NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

territory of that Party or of another Party. 108 On the basis of these parameters, we may conclude that the NGO under this treaty is a non-profit organisation established on the basis of national law, which carries out its activity in a number of the state parties to this international treaty. On the contrary, such an NGO may not conduct business activities and limit its actions to the territory of only one country. In regards to the second criterion, it is clear that an international NGO is supposed to act between ‘nations’ that are currently the states parties. Consequently, this characterisation must not be the same for national NGOs. It means that this treaty does not require that all NGOs must be non-profit-making. Different requirements may exist for national NGOs. On the other hand, UN institutions, for example, the UN Department of Public Information for NGOs and the Executive Committee of NGOs Associated with the United Nations, do not distinguish between NGOs and INGOs. From this point of view, a condition on the absence of income from business activities may be obligatory for national NGOs as well. Most of the CoE treaties focus on a special group of people, such as refugees, 109 children 110 and women; 111 consequently, the notion of NGOs in these documents relates only to the organisations contending with protection of these groups of people. For instance, Article 9 of the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence is titled ‘Non-governmental organisations and civil society’. It contains the following text: “Parties shall recognise, encourage and support, at all levels , the work of relevant non-governmental organisations and of civil society active in combating violence against women and establish effective co-operation with these organisations.” 112 As we see, this convention concerns only the NGOs that conduct activities aiming to combat domestic violence and violence against women. As with many other treaties, it does not clarify the term ‘NGO’. The phrase ‘all levels’ may signify that, to some extent, rules set forth in the European convention on the recognition of the legal personality of international non governmental organisations could apply to such NGOs. Treaties of the Council of Europe, apart from the protection of certain groups of people, also deal with specific areas of public life, for example, extradition, 113 culture, 114 information 115 or cybercrime. 116 Regrettably, they do not mention the term Ibid. 109 European Agreement on the Abolition of Visas for Refugees, Strasbourg, 20 April 1959. 110 See for example the following CoE conventions: the European Convention on the Legal Status of Children born out of Wedlock, European Convention on the Adoption of Children, European Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Decisions concerning Custody of Children and on Restoration of Custody of Children. 111 See e.g. the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, Istanbul, 11 May 2011. 112 Artcile 9, Ibid . 113 European Convention on Extradition, Paris, 13 December 1957. 114 European Cultural Convention, Paris, 19 December 1954. 115 Convention on Information and Legal Co-Operation Concerning “Information Society Services”, Moscow, 4 October 2001. 116 Convention on Cybercrime , Budapest, 23 November 2001. 108

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