Article 22: Freedom Of Association

 

Contents:

Legislative acts that regulate the question of the freedom of association

Restrictions in the creation of associations and the practice of registration

Ban on the activities of unregistered organizations and criminal responsibility for such activities: Article 193.1

Liquidation of civic organizations

Non-compliance with the UN Human Rights Committee’s decisions on the infringements in the field of the freedom of association in Belarus

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Legislative acts that regulate the question of the freedom of association

 

Article 35 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus proclaims that every person has the right for association. A certain category of state officials (Judges, employees of the Procurator's Office, the staff of bodies of internal affairs, the State Supervisory Committee and security bodies, as well as servicemen) may not be members of political parties or other public associations that pursue political goals. The main principles of creating an organization and arranging its activities are established by the Civic Code, whereas the detailed legal regulation of certain types of organizations can be found in special corresponding laws. Thus, the activities of political parties are regulated by the law of the Republic of Belarus “On Political Parties” adopted in 1994 (now it is applied as amended in 2005); the activities of working unions—by the law of the Republic of Belarus “On Trade Unions” (adopted in 1992, now is applied with amendments); the activities of religious organizations—by the law of the Republic of Belarus “On the Freedom of Consciousness and on Religious Organizations” adopted in 1992 (now it is applied as amended in 2002, with further changes). The associations which can not be defined as political parties, trade unions or religious organizations are defined as public associations and their activities are being regulated by the Law of the Republic of Belarus “On Public Associations” (adopted in 1994, now it is applied as amended in 2005, with further changes).

 

Apart from that, some issues concerning public associations are regulated by Presidential acts (decrees and ordinances). Those acts have greater legal force than laws and, therefore, sometimes change the rules set by laws. Thus, Presidential Decree from 26^th January 1999 № 2 “On Some Issues Concerning Political Parties, Trade Unions and Other Public Associations” established a special way of registering associations, which was stricter than the one that had been established in the corresponding laws. The Decree also obliged all public associations that had been registered before to re-register in accordance with the new order (which resulted in the situation when hundreds of organizations did not manage to re-register and lost their registration).

 

Other Presidential acts, as well as regulatory acts adopted by Government regulate certain questions concerning the mechanism of creating an organization (such as paying a state fee for registration, preparing financial reports, taxation, receiving financial help, etc.). Among others, there is a document of a big importance, the Decree № 48 of the Ministry of Justice from 30^th August 2005. It established examples and rules of submitting documents for registration of public organizations, political parties, trade unions, their territorial structures and unions.

 

 

 

Restrictions in the creation of associations and the practice of registration

 

In general, all legislative acts mentioned above establish very high criteria and strict framework for creating an organization, they make the process of registration very hard. Practice of denying a new organization in registration is very common for Belarus. The Ministry of Justice performs the registering function and, theoretically, its decision can be appealed against in the court. But in practice courts usually support the Ministry’s decision.

 

To register a political party you should gather no less than 1000 founders who represent the majority of regions of Belarus and Minsk city. The reasons for denial in registration of an organization given in legislative acts are formulated so vaguely that institutions of justice can deny in registration practically anyone explaining their decision with ridiculous reasons. As a result, no new political parties have been registered in Belarus since 2000, a lot of initiative groups have been denied registration as political parties. Thus, the Party of Freedom and Progress received 4 denials during the period of years 2003-2009 (the last denial took place in May, 2009). In May, 2009 the Belarusian Christian Democracy Party was denied registration. For the date of 1^st June 2009 only 15 political parties had a legal status in Belarus. A couple of political groups work without any legal registration, as “organizational committees for creating a party”, as they don’t see an opportunity to be registered because of their oppositional approach to the current authorities. Territorial units of political parties as well face denials in registration for ridiculous reasons. For instance, in May 2009 court acknowledged as justified the decision of a registering body to deny regional unit of BNF Party (in Harodnia) registration because the documents submitted to the registering body had been printed in a “wrong” font.

 

Belarusian law divides public associations in 3 categories: international, republican and local. The first two categories of associations shall be registered in the Ministry of Justice and can work on the whole territory of the country. But to create a republican association (e.g. an organization of a national level), there have to be no less than 50 founders (10 founders from each region and from Minsk city), which limits the possibilities of such creation. Local associations have the right to work only on the territory of a certain district, city or region where they have been created and are subject to responsibility (suspension of activities or liquidation) if they carry out their activities beyond that territory. Local associations are registered by regional administrations of Justice. To register a local association there should be no less than 10 founders who represent the majority of administrative units of the area (founders from other districts cannot participate).

