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issued by the Registrar of the Court   ECHR 122 (2022)   05.04.2022   Failure to grant congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses exemption from   property tax in the Brussels-Capital Region since 2018 was discriminatory   In today’s Chamber judgment1 in the case of Assemblée Chrétienne Des Témoins de Jéhovah   d’Anderlecht and Others v. Belgium (application no. 20165/20) the European Court of Human Rights   held, unanimously, that there had been:   a violation of Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) read in conjunction with Article 9 (freedom   of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights and with   Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of property) to the Convention.   The case concerned congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses which complained of being denied   exemption from payment of a property tax (précompte immobilier) in respect of properties in the   Brussels-Capital Region used by them for religious worship. According to an order of 23 November   enacted by the legislature of the Brussels-Capital Region, as of the 2018 fiscal year the   exemption applied only to “recognised religions”, a category that did not include the applicant   congregations.   The Court held that since the tax exemption in question was contingent on prior recognition,   governed by rules that did not afford sufficient safeguards against discrimination, the difference in   treatment to which the applicant congregations had been subjected had no reasonable and   objective justification. It noted, among other points, that recognition was only possible on the   initiative of the Minister of Justice and depended thereafter on the purely discretionary decision of   the legislature. A system of this kind entailed an inherent risk of arbitrariness, and religious   communities could not reasonably be expected, in order to claim entitlement to the tax exemption   in issue, to submit to a process that was not based on minimum guarantees of fairness and did not   guarantee an objective assessment of their claims.   Principal facts   The applicants are nine associations established under Belgian law which have properties in the   Brussels-Capital Region used for public worship.   On 23 November 2017 the legislature of the Brussels-Capital Region amended the Income Tax Code   and restricted the exemption from property tax in respect of properties in the region used for public   worship to “recognised religions”. The amendment took effect from the 2018 fiscal year onwards. As   the applicant associations, nine congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses, did not belong to a   “recognised religion”, they were no longer able to claim the exemption to which they had previously   been entitled in the Brussels-Capital Region. They applied to the Constitutional Court seeking the   setting-aside of the provision in question, and their application was rejected in November 2019. The   Constitutional Court found that the financial impact on the applicant associations was not such as to   jeopardise their internal organisation, functioning or religious activities. It also found that the   requirement for the religious denomination to be recognised was not disproportionate since faiths   that were not recognised could apply for recognition.   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.   In Belgium, religious denominations have the possibility of lodging an application for recognition,   which is optional rather than compulsory. The recognition of religions is a federal matter. The   procedure for recognition is not enshrined in legislation but is derived from administrative practice.   According to the replies given by the Minister of Justice to MPs’ questions, a faith must satisfy five   criteria to qualify for recognition. The application has to be made to the Minister of Justice, who   decides whether the criteria are satisfied. In the event of a favourable decision, the Minister may   table draft legislation on recognition in the House of Representatives, as recognition is a prerogative   of the legislature. There are currently six recognised religious denominations in Belgium:   Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Anglicanism, Islam and the Orthodox faith. Applications for   recognition of Buddhism and Hinduism were lodged in 2006 and 2013 respectively, but the   authorities have not given a decision on them to date.   Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court   The applicant associations alleged that they had been the victims of discrimination on account of the   fact that the new legislation in the Brussels region made exemption from property tax (précompte   immobilier) contingent on belonging to a “recognised religion”. They relied, in particular, on   Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 9   (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) and with Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of   property) to the Convention.   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 14 May 2020.   Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven judges, composed as follows:   Georges Ravarani (Luxembourg), President,   Georgios A. Serghides (Cyprus),   María Elósegui (Spain),   Anja Seibert-Fohr (Germany),   Andreas Zünd (Switzerland),   Frédéric Krenc (Belgium),   Mikhail Lobov (Russia),   and also Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar.   