NEWLY INDEPENDENT STATES
Belarus I European Court of Human Rights
Belorussian Republican Club of Electors
On
November 15 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) of Belarus lost a case in court
on the claim on registration of a public association. The Supreme Court
obligated
the MoJ to register the public association “Belorussian Republican Club of
Electors”.
The
Belorussian Republican Club of Electors is a transformed All-Belorussian Club of
Electors, the re-registration of which had been rejected by the the MoJ.
The
MoJ rejected to register the Belorussian Republican Club of Electors based on
three reasons: (1) the name of the association is calling for temporary
character of activities of the association and this temporary character is not
indicated in the charter and application for registration; (2) the charter does
not contain provisions, that each citizen has the direct right to participate in
elections and the organization needs a power of attorney from a citizen in order
to represent his interests in elections; and (3) the charter claims that the
association is authorized to carry out activities which are in the competence of
the state electoral commissions and, partially, political parties.
At
the court proceedings the public association Independent Society of Legal Research, Olessia
Vidruk, represented the Club as a public counsel for the defense.
Mr. Andrushko represented the Ministry of Justice. The public defender
requested the Supreme Court to obligate the MoJ to register the Belorussian
Republican Club of Electors. This was the first time since after the
re-registration campaign was started (January 1999) that the MoJ lost a case
on registration (re-registration) of a public association.
The
state prosecutor disagreed with the decision of the Supreme Court. It is not
clear yet if he will appeal the court’s decision.
For
more information regarding the re-registration of NGOs in Belarus, please
contact Natalia Bourjaily, ICNL Program Director for NIS. E-mail: nbourj@icnl.org,
In Washington: tel. (202)624-0766; fax: (202)624-0767, or Elena Tonkacheva,
Director of the Independent Society for Legal Research. In Minsk: tel. (0172)
365517, fax: (1072) 853999.
European Court of Human Rights