European Court of Human Rights says government references to ‘cult’ in describing minority religions is damaging and a denial of human rights

The European Court of Human Rights recently decided that government authorities should not refer to minority religious groups as ‘cults’, as the term is misleading, derogatory and a denial of the rights of members of religious communities to freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The case, Tonchev and others v Bulgaria 2022, arose from the complaints by three evangelical and pentacostal churches in the Bulgarian city of Burgas. The city’s education authorities had sent a letter to all schools, requesting that schools tell students that the groups were ‘cults’ and were dangerous, and that essentially the Bulgarian orthodox church was the only legitimate religion.

The European Court relied on an earlier decision it had made in 2021 against the Russian Federation, where the Russian government had declared Hare Krishna a ‘dangerous and totalitarian cult’. In the Russian case, the Court, referring to the Guarantee of Religious Freedom under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, stated; “the Court has considered that the use of hostile or derogatory terms in referring to a religious community in documents issued by public authorities, insofar as it is likely to have negative consequences on the exercise by its members of their freedom of religion, is sufficient to constitute an infringement of the rights guaranteed by Article 9 of the Convention”.

The decisions of the Court in relation to the Russian and Bulgarian cases overruled earlier precedents of the Court in 2001, which had permitted the French government to refer to a religious minority as a ‘cult’. The Court decision clearly marks significant progress in the recognition of the rights and freedoms of people who participate in non-major ‘new religious movements or community groupings’, which might otherwise be described neutrally as ‘sects’. The Court clearly disapproved of the negative repercussions on the exercise of religious and cultural freedom on members of organisations labelled in that way. The Court accordingly has sought to enshrine the right of minority groupings and religions not to be the subject of slanderous and prejudicial language by public authorities.