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issued by the Registrar of the Court   ECHR 333 (2018)   09.10.2018   Taking property off charity foundation despite bona fide purchase led to   property rights violation   In today’s Chamber judgment1 in the case of Batkivska Turbota Foundation v. Ukraine (application   no. 5876/15) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:   a violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) to the European Convention on   Human Rights.   The case concerned the applicant organisation being deprived of its ownership of parts of a   sanatorium which it had bought from the property arm of Ukraine’s Federation of Trade Unions in   2002. The Federation itself had gained control of the premises through a process which had begun in   the Soviet era and its ownership of the assets had been confirmed in a 1997 court ruling.   However, in 2011 a prosecutor claimed the property for the State. The domestic courts ultimately   ruled that the Federation had had no right to sell the premises as the sanatorium had remained   State property and annulled the applicant organisation’s title.   The Court found in particular that there was no clear law on who owned such Soviet-era properties –   the Federation and its property arm or the State – and that domestic case-law was inconsistent in   this respect. The State had also imposed a disproportionate burden on the applicant organisation by   depriving it of its property. The Court therefore found that there had been a violation of its rights.   Principal facts   The applicant, Batkivska Turbota Foundation, is a charity organisation which was registered in 1999.   In 2000 the applicant organisation founded a social rehabilitation centre to help young people. In   August 2002, it bought parts of a sanatorium owned by UPO, an entity which had been created by   the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine to manage its properties. The applicant organisation   subsequently registered its title to the property.   However, in August 2011, a prosecutor acting on behalf of the State applied to a court to annul the   purchase contract. He argued that the premises that had been sold were State property and had   never been transferred from the State to UPO.   The first-instance court upheld the prosecutor’s claim.   It found that in 1960 the Soviet Ukrainian State had transferred sanatoria and other recreational   facilities, including the property in question, to trade unions for their use, but not into their   ownership. When UPO had been created in 1991, the premises had therefore still belonged to the   State. The court dismissed UPO’s reference to a 1997 judgment which had given it ownership of such   Soviet-era assets.   1. Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, this Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month period following its delivery,   any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges   considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final   judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day.   Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.   Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution.   The applicant organisation appealed, stating that it was a bona fide purchaser and had spent about   five million hryvnias on renovating the premises. The appeal court found for the applicant   organisation in April 2014, rejecting the State’s claim to ownership, but that decision was overturned   by the Higher Commercial Court of Ukraine in July 2014. The Supreme Court rejected an application   by the applicant for a review of the case in October of the same year.   The State’s title to the property was registered in April 2018. The applicant organisation is still using   the facility and has children from “difficult” families there, as well as internally displaced people.   Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court   Relying on Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) to the Convention, the applicant   organisation complained of a breach of its property rights.   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 23 January 2015.   Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven judges, composed as follows:   Paulo Pinto de Albuquerque (Portugal), President,   Ganna Yudkivska (Ukraine),   Vincent A. De Gaetano (Malta),   Iulia Antoanella Motoc (Romania),   Carlo Ranzoni (Liechtenstein),   Marko Bošnjak (Slovenia),   Péter Paczolay (Hungary),   and also Marialena Tsirli, Section Registrar.   Decision of the Court   The Court noted that any interference with property rights, as had occurred in the present case, had   to be lawful in order to conform to the European Convention. Lawful meant that any measure had to   have a base in domestic law and that the law had to be accessible and foreseeable as to its effects.   It noted that the domestic case-law on UPO properties was inconsistent as there were significant   differences between the findings made by the courts in this case and others similar to it. This was   largely because there was no law dealing with the legal status of property in Ukraine that had   belonged to Soviet Union civic organisations, such as trade unions.   Such facts meant that the Court had serious doubts as to whether the interference with the   applicant organisation’s rights had met the Convention’s quality of law requirement.   The Court also found that the State’s actions had led to the imposition of a disproportionate burden.   The applicant organisation had bought the property in 2002, several years after the 1997 court   decision confirming the UPO’s ownership, but the prosecutor had not lodged a claim over it until   2011. The State knew or ought to have known long before then about the purchase of the premises.   The applicant organisation’s title had also been duly registered by the authorities. If there had been   a mistake in the process, it was the State which had to bear the consequences, unless there was a   clear public interest justifying the interference. However, the Government had not made convincing   arguments in that regard. The Government had made only general statements about the restoration   of the State’s rights over the property, without showing why it needed that property for any   particular and compelling reason. Indeed, it had taken until 2018 for the State to register its title to   the sanatorium.   The Court held that the interference with the applicant organisation’s property rights raised serious   doubts about the lawfulness of the measure and had imposed a disprortionate burden on the   applicant, thus violating Article 1 of Protocol No. 1.   Just satisfaction (Article 41)   The Court found that it was not ready in the circumstances of the case to decide on the application   of this provision and it reserved the question to a later date, when any subsequent procedure would   take due regard of any friendly settlement between the parties.   The judgment is available only in English.   This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions,   judgments and further information about the Court can be found on www.echr.coe.int. To receive   the Court’s press releases, please subscribe here: www.echr.coe.int/RSS/en or follow us on Twitter   @ECHRpress.   Press contacts   [email protected] | tel.: +33 3 90 21 42 08   Patrick Lannin (tel: + 33 3 90 21 44 18)   Tracey Turner-Tretz (tel: + 33 3 88 41 35 30)   Denis Lambert (tel: + 33 3 90 21 41 09)   Inci Ertekin (tel: + 33 3 90 21 55 30)   Somi Nikol (tel: + 33 3 90 21 64 25)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member   States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.   3