STRASBOURG, France — 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 reregistration as a local religious organization. The government had limited the ministry’s 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 one’s 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 reregistration 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 justice department charged that the branch was a paramilitary organization because its members wear uniforms and carry out services.
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