Assembly of pro-Democratic NGOs: third registration attempt failed
According to information of the press-service of the Assembly of pro-Democratic NGOs, the Ministry of Justice for the third time refused to register the Assembly of pro-Democratic NGOs. The reasons for the registration don’t differ from the reasons given during the previous registration attempt.
Siarhei Matskevich, Chairperson of the Working Group of the Assembly of NGOs, was not mailed the answer of the ministry in the due time and had to come there to receive a copy.
The reasons for non-registering the Assembly with the state are analogical to the reasons given during the previous registration attempt. First of all, the ministry still considers that ‘the conditions concerning the unity of the charter aims and tasks and the subject of activities of the Assembly of NGOs weren’t observed. Secondly, it seems to the registering organ that ‘monitoring, analysis and evaluation of the activities of civil associations doesn’t correspond to the specified aim’ of the Assembly. Thirdly, the officials are of the opinion that the organization name ‘contains no indication of the subject of activities of its members.’
Yury Chavusau, lawyer of the Assembly of NGOs, points at the absence of significant changes in the ministry’s answer compared to the previous registration attempt. ‘The ministry still states that the member organizations have different aims and tasks they have no right to create a common union because they have different aims and tasks, and that such unions could be registered only by the organizations that have analogical aims. This reason was also stated during the earlier registration attempts. It is not grounded on any legal requirements and contradicts to the Belarusian practice of the establishment of unions and associations.’
Siarhei Matskevich emphasizes that this time the Ministry of Justice openly and repeatedly underlined its position that democratic organizations cannot establish associations.
