The Strasbourg-based court ruled unanimously that there had been “a violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights read in the light of Article 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion),” the ECHR said in a statement.

It ordered Spain to pay €26,000 in damages and legal costs.

The case concerned blood transfusions administered to Rosa Edelmira Pindo Mulla, an Ecuadoran national living in Spain, during emergency surgery against her will.

Jehovah’s Witnesses believe it is against God’s will to receive blood and, therefore, they refuse blood transfusions.

In March 2020, she lodged an application with the ECHR, which rules on violations of the European Convention on Human Rights in the 46 member states of the Council of Europe.

“Pindo Mulla had not been able to exercise her autonomy in order to observe an important teaching of her religion,” the statement said.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are members of a US-based Christian evangelical movement, which claims to have over 8.6 million followers worldwide, from Finland to the Falkland Islands and Peru to the Philippines.

The Witnesses reject modern evolutionary theory and also oppose blood transfusions, believing that blood is sacred. The Witnesses have lobbied doctors to adopt clinical strategies that minimise the need for blood transfusions.