Ptycha Village of Dubenskyy District v. Ukraine (Religious Community of Svyato-Uspenskyy Parish of Rivne Eparchy of Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ptycha Village of Dubenskyy District) v. Ukraine, No. 8906/19, ECtHR (Third Section), 9 October 2025

Domestic authorities’ failure to take sufficient steps to ensure the applicant community’s use of its church building in the context of a dispute over that building with another religious group. 

Art. 9 ECHR 

1. In matters concerning freedom of religion, the State has a positive obligation to ensure that religious communities are able to carry out their activities freely and to maintain a position of strict neutrality and impartiality vis-à-vis different denominations.

2. A breach of art. 9 ECHR occurs where public authorities, directly or indirectly, determine which religious group is entitled to represent a particular faith, or restrict the use of places of worship pending disputes between rival denominations, without taking into account the property rights and internal autonomy of the community concerned.
(A religious community belonging to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church complained that the State authorities had prevented it from using its church building—disputed with a rival religious group—and had favoured the latter in administrative registration procedures.)