Decision of the Court   Article 14 in conjunction with Article 9 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1   The applicant associations alleged that the tax in question was equivalent to 23% of the donations   they received, which constituted their sole source of funding. It also transpired from the accounting   documents produced by the applicant associations that the amount payable by way of this tax   accounted for a substantial proportion of the annual running costs connected with their buildings.   Overall, the property tax they were required to pay represented between 21.4% (41,984.23 euros   for all the applicant associations) and 32% (42,830.25 for all the associations) of those costs,   depending on the year.   In the Court’s view, these amounts were not insignificant and had a considerable impact on the   operation of the applicant associations as religious communities. The facts of the case therefore   came within the ambit of Article 9 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the   Convention.   As to whether there had been a difference in treatment, the Court noted that in enacting the   measure in question, the legislature of the Brussels-Capital Region had sought to prevent abuse   arising out of the exemption from property tax of premises that were in fact designated for use by   “fictitious” religious denominations. It observed that there was nothing in the case submitted to the   Court to suggest that the applicant associations had committed, or been suspected of committing,   any fraud in benefiting in the past from the exemption from property tax in respect of their places of   worship. Nevertheless, the prevention of tax fraud was an aim whose legitimacy per se could not be   called into question by the Court.   As to whether the means used had been proportionate to the aim pursued, the Court considered   that in using the recognition of a religious faith as the basis for distinguishing between claims for   exemption from property tax, the authorities had opted for an objective criterion that was   potentially relevant with regard to the aim pursued. In itself, the choice of such a criterion fell within   the margin of appreciation left to the national authorities in the sphere under consideration.   The Government argued that it was open to the applicant associations to apply for recognition of   their faith at federal level in order to continue to claim exemption in the Brussels-Capital Region. The   applicant associations countered that it would be pointless to apply, given the serious shortcomings   in the procedure for claiming recognition.   The Court noted in that connection that neither the criteria for recognition nor the procedure   leading to recognition of a faith by the federal authority were laid down in an instrument satisfying   the requirements of accessibility and foreseeability, which were inherent in the notion of the rule of   law governing all the provisions of the Convention.   It observed, firstly, that recognition of a faith was based on criteria that had been identified by the   Minister of Justice only in reply to questions put by members of parliament. Moreover, as they were   couched in particularly vague terms they could not, in the Court’s view, be said to provide a   sufficient degree of legal certainty.   Secondly, the Court noted that the procedure for the recognition of faiths was likewise not laid   down in any legislative or even regulatory instrument. This meant, in particular, that the   examination of applications for recognition was not attended by any safeguards, with regard either   to the actual adoption of the decision on such applications or to the process leading to the decision   and the possibility of appealing against it subsequently. In particular, no time-limits were laid down   for the recognition procedure, and no decision had yet been taken on the applications for   recognition lodged by the Belgian Buddhist Union and the Belgian Hindu Forum in 2006 and 2013   respectively.   Lastly, recognition was only possible on the initiative of the Minister of Justice and depended   thereafter on the purely discretionary decision of the legislature. A system of this kind entailed an   inherent risk of arbitrariness, and religious communities could not reasonably be expected, in order   to claim entitlement to the tax exemption in issue, to submit to a process that was not based on   minimum guarantees of fairness and did not guarantee an objective assessment of their claims.   In sum, since the tax exemption in question was contingent on prior recognition, governed by rules   that did not afford sufficient safeguards against discrimination, the difference in treatment to which   the applicant associations were subjected had no objective and reasonable justification. There had   therefore been a violation of Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 9 of the   Convention and with Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention.   Just satisfaction (Article 41)   The Court held, by a majority (6 votes to 1), that the finding of a violation constituted in itself   sufficient just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicant associations. It   also held, unanimously, that Belgium was to pay the applicant associations 5,000 euros (EUR) in   respect of costs and expenses.   Separate opinion   Judge Serghides expressed a partly dissenting opinion which is annexed to the judgment.   The judgment is available only in French.   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. 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