NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

representation. As to the minimum membership requirement, the Court observed that under amendments to Russian law of 2001, the threshold had jumped from 10,000 to 50,000 members, becoming the highest in Europe. The applicant party, which had existed and participated in elections since 1990, was dissolved in 2007 following the drastic five-fold increase in the minimummembership requirement. Such a radical measure applied to a long-established and law-abiding political party could not be accepted as being ‘necessary in a democratic society’. Concerning the regional representation requirement, the Court could not see how this measure sought to achieve the legitimate aims cited by the government, namely the prevention of disorder or the protection of national security or the rights of others. In sum, the domestic courts had not adduced ‘relevant and sufficient’ reasons to justify the interference with the applicant’s right to freedom of association. Consequently, the applicant party’s dissolution for failure to comply with the requirements of minimum membership and regional representation was disproportionate to the legitimate aