Guidance from the Strasbourg Court and the OSCE on the State Recognition of Religions and the Legal Registration of Religious or Belief Organisations

Over the past two decades, the Strasbourg Court has received more than two dozen cases involving states denying access to legal personality for religious or belief organisations or otherwise misusing the mechanism of registration to impose undue limits on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB). Most of these cases have resulted in the Court ruling in favour of the applicant by determining such policies and practices as violations of Article 9. Moreover, with the publication in 2014 of the Joint Guidelines on the Legal Personality of Religious or Belief Communities by the joint actions of the Venice Commission and the OSCE, one might assume that issues surrounding recognition and registration have been settled but this would be an inaccurate assessment. The complex disputes over registration that continue to reach the ECtHR, combined with guidelines that are either outdated in parts or vague on key issues, demand that the attention of human rights organisations turns again to the discussion of recognition and registration with a view to developing a new standards document. This article looks back at the guidance the Strasbourg Court has dispensed on cases involving the recognition or registration of religious or belief organisations to reflect on the inadequacy of the criteria used by the Court to determine the permissibility of registration laws. This article also analyses the 2014 OSCE Guidelines to form a series of critical judgements intended to confirm the need for updated international guidance so that legal scholars, policymakers and judges can ascertain with greater precision at what specific points recognition and registration policies and practices contravene FoRB.