 

According to the information given by the Ministry of Justice, for the date of 1^st January 2009 there were just 2221 public associations of all 3 kinds registered in Belarus. It is to be mentioned that this number practically has not changed for the last 10 years. If we compare current situation with that on 1^st January 2004, we will see that the Ministry of Justice reported then about the registration of 2214 public associations. Every year about 50-100 new associations are being registered in Belarus, but this is “compensated” by the number of liquidated organizations (liquidation being voluntary or initiated by court). During the process of registration the registering body often interferes with the aims of organization stated in the statute, changing them a lot (registration of the Civic Organization for Human Rights Defense and Education "The Movement "For Freedom" is a good example of that) or interpreting them as a ground for denial of registration (as in cases of “Nasha Viasna” and “Young Front”).

 

The situation with the registration of public associations reminds that with the registration of political parties: there are a lot of denials which are very often based on unimportant inaccuracy in the appearance of the documents submitted for registration (like the “wrong” font, etc.). It is almost impossible to register an organization if its founders somehow demonstrate their disloyalty to the current regime. Thus, only in 2009 the following organizations received denial of registration: Human Rights Defense Center “Viasna”, the Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs of Belarus, youth public association “Young Social-Democrats”, youth public association “Modes”, youth association “Youth Christian-Social Union” and others.

 

It is also to be said that dozens of public associations try to get registered for years. For example, the first attempt to register was made by “Young Front” in the end of 90-es. The last two denials of registration from the Minsk Administration of Justice were received by “Young Front” in 2007. The case of this organization is a good example of citizens’ discrimination in the sphere of freedom of association: the ground for denial became the fact that one of the founders had been accused for carrying out activities on behalf of an unregistered organization (though this is not stated in legal acts as a reason for denial of registration). The case of the Human Rights Defense Center “Viasna” is similar: the organization was denied registration because one of its founders had been a subject to an administrative responsibility. In general, the grounds of denial in registration usually have a purely political character and are often used unreasonably, discriminating citizens’ right for freedom of association.

 

In May 2009 it was announced that changes to the Laws “On Political Parties” and “On Public Associations” were being prepared. Those changes make the registration of new parties and organizations even more complicated, extending the list of possible grounds for denial of registration. In general, this draft law seems to be introduced with the purpose of legalizing current practice of unfounded denials of registration of new public associations.

One of the most serious obstacles during registration of new organizations (all types of them) is their obligation to possess an office in non-residential (public) building. No public association or even a small branch office of a political party or an organization (which can be founded by 3 people) can use founder’s private flat as a legal address.

 

Similarly, the practice of registering trade unions demonstrates unfavorable attitude towards unions which are not being members of the Federation of Trade Unions of Belarus—FPB (the Federation is supporting government). Thus, in January 2008 the Ministry of Justice denied registration the trade union of a small business “Razam” (“Together”), there are a lot of cases of denials to the members of Belarusian trade unionofradio-electronic industry(BTUREI)and other trade unions which are the members of Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions. The International Labor Organization drew attention to this problem more than once, criticized the official position of Belarus and even initiated the special procedure of investigation and implied economic sanctions against Belarus.

 

Law divides religious organizations into 2 categories: religious associations and religious communities. The latter ones possess fewer rights (for example, they cannot have their confessional mass media, cannot found their own educational institutions, etc). Religious associations also have problems with registration, because to create such organization, there need to be no less than 10 registered communities in different regions of the country which perform their activities for at least 20 years and have at least 10 parishioners each. As a result, such confessions as Krishnaism (Krishna’s Awareness Union) which don’t have the necessary number of communities, cannot be registered as a religious association and, thereby, cannot perform their activities equally with other confessions.

 

Ban on the activities of unregistered organizations and criminal responsibility for such activities: Article 193.1

 

Since the Presidential Decree from 26^th January 1999 № 2 came into force, organizations which do not possess state registration are not allowed to perform any activities. Later on this ban was also implemented into the Laws “On Political Parties” and “On Public Associations”. An administrative penalty (a fine or arrest for up to 15 days) was established for the violation of the rule.

