Published on 14 February 2022

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 64220/19 FÖDERATION DER ALEVITEN GEMEINDEN IN ÖSTERREICH against Austria lodged on 11 December 2019 communicated on 28 January 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the refusal to recognise the applicant association as a religious community ( religiöse Bekenntnisgemeinschaft ) according to the Legal Status of Registered Religious Communities Act ( Bundesgesetz über die Rechtspersönlichkeit von religiösen Bekenntnisgemeinschaften ).

On 11 May 2015 the Federal Minister for Arts, Culture, Constitution and Media ( Bundesminister für Kunst und Kultur, Verfassung und Medien ) dismissed the applicant association’s request dated 9 April 2009 in the second round of proceedings for the reason that after the request had been lodged another religious community, namely the Islamic Alevi Denomination in Austria (“ALEVI”) ( Islamische Alevitische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich ) had been recognised as a religious society ( Religionsgesellschaft ). The applicant association’s religious beliefs set out in its statutory provisions did not differ sufficiently from the ones of the recognised religious society of ALEVI as required by law.

The applicant association lodged a complaint, arguing that its religious beliefs differed significantly from the ones of ALEVI. While ALEVI considered itself to belong to Islam, the applicant association precisely argued that its religion was independent of Islam.

The Vienna Regional Administrative Court dismissed the applicant association’s complaint, endorsing the findings at first instance. It added that the concept of membership in the applicant association’s statutory provisions did not fulfil the requirements set out in the law either. On 28 May 2019 the (Supreme) Administrative Court rejected the applicant association’s appeal arguing that it had not raised any legal question of fundamental importance and had disregarded the viable alternative reasoning ( tragfähige Alternativbegründung ) regarding the concept of membership. On 11 June 2019 the Constitutional Court declined to deal with the applicant association’s complaint. The final decision was served on the applicant association on 27 June 2019.

The applicant association complained that the domestic authorities’ refusal to recognise it as a religious community independently of the meanwhile recognised religious society of ALEVI violated its rights under Article 9 of the Convention. It further complained that the proceedings had not been conducted within reasonable time as required by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Has the applicant association exhausted all effective domestic remedies, as required by Article 35 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, did it invoke before the national authorities, at least in substance, the rights on which it now wishes to rely before the Court?

2. Was Article 6 § 1 of the Convention under its civil head applicable to the proceedings in the present case? In particular, was there a dispute concerning the determination of the applicant association’s civil rights within the meaning of that provision ( Leela Förderkreis e.V. and Others v. Germany , no. 58911/00, §§ 44-47, 6 November 2008; Religionsgemeinschaft der Zeugen Jehovas and Others v. Austria , no. 40825/98, §§ 106-08, 31 July 2008; Tserkva Sela Sosulivka v. Ukraine , no. 37878/02, §§ 41-42, 28 February 2008)?

If so, was the length of the administrative proceedings in the present case in breach of the “reasonable time” requirement of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?

3. Did the domestic authorities’ refusal to recognise the applicant association as a religious community pursuant to the Legal Status of Registered Religious Communities Act interfere with its freedom of religion, within the meaning of Article 9§ 1 of the Convention?

If so, was that interference prescribed by law and necessary for the protection of a legitimate aim in terms of Article 9 § 2?