to a domestic court that the entering of information into the Unified State Register could not constitute "re-registration" within the meaning of the Religions Act (loc. cit., § 67).
79. Likewise, the Court finds unconvincing the Government's argument that the applicant may not claim to be a "victim" because it has not taken so far appropriate steps for properly applying for re-registration. Over a course of six years from 1999 to 2005 the applicant has filed no fewer than eleven applications for re-registration, attempting to remedy the defects of the submitted documents, both those that were identified by the domestic authorities and those that were supposed to exist in the instances where the Justice Department gave no indication as to their nature (see, for example, paragraphs 11, 15 or 17 above). The Government did not specify by operation of which legal provisions the applicant may still re-apply for re-registration now that such application would obviously be belated following the expiry of the extended time-limit on 31 December 2000. In fact, the Justice Department invoked the expiry of that time-limit as the ground for refusing to process the seventh to tenth applications for re-registration by the applicant (see paragraphs 34, 38, 41 and 44 above). It follows that the applicant has been denied re-registration to date.
80. Having regard to the above considerations, the Court finds that the applicant may "claim" to be a "victim" of the violations complained of. In order to ascertain whether it has actually been a victim, the merits of its contentions have to be examined.
82. The Court observes that in 1997 the respondent State enacted a new Religions Act which required all the religious organisations that had been previously granted legal-entity status to amend their founding documents in conformity with the new Act and to have them "re-registered" within a specific time-period. A failure to obtain "re-registration" for whatever reason before the expiry of the time-limit exposed the religious organisation to a threat of dissolution by judicial decision (see paragraph 56 above).
83. The Court notes that before the enactment of the new Religions Act the applicant had lawfully operated in Russia since 1994. It was unable to obtain "re-registration" as required by the Religions Act and by operation of law became liable for dissolution. Even though the Constitutional Court's ruling later removed the immediate threat of dissolution of the applicant, it is apparent that its legal capacity is not identical to that of other religious organisations that obtained re-registration certificates (see The Moscow Branch of The Salvation Army, cited above, § 73). The Court observes that the absence of re-registration was invoked by the Russian authorities as a ground for refusing registration of amendments to the charter and for staying the registration of a religious newspaper (see paragraphs 46 to 52 above).
85. Accordingly, the Court considers that there has been interference with the applicant's rights under Article 11 of the Convention read in the light of Article 9 of the Convention. It must therefore determine whether the interference satisfied the requirements of paragraph 2 of those provisions, that is whether it was "prescribed by law", pursued one or more legitimate aims and was "necessary in a democratic society" (see, among many authorities, Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia, cited above, § 106).
86. The Court reiterates that the restriction on the rights to freedom of religion and assembly, as contained in Articles 9 and 11 of the Convention, is exhaustive. The exceptions to the rule of freedom of association are to be construed strictly and only convincing and compelling reasons can left restrictions on that freedom. In determining whether a necessity within the meaning of paragraph 2 of these Convention provisions exists, the States have only a limited margin of appreciation, which goes hand in hand with rigorous European supervision embracing both the law and the decisions applying it, including those given by independent courts (see Gorzelik, cited above, § 95; Sidiropoulos, cited above, § 40; and Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, nos. 29221/95 and 29225/95, § 84, ECHR 2001-IX).
87. When the Court carries out its scrutiny, its task is not to substitute its own view for that of the relevant national authorities but rather to review the decisions they delivered in the exercise of their discretion. This does not mean that it has to confine itself to ascertaining whether the respondent State exercised its discretion reasonably, carefully and in good faith; it must look at the interference complained of in the light of the case as a whole and determine whether it was "proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued" and whether the reasons adduced by the national authorities to left it are "relevant and sufficient". In so doing, the Court has to satisfy itself that the national authorities applied standards which were in conformity with the principles embodied in the Convention and, moreover, that they based their decisions on an acceptable assessment of the relevant facts (see United Communist Party of Turkey, cited above, § 47, and Partidul Comunistilor (Nepeceristi) and Ungureanu v. Romania, no. 46626/99, § 49, ECHR 2005-I (extracts)).
91. The Court observes that the Moscow Justice Department refused to process at least four applications for re-registration, referring to the applicant's alleged failure to submit a complete set of documents (see paragraphs 15, 17, 19 and 28 above). However, it did not specify why it deemed the applications incomplete. Responding to a written inquiry by the applicant's president, the Moscow Justice Department explicitly declined to indicate what information or document was considered missing, claiming that it was not competent to do so (see paragraph 15 above). The Court notes the inconsistent approach of the Moscow Justice Department on the one hand accepting that it was competent to determine the application incomplete but on the other hand declining its competence to give any indication as to the nature of the allegedly missing elements. Not only did that approach deprive the applicant of an opportunity to remedy the supposed defects of the applications and re-submit them, but also it ran counter to the express requirement of the domestic law that any refusal must be reasoned. By not stating clear reasons for rejecting the applications for re-registration submitted by the applicant, the Moscow Justice Department acted in an arbitrary manner. Consequently, the Court considers that that ground for refusal was not "in accordance with the law".
92. Examining the applicant's complaint for a second time, the District Court advanced more specific reasons for the refusal, the first of them being a failure to produce the original charter, registration certificate and the document indicating the legal address (see paragraph 30 above). With regard to this ground the Court notes that the Religions Act contained an exhaustive list of documents that were to accompany an application for re-registration. That list did not require any specific form in which these documents were to be submitted, whether as originals or in copies (see paragraph 58 above). According to the Court's settled case-law, the expression "prescribed by law" requires that the impugned measure should have a basis in domestic law and also that the law be formulated with sufficient precision to enable the citizen to foresee the consequences which a given action may entail and to regulate his or her conduct accordingly (see, as a classic authority, Sunday Times v. the United Kingdom (no. 1), judgment of 26 April 1979, Series A no. 30, § 49). The requirement to submit the original documents did not follow from the text of the Religions Act and no other regulatory documents which might have set out such a requirement were referred to in the domestic proceedings. It was not mentioned in the grounds for the refusal advanced by the Moscow Justice Department or in the Presidium's decision remitting the matter for a new examination, but appeared for the first time in the District Court's judgment. In these circumstances, the Court is unable to find that the domestic law was formulated with sufficient precision enabling the applicant to foresee the adverse consequences which the submission of copies would entail. Furthermore, the Court considers that the requirement to enclose originals with each application would have been excessively burdensome, or even impossible, to fulfil in the instant case. The Justice Department was under no legal obligation to return the documents enclosed with applications it had refused to process and it appears that it habitually kept them in the registration file. As there exists only a limited number of original documents, the requirement to submit originals with each application could have the effect of making impossible re-submission of rectified applications for re-registration because no more originals were available. This would have rendered the applicant's right to apply for re-registration as merely theoretical rather than practical and effective as required by the Convention (see Artico v. Italy, judgment of 13 May 1980, Series A no. 37, § 33). It was pointed out by the applicant, and not contested by the Government, that the Moscow Justice Department had in its possession the original charter and registration certification, as well as the document evidencing its address, which had been included in the first application for re-registration in 1999 and never returned to the applicant. In these circumstances, the District Court's finding that the applicant was responsible for the failure to produce these documents was devoid of both factual and legal basis.
103. The applicant claimed a global amount of 20,000 euros ("EUR") in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage incurred through on-going uncertainty as to the applicant's legal status, serious disruption of its management and activities, diversion of resources to administrative matters concerning re-registration and litigation. They also requested the Court to hold that the respondent State was to secure re-registration of the applicant as a religious organisation and issue the registration certificate.

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