ArmeniaConfirmed
European rights court finds Armenia breached religious freedom by refusing Jehovah's Witnesses permission to build places of worship
Yerevan's mayor's office refused two of three planning applications for land the organisation bought in 2009 on the ground that neighbours complained about religious buildings, and deferred the third. On 1 October 2026 a three-judge Committee of the European Court of Human Rights held unanimously that no evidence of those complaints was ever produced and no law allowing the refusals was ever named, so the interference was not "prescribed by law" and breached Article 9. It awarded EUR 4,500 plus EUR 3,232 in costs. The judgment is final.