 

In 2005 the situation with unregistered organizations worsened, as a criminal penalty for participating in their activities was established. The Law from 15^th December 2005 introduced a new article into the Criminal Code— Article 193-1 “Illegal organization of activities of a public association, religious organization or foundation or participation in those activities”. The article states that participating in the activities of non-registered organizations and foundations (whatever their aims and main activities are) is punishable by fine or arrest for up to 6 months, or by imprisonment for up to 2 years. Article 193 which establishes punishment for the members of organizations, which perform activities violating the rights of other citizens was also completed with the second part which established more severe punishment (imprisonment for up to 3 years) for such activities, in case the organization/party on whose behalf people were acting, was unregistered. For the date of 1^st June 2009 human rights organizations possessed the information about 17 sentences adjudged under Article 193.1 during the period of 2006-2009. The majority of the accused are the members of the initiative “Partnership” which was monitoring elections and the members of the oppositional youth initiative “Young Front” (both organizations had been refused registration earlier). No case was solvedin the courts in favour of the persons accused under article 193.1, all of them were found guilty by court.

 

Apart from that, there were registered many occasions when activists received official warnings from prosecutors concerning possible criminal proceedings against them in case they don’t stop their activities on behalf of unregistered organization. Such warnings were received by the members of the liquidated Belarusian Student Association, activists of the Poles Union, members of the organization "For Free Development of Entrepreneurship" and activists of the initiative “For the Clean Barysau”. Bearing in mind that it has been hard enough to register an organization, “unwanted” by the government, before 2006, the fact of implementation of Article 193.1 made the realization of the freedom of association in Belarus practically impossible.

 

 

Liquidation of public associations

 

In 2003-2005 a wave of forced liquidations of civic organizations took place in Belarus. The grounds for liquidation were usually totally unreasonable and were founded on insignificant infringements of subordinate legislation (like the rules of completing paperwork). In 2003 there were liquidated 51 organizations, in 2004— 38 organizations and in 2005— 68 organizations. Afterwards the number of liquidated organizations varied from 20 to 30 every year.

 

It is to be mentioned that some of the liquidated organizations were very authoritative and influential in Belarusian civic sector, such as Human Rights Center “Viasna”, Independent Institute of Socio- Economic and Political Studies, “Ratusha” (Harodnia), “Civic Initiatives” (Homel), “Legal Help to People”, Independent Union for Legal Studies and many other human rights, youth, scientific and social organizations. But despite all the denials of registration and despite the fact of the criminal responsibility for such activities, the majority of these organizations continued to work even without registration.

 

Forced liquidation by the decision of the Supreme Court was used towards political parties as well. Thus, in 2004 Belarusian Labour Party was liquidated, in 2007— Ecological party “BEZ” and Women’s party “Nadzeja”.

 

 

Non-compliance with the UN Human Rights Committee’s decisions on the infringements in the field of the freedom of association in Belarus

 

Belarusian authorities did not abide by the UN Human Rights Committee resolutions, according to which denials of registration and liquidations of Belarusian civic organizations had been recognized as illegal and not in line with the Convent on Civic and Political Rights. At present in respect to the Republic of Belarus there have been adopted three resolutions of the UN Human Rights Committee, concerning the violation of freedom of association. These cases are connected with:

— denial of registration of Human Rights Civic Organization "Helsinki-XXI" (events of 2001);

— judicial liquidation of Homel Civic Organization "Civic Initiatives" (events of 2003);

— judicial liquidation of the Civic Organization "Human Rights Centre "Viasna" (events of 2003) .

Despite of all attempts to appeal against the judicial decisions listed above, the members of the “banned” organizations did not succeed and still perform their activities on behalf of unregistered civic organizations, under the threat of being accused under Article 193.1.

 

In May, 2008 the Human Rights defenders Ales Bialiatski, Uladzimir Labkovich and Valiantsin Stefanovich appealed in the Supreme Court against the verdict of the Supreme Court of 26 October, 2007 concerning the denial of state registration to the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. Despite the fact that the registration documents that were passed to the Ministry of Justice corresponded to the legal requirements, the Ministry of Justice refused to register the organization. The Human Rights defenders applied to the Supreme Court, which took the side of the ministry. The founders of the new organizations (who were the members of the liquidated earlier Civic Organization "Human Rights Centre "Viasna") considered that they could register another organization, so they could proceed with their activities. But the Supreme Court did not satisfy that appeal. Later, the members of “Viasna” tried to register 2 more times, but were refused registration both times.