Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

The first applicant, the Reformed Church Foundation for Student Housing, is an NGO which was set up in 1992 and has its registered office in Odorheiul Secuiesc. The second applicant, Marinică Stanomirescu, is a Romanian national who was born in 1929 and died in 2009. In the first case, the applicant association, whose main activity is to promote pupils’ education in line with the doctrines of the Reformed Church, had obtained a final judicial decision on 5 October 2000, ordering the administrative authorities to destroy six buildings on its land (they had been put up to provide temporary homes for workers on a construction site then in progress). 12 years later, and after numerous attempts at enforcement, the administrative authorities refused to execute the final judicial decision in the applicant association’s favour.

In the second case, Mr Stanomirescu had obtained a court order which obliged a legal entity under State authority – the regional centre of the Gorj forestry estate – to assess, mark and evaluate trees on his forest for the purpose of using the timber, and another which ordered that damages and interest be paid to the applicant. Although the first decision was executed with more than a year’s delay, the second decision is currently still unexecuted.

Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right of access to a court) and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property), the applicants complain about the authorities’ failure to execute binding and enforceable judicial decision issued in their favour.

Press release ECHR 001 (2014) 02/01/2014