Violations of Freedom of Religion in Ukrainian Territories Occupied by Russia in the Recent Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights

Jan Wiśniewski; Piotr Sadowski

doi:10.56583/frp.3296

##plugins.themes.libcom.datePublished## : 2026-06-30

Číslo 24 (2026)

Violations of Freedom of Religion in Ukrainian Territories Occupied by Russia in the Recent Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights

Jan Wiśniewski

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2385-5867

Piotr Sadowski

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7013-3410

##semicolon## https://doi.org/10.56583/frp.3296

Abstrakt

The article analyses the systemic nature of religious persecution carried out by the Russian Federation in the occupied territories of Ukraine since 2014. The repressive measures include the imposition of Russian legislation, a selectiveness of a registration of religious communities, a confiscation of properties, bans on religious activities, searches, and detention and deportation of a clergy. Communities independent of the Moscow Patriarchate, including the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Catholic Churches, Protestant denominations, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Crimean Tatar Muslims, are particularly vulnerable. The authors distinguish acts of religious persecution from destructions of religious buildings resulting from hostilities, arguing that classifying an act as a persecution requires proof of its intentional or discriminatory nature. The principal point of a reference for the legal analysis is a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in Ukraine and the Netherlands v. Russia. The Court found that Russia had exercised an effective control over separatist structures and occupied territories of Ukraine and was, therefore, responsible for violations of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) committed there. The killing, torture, and abduction of believers, seizures of places of worship, confiscations of religious literature, and the discriminatory registration system were classified as violations of the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion, so rights protected under Article 9 of the ECHR. The judgment demonstrates a close relationship between violations of religious freedom and infringements of the right to life, the prohibition of torture, right to liberty, and right to respect for private and family life. The article also emphasises the importance of international humanitarian law, which protects religious beliefs and practices, places of worship, and cultural property during armed conflicts and occupations. The authors positively assess the Court’s recognition of the systemic nature of Russian repression. However, they criticise the Court’s failure to specify precisely what number and scale of individual violations are required to establish the existence of an administrative practice contrary to Article 9 of the ECHR.

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Wiśniewski, J., & Sadowski, P. (2026). Violations of Freedom of Religion in Ukrainian Territories Occupied by Russia in the Recent Case-Law of the European Court of Human Rights. Fides, Ratio Et Patria. Studia Toruńskie, (24), 195–218. https://doi.org/10.56583/frp.3296

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Jan Wiśniewski

frep@aksim.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2385-5867

##user.affiliation##:

Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu Poľsko

##user.biography##

Jan Wiśniewski – PhD in the humanities; academic staff member at the Faculty of Law and Administration and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Studies on Technology in Society (ICSTS) at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. Specializes in the history of the Russian Civil War and contemporary armed conflicts in the former USSR, as well as issues regarding religious persecution.

Piotr Sadowski

frep@aksim.edu.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7013-3410

##user.affiliation##:

Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika w Toruniu Poľsko

##user.biography##

Piotr Sadowski – PhD in law, Assistant Professor at the Department of Human Rights, Faculty of Law and Administration, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. A law graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (holding both a doctorate and a master’s degree in law) and the University of Abertay Dundee (Bachelor of Arts in General Studies). Specializes in human rights, as well as immigration and asylum law.