Authorities refuse to register association "Brest Christian Democrats"

A reply from the main department of Justice of Brest Regional Executive Committee suggests that the reason for the denial is that the names of the organization in Russian and Belarusian are different.

According to deputy chief of the department, Larisa Balandzina, who signed the official letter, the name "Brest Christian Democrats" in the Belarusian language does not match the name of "Brest Christian Democrats" in Russian. Meanwhile, the abbreviated name (NGO "BCD"), had to be coordinated with the agency that is in charge with state registration.

In addition, the official notes that "the name of the association does not contain any reference to the nature of the association’s activities," which allegedly violates Article 12 of the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Public Associations". The Department of Justice of Brest Regional Executive Committee has no other remarks, but considered the claim to the name to be impassable and therefore the organization was denied registration.

According to the head of the organizing committee of "Brest Christian Democrats" Dzmitry Shurkhai, the reluctance of the authorities to provide legal status to such a public association is quite predictable, nevertheless of especial interest are the arguments of the officials, because all the documents were prepared absolutely perfectly.