NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

to title ‘non-governmental organisations’ within the meaning of Article 34 of the Convention as ‘Article 34 NGO’. 505 The definition of the term ‘Article 34 NGO’, for the purposes of this study, is a profit or non-profit making legal entity, with or without formal existence, which does not directly participate in the exercise of governmental powers and has a sufficient degree of independence fromgovernmental control. Such an organisation must have victim status in accordance with the Court’s case-law. As partially described above, ‘Article 34 NGO’ category includes trade unions, 506 public foundations, 507 associations, 508 political parties 509 and political groups, 510 various religious structures 511 and other non-governmental entities. 512 Given that the Convention is a living instrument, the Court interprets the term in light of the circumstances and conditions that exist in the moment of examination of a particular case. Therefore, today it is not possible to determine exactly what group of entities will be covered by this term in the future. Nevertheless, it is certainly necessary to take into account the fact that the Court has admitted a number of concepts, covering different terms contained in the Convention and the additional Protocols, which have an autonomous meaning. The term ‘autonomous meaning’ signifies that classification of a concept under national law is only one of the factors the Court takes into account when defining a term for the purposes of the Convention. The national classification serves only as an imaginary springboard for further analysis. 513 The phrase ‘non-government organisation’ in the text of Article 34 of the Convention can certainly be added to the category of concepts with an autonomous meaning for the purposes of the Convention. It will include a much broader group of subjects than might be expected in the interpretation of this concept in national law or in the other international documents. It must be stressed that this ‘Article 34 NGO’ term is applicable only to NGOs in the capacity of the applicant. The criteria applied to NGOs in other capacities may be different. In the next part of the book, the author will focus on the rights of the applicants, namely, Article 34 NGOs under the Convention. Nonetheless, in some parts of the text the term ‘non-governmental organisation’ or ‘NGO’ will still be used to distinguish between Article 34 NGOs in the sense explained above and Article 34 NGOs, which are purely non-profit organisations. 505 The author chose this title beibg incpired by an NGO, Article 19 – see https://www.article19.org/. 506 Federation of Offshore Workers’ Trade Unions ( dec.), cited above. 507 Foundation Hostel for Students of the Reformed Church and Stanomirescu v. Romania , nos. 2699/03 and 43597/07, 7 January 2014. 508 Housing Association of War Disabled and Victims of War of Attica and Others v. Greece, no. 35859/02, 13 July 2006. 509 Christian Democratic People’s Party (no. 2) , cited above. 510 HUBÁLKOVÁ, E. Řízení… , 2010, cited above, p. 36. 511 Moscow Branch of the Salvation Army v. Russia , no. 72881/01, ECHR 2006-XI. 512 OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya Yukos, cited above; OAO Plodovaya Kompaniya, cited above; Oklešen and Pokopališko Pogrebne Storitve Leopold, cited above; Västberga Taxi Aktiebolag, cited above; Centro Europa 7 S.r.l., cited above; Anheuser-Busch Inc. [GC] , cited above ; Regent Company, cited above, and Sacilor-Lormines, cited above. 513 KMEC, 2012, cited above, p. 92.

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