Religion – Weltanschauung – Recht [ RWR ]

The applicants are 99 Georgian nationals, all of whom, with one exception, are Jehovah’s Witnesses. The case concerns severe harassment of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Georgia in the years 2000-2001.

The alleged harassment included 30 instances of physical violence and verbal abuse of Jehovah’s Witnesses starting with the violent dispersal of several of their large religious gatherings by the police and extending to widespread religious violence against them by private individuals in their homes, in the courtroom or on the streets. A large number of the assaults were carried out by believers in the Georgian Orthodox Church. The applicants lodged approximately 160 complaints with the investigating authorities, alleging that some of the attacks were either carried out with the direct participation of the police and other representatives of the authorities or with their connivance. Those complaints failed to bring about any concrete results.

Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicants complain that they had been subjected to large-scale religiously motivated violence against them which the Georgian authorities had totally failed to prevent, stop or redress, refusing to conduct prompt and efficient investigations into the applicants’ complaints. Also relying on Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion) of the Convention, the applicants complain that the authorities’ failure to protect them from the violence or to prosecute those responsible for persecuting them had prevented them from practising their religion freely. Relying on Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), the applicants allege that they did not have at their disposal an effective remedy before a national court for their complaints under Articles 3 and 9. Lastly, relying on Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) in conjunction with Articles 3 and 9, the applicants complain that the violence against them as well as it being tolerated by the authorities was on account of their faith.

Press release ECHR 274 (2014) 01/10/2014