Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

The applicant is the Bogdan Vodă Greek-Catholic Parish, which belongs to the Maramureş Greek-Catholic Diocese United with Rome and is located in the village of Bogdan Vodă, Romania. The case concerned a dispute between two Christian religious groups in Bogdan Vodă, namely the Greek-Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The Greek-Catholic Parish complained in particular about the non-enforcement of a judgment awarded by a Romanian court in its favour in January 1998.

The judgment obliged the village’s Orthodox Parish to allow the Greek-Catholic Parish to conduct religious services in one of the local churches, which had formerly belonged to the Greek-Catholic Parish but had been owned by the Orthodox Church after the Greek-Catholic Church was forcibly abolished in 1948. Following the rejection of an extraordinary appeal of the judgment in December 2000, the Greek-Catholic Parish secured an enforcement order in January 2001. However, since that time attempts by bailiffs to carry out the judgment had been stopped by violent protests of around 300 Orthodox villagers. A complaint by the Greek-Catholic Parish to the local Prosecutor’s office made in November 2002 had gone unanswered, and most recently – in January 2009 – the attempts to enforce the judgment had been stopped because the village’s Orthodox priest had refused to comply with the judgment. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (access to court), the Greek-Catholic Parish complained that the judgment had to date still not been enforced.

• Violation of Article 6 § 1
• Just satisfaction: € 4,000 (non-pecuniary damage) and € 300 (costs and expenses)

Press release ECHR 339 (2013) 19/11/2013