NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

In a number of cases, the Court found a violation of Article 9 in conjunction with Articles 14 797 or 13 798 of the Convention. These cases will be covered separately in the relevant sections of this book. Further, we would like to discuss the issue of freedom of expression. Under certain circumstances, Article 10 of the Convention may serve as a lex generalis to the lex specialis of the freedom of thought, consciousness and religion, when religious organisation may not express their ideas without restraint.

797 Savez crkava “Riječ života”, cited above ; Cha’are Shalom Ve Tsedek [GC], cited above, and Members of the Gldani Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, cited above. 798 The case of Glas Nadezhda EOOD , cited above, § 60, may serve as a revelant example. In this case, the applicant company complained under Article 13 of the Convention in conjunction with Articles 9 and 10 about the refusal by the Supreme Administrative Court of Bulgaria to review the merits of the decision of the the National Radio and Television Committee by which it refused to provide an applicant with a broadcasting licence. The Glas Nadezhda EOOD submitted that refusal to grant the applicant a broadcasting licence had substantially restricted their possibility to communicate their religious ideas to others and had thus infringed on their freedom to manifest their religion. Having found a breach of Article 10, the Court considered that it was not necessary to additionally examine whether there has been a violation of Article 9 of the Convention. The Court held that there had been a breach of Article 13 of the Convention in conjunction with Article 9 is the case of Biserica Adevărat Ortodoxă din Moldova and Others v. Moldova , no. 952/03, 27 February 2007.

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