NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

Freedom of peaceful assembly includes the right to hold demonstrations. A demonstration may annoy or give offence to persons opposed to the ideas or claims that it is seeking to promote. 931 Nonetheless, the participants must be able to hold the demonstration without fear that they will be subjected to physical violence by their opponents. Such fear would be liable to deter associations or other groups supporting common ideas or interests from openly expressing their opinions on highly controversial issues affecting the community. The Court highlighted that in a democratic society the right to counter-demonstrate cannot extend to inhibiting the exercise of the right to demonstrate. 932 In its case-law, the Court also underlined the primordial role played in a democratic regime by political parties. According to the Court, “a political party may promote a change in the law or the legal and constitutional structures of the State on two conditions: firstly, the means used to that end must be legal and democratic; secondly, the change proposed must itself be compatible with fundamental democratic principles. It necessarily follows that a political party whose leaders incite to violence or put forward a policy which fails to respect democracy or which is aimed at the destruction of democracy and the flouting of the rights and freedoms recognised in a democracy cannot lay claim to the Convention’s protection against penalties imposed on those grounds…” 933 The exceptions set out in Article 11 of the Convention must be construed strictly. Only convincing and compelling reasons can justify restrictions on political parties’ freedom of association. In determining whether the limitations under Article 11 § 2 are appropriate, the CoE states have only a limited margin of appreciation. 934 An analysis of the Court’s case-law involving Article 11 of the Convention shows that it is possible to distinguish two big groups: cases originating from applications by the trade unions 935 and applications by political parties . 936 Apart from these two groups, there are also judgments and decisions of the Court concerning associations, churches and other subjects 937 covered by Article 34 NGOs. 938 Separate parts of this section will cover each of these groups. 931 ČAPEK, 2010, cited above, p. 535. 932 Plattform “Ärzte für das Leben” v. Austria , 21 June 1988, § 32, Series a no. 139. 933 Yazar and Others v. Turkey , nos. 22723/93, 22724/93 and 22725/93, § 49, ECHR 2002-II. 934 Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) [GC], cited above. 935 See, Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) v. the United Kingdom , no. 11002/05, 27 February 2007; Federation of Offshore Workers’ Trade Unions ( dec.), cited above, and National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers v. the United Kingdom , no. 31045/10, ECHR 2014. 936 See, Presidential Party of Mordovia , cited above; Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) , cited above; and Republican Party of Russia , cited above. 937 FURA-SANDSTRÖM, cited above, p. 167. 938 See, Genderdoc-M v. Moldova , no. 9106/06, 12 June 2012 and Association of Victims of Romanian Judges, cited above.

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