During its Human Rights meeting of 29 September – 1 October the Committee of Ministers examined the execution of the UMO Ilinden and Others group of judgments concerning the domestic courts’ unjustified refusals, between 1999 and 2015, to register associations the aim of which was to achieve the recognition of "the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria”. Four of these problematic registration procedures took place after the first UMO Ilinden judgment.
The Committee considered that overall, the authorities have not achieved sufficient progress and therefore adopted an Interim Resolution. It expressed deep concern at the fact that since 2006 the “United Macedonian Organisation – Ilinden” (hereafter “UMO Ilinden”) and similar associations have been persistently unable to benefit from Convention-compliant registration procedures. In 2019 and 2020 “UMO Ilinden” again encountered problems related to inconsistent and formalistic application of legal requirements by the Registration Agency. Moreover, associations similar to “UMO Ilinden” have been refused registration on grounds such as the potential for an association promoting the existence of a “Macedonian minority” to endanger national unity and the constitutional prohibition on associations pursuing political goals, grounds which have been systematically criticised by the European Court in the present judgments.
The Committee exhorted the authorities to ensure that any new registration request of “UMO Ilinden” or similar associations is examined in full compliance with the Convention (as regards the assessment of the lawfulness of the association’s goals and means for pursuing them and the need to ensure proportionate, foreseeable and consistent application of legal requirements, with clear instructions to the applicants if needed) and that such associations should not be subject to dissolution procedures on grounds rejected by the European Court.
The authorities were urged to place the Registration Agency under an obligation to give instructions to associations to rectify registration applications and documents, and to ensure that it identifies exhaustively the defects of a registration file. They were also called on to convey a message and to continue their awareness-raising efforts to ensure that “UMO Ilinden” and similar associations are not refused registration on grounds rejected by the European Court related to the associations’ goals and means for pursuing them.
It is recalled that the authorities have already adopted awareness-raising measures to address misconceptions and to clarify that under Bulgarian law the registration of an association does not have an impact on the question of the existence or not of a particular minority, or the recognition thereof. In this context, it would appear useful to clarify that while these European Court’s judgments do not give rise to an obligation to recognise a group of persons as a minority, it is not open to a national authority to refuse to register associations on the ground that allegations of existence of a minority made by an association in its statutes are unlawful or unconstitutional.
The Committee decided to resume consideration of this group of cases at the latest during its meeting in June 2021.
Latest notes and decisions of the Committee of Ministers concerning these cases. Unofficial translation into Bulgarian.
