(LifeSiteNews) — In a victory for religious liberty in Eastern Europe, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously condemned the Bulgarian government for actions that “interfered disproportionately” with evangelical Christians’ “right to freedom of religion.”
On Dec. 13 in a case filed by pro-life and pro-marriage legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, the European high court ruled that a circulatory letter and public notice issued in 2008 by Bulgarian government officials and sent to schools calling evangelical Protestant churches “dangerous religious sects” that “contravene[d] Bulgarian legislation, citizens’ rights and public order” and risked generating “mental disorders” in its members constituted a violation of religious liberty.
The court stated that “it did not appear from the circular letter and the information notice distributed to schools that the authors had been mindful of the authorities’ duty of neutrality and impartiality.”
According to the official court documents, the facts of the case were as follows:
In 2008 a municipal authority circulated a letter to the headteachers of the city’s schools, to be brought to the attention of all pupils. The letter was signed by the deputy mayor and co-signed by the head of the local committee on combating juvenile anti-social behavior and by a police officer, and was accompanied by an information notice. The documents referred to certain religious movements, including the evangelical movement to which the applicants – two religious associations and two pastors – belonged, as “dangerous religious sects” which “contravene[d] Bulgarian legislation, citizens’ rights and public order” and whose meetings placed participants at risk of “mental disorders.”
The municipal authority’s press office issued a press release with the heading “Mayor appeals for vigilance in the face of renewed activity of religious missionaries around the Easter celebrations.” A number of media articles, both in print form and online, reported on the story.
A large number of schools informed the municipal authority that teachers had passed on the information to their pupils during lessons or in specially arranged debating sessions.
The applicants brought judicial proceedings against the municipal authority and the Interior Ministry before the Administrative Court and the Commission for Protection against Discrimination. Their claims were rejected.
The court ruled unanimously in favor of Zhivko Tonchev and Radoslav Kiryakov, the two Bulgarian pastors who were plaintiffs in the case, declaring that the Bulgarian government had violated their right to freedom of religion. The court’s summary judgement stated:
In view of the pejorative and hostile language used by the public authorities in the letter in question to describe the religious movement to which the applicants belonged, and the fact that the domestic proceedings brought by the applicants had not afforded appropriate redress for their complaints, the Court held that the Bulgarian State authorities had interfered disproportionately with the applicants’ right to freedom of religion, overstepping their margin of appreciation under Article 9. There had therefore been a violation of Article 9 of the Convention.
The press release on the case issued by the court can be officially downloaded from the European Court’s website here.
In response to the favorable judgment, Pastor Tonchev stated, “We are thrilled that the European Court of Human Rights has recognized our fundamental right to religious freedom just in time for Christmas. Government officials had no right to malign our Christian faith, just because we are distinct from the majority religious practice in Bulgaria. With this verdict, the court has affirmed that religious freedom belongs to everyone.”
Robert Clarke, co-counsel in the case and the international director of advocacy for ADF, rejoiced at the “clear message” the court’s judgment would send to Europe’s governments, stating, “The European Court of Human Rights has affirmed that the government of Bulgaria was wrong to target these Christians with an alarmist campaign designed to suppress the freedom to live out their beliefs. This ruling sends a clear message that government efforts to stamp out religious freedom are unacceptable and fundamentally incompatible with democracy.”
According to a declared intention on its website, ADF “defends religious freedom and opposes all attempts to compel people to compromise their beliefs or retreat from civil and political life as the price for following their faith.”
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