FIFTH SECTIONCASE OF ILYIN AND OTHERS v. UKRAINE(Application no. 74852/14)  JUDGMENT Art 9 read in light of Art 11 • Manifest religion or belief • Justified refusal to register a Unification Church religious community as a legal entity due to name being liable to mislead believers and the general public STRASBOURG17 November 2022 FINAL 03/04/2023 This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Ilyin and Others v. Ukraine,The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Mārtiņš Mits, President, Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, Lado Chanturia, Ivana Jelić, Arnfinn Bårdsen, Mattias Guyomar, Mykola Gnatovskyy, judges,and Martina Keller, Deputy Section Registrar,Having regard to:the application (no. 74852/14) against Ukraine lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by nine Ukrainian nationals (“the applicants”), on 24 November 2014;the decision to give notice to the Ukrainian Government (“the Government”) of the complaints under Articles 9 and 11 of the Convention;the parties’ observations;Having deliberated in private on 11 October 2022,Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:INTRODUCTION1. The сase, which relies mainly on Articles 9 and 11 of the Convention, concerns a refusal to register a religious community of the Unification Church (“the UC”).THE FACTS2. The applicants are Ukrainian nationals who, according to the most recent information made available to the Court (19 December 2021), reside in Kyiv. Their details are set out in the Appendix and they were represented by Mr K.M. Buzadzhy, a lawyer practising in Kyiv.3. The Government were represented, most recently, by their then Acting Agent, Ms O. Davydchuk.4. The facts of the case may be summarised as follows.5. The applicants are followers of the UC, which was founded by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (“Rev. Moon”). They created a religious community (“the community”) and attempted to have it registered as a legal entity. They made an application to the Kyiv City State Administration (“the Administration”) for this purpose.The events of 2001 to 20086. The first application for registration, lodged by some of the applicants and several other individuals (the exact composition of the community’s founders as listed on registration documents varied over the years) was lodged in 2001. The name of the community was “‘Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity’ Religious Community in the Kyiv Obolonsky District”. The opening provisions of the constitution submitted for registration stated that its faith was based on Christian theology (“по віросповідальній приналежності громада дотримується християнського віровчення”), the Bible, and Rev. Moon’s work Divine Principle.7. The Administration requested a report on the UC from the Department of Religious Studies and Analytical Work of the State Committee for Religious Affairs (“the Committee for Religious Affairs”). In its report of 11 November 2001, the Committee informed the Administration about the UC’s history and theology, including its foundation by Rev. Moon. It stated that Rev. Moon had attempted, in his book Divine Principle, to reinterpret the Bible in the light of Taoism. It described the UC as “one of the most widespread non-traditional synthetic religions”, aimed at the unification not only of Christianity, but of all world religions. According to the Committee:“in [the UC’s] theology the problem of ‘blood purity’ and its intergenerational preservation received particular attention. That purity could be preserved only by people living in ‘true families’ and in sexual harmony. ‘Harmony’ could be identified and blessed only by the Reverend Moon or religious leaders who had received his benediction.According to Moon’s religious doctrine, humanity is imperfect in its current form and to accomplish the ideal of a ‘renewed humanity – the Kingdom of God on Earth’, a particular infrastructure of the new world must be created, uniting all spheres of human activity: business, mass media, scientific research, education, law etc. What this in fact involves is the creation of a material and technical basis for God’s Kingdom on Earth through unpaid labour and donations provided by Moon’s followers, which taken together are referred to as ‘the person’s rebirth’.It must be noted that some authoritative international religious-studies experts adamantly deny that Moon’s teachings belong to Christianity and criticise its openly anti-Semitic nature. The controversial reception that the UC’s doctrine and actual worship practices and socio-economic activities receive in the countries where it operates, including that associated with the opposition between the Moon’s followers’ doctrine and traditional Christianity, may complicate inter-confessional relations in Ukraine.”The Committee for Religious Affairs expressed the opinion that before taking a decision on registration, an in-depth study of the community’s “socio-religious activities and actual worship practice” should be undertaken.8. On 26 December 2001 the Administration informed the community founders that, having obtained an opinion from the Committee for Religious Affairs, it would continue its examination of the community’s social activities and worship practices. It appears that a similar communication was made in August 2002.9. In response to a complaint from Mr Ilyin, on 26 April 2007 the Administration replied, among other things, that it had received complaints about a destructive influence being exercised on participants in seminars organised by the community in the Kyiv region and that the Administration had been prevented from effectively examining the legality of the community’s activities by the latter’s refusal to let an Administration official observe the seminars.10. The case file contains copies of three complaints made by:(i)  a mother, who stated that her son had attended a UC seminar which lasted 21 days, during which time she had only had limited contact with him (by mobile phone). She claimed that he had returned a changed man and had become, in her view, overly implicated in UC activities[1];(ii)  a former participant in UC activities, who stated that he had been forced to study UC doctrines for fourteen hours a day, that study sessions during seminars in the Kyiv region had been held in conditions of isolation from participants’ families, and that telephone calls and the reading of material not related to the UC had been prohibited. The author had had to sleep on the floor and had often been ill;(iii)  a father, who stated that his son had participated in the activities of a “youth centre” in Kyiv which turned out to be associated with the UC. His son had then been “forced” to attend seminars in Kyiv and the Kyiv Region, after which the father had had difficulties communicating with his son, who abandoned his studies and started “begging in the street” for the UC.11. In June 2007 the community reapplied for registration.12. On 30 August 2007 the Department of Religious Affairs and Protection of Freedom of Conscience of the State Committee for Nationalities and Religion (“the Committee for Nationalities and Religion”) provided a report on the UC to the Administration. The report repeated basic information about the UC’s history and background (see paragraph 7 above) and stated, in particular, that the UC was a new religious trend which combined features of Eastern religions with elements of Christianity. In contrast to Christian denominations, the UC was created not as a branch of Christianity but as a result of the active preaching and evangelising work of Rev. Moon and his followers.It stated that Rev. Moon’s teachings stressed matters to do with family and marriage, and in particular that all UC followers who wished to be married must receive Rev. Moon’s blessing. Collective marriage blessing ceremonies were of particular importance. A strong emphasis was put on the strict regulation of relationships, subordination to the leadership, and missionary activities in the course of so-called “leadership seminars” where people were trained for missionary work. According to information published “in the international press”, in a number of countries the UC held business monopolies in the banking, hotel and energy drinks sectors.According to the information in the Committee’s possession, when visiting Ukraine’s regions UC representatives had considered establishing commercial entities, buying shares in leading Ukrainian companies, and investing in a number of charitable projects in order to create a UC lobby within a number of Ukrainian NGOs and small political parties.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 9
Outcome: no_violation