NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

of Russia alleged biased media coverage of parliamentary elections. 323 The Court, however, did not find a violation of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 in this case. In the case of Georgian Labour Party v. Georgia 324 the applicant party complained of violations of a few different aspects of the right to free elections. The Court ruled in favour of the party only on account of the disfranchisement of the voters. The Court held that there were no breaches of Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention on the following accounts: the introduction of a new system of voter registration for the repeat parliamentary election, the composition of the electoral commissions at the relevant time, or the discrimination, referring to Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination), taken in conjunction with the provision at issue. The political parties also complained of violations of their rights envisaged in Articles 9 325 and 10 326 of the Convention and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention. 327 In addition, Articles 17 328 and 18 329 were invoked in the cases concerning political parties, both by the state and the non-governmental organisations. Detailed information on these provisions will be provided in the corresponding sections of the book. The aim of this part of the manuscript is simply to make a basic overview of the status of political parties under the Convention. The examples given in this and the previous section of the book confirm the fact that the phrase ‘non-governmental organisation’ in Article 34 of the Convention also implies the organisations which were established for the purposes of gaining different types of profit: from small limited liability companies to big holdings and corporations. This notion also includes subjects taking active part in the political life of society, namely political parties of all possible directions. The only exception is the organisations that pursue an aim to promote hatred and violence. Such applicants lose their status under the Convention in accordance with Article 17 of the Convention. 330 Having discussed the understanding of the term ‘NGO’ in different international instruments and the requirements for the non-governmental organisations acting in the capacity of an applicant, it would be of interest to study the other capacities of an NGO under the Convention. Although we may only directly find the expression ‘NGO’, apart from Article 34 of the Convention, in the stipulations concerning the territorial application of the Convention itself and Protocols thereto, this subject is also implied in a number of other provisions of the Convention. The question is whether, throughout the text of the Convention, the meaning of this term is the same or whether we have to distinguish between the NGO within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention and within the meaning of the Convention’s other

Communist Party of Russia , cited above. Georgian Labour Party , cited above.

323

324

Socialist Party, cited above.

325

326 Christian Democratic People’s Party v. Moldova , cited above. 327 Russian Conservative Party , cited above. 328 Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) [GC], cited above. 329 Demokratik Kitle Partisi and Elçi, cited above. 330 Communist party of Germany v. Germany (dec.), no. 250/57 , 20 July1957.

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