Baptist Press - European Court Grants Religious Rights Victory in Russia

October 12, 2006
by Baptist Press
 
STRASBOURG, France (BP)--The European Court of Human Rights has delivered an important victory for religious freedom to the Salvation Army after a seven-year struggle with the Russian government.

The court ruled unanimously Oct. 5 that the government had infringed on the rights of the Moscow branch of the Salvation Army by rejecting its re-registration as a local religious organization. The government had limited the ministrys religious freedom by violating its right of association, according to the court.

[T]he right of believers to freedom of religion, which includes the right to manifest ones religion in community with others, encompasses the expectation that believers will be allowed to associate freely, without arbitrary state intervention, the court said in its 22-page opinion. 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 of religious liberty.

The Moscow chapter of the Salvation Army, which had operated since 1992 after the fall of the Soviet Union, applied for re-registration in February 1999 but was turned down by the Moscow Justice Department in August of that year. The department said the Moscow branch operated as a subordinate to a foreign religious organization as one of its reasons for rejecting the request. In court later, the Russias justice department charged that the branch was a paramilitary organization because its members wear uniforms and carry out services.

The Salvation Army branch lost a series of legal appeals, even at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. It avoided dissolution in the courts, though it transferred its assets to the national organization because of fear they would be seized by the government.

The European Court of Human Rights ordered the government to pay the Salvation Army branch 10,000 euros, which is slightly more than $12,500 in American currency.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, said the case had been watched very closely throughout the world.

The decision sends a strong message that religious freedom is an integral and important aspect of the European Charter of Human Rights, Sekulow said in a written statement. The discriminatory action taken by the Russian government against the Salvation Army represented a serious and dangerous assault against religious freedom.

The European Center for Law and Justice and the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, both affiliated with the ACLJ, petitioned the European court on behalf of the Salvation Army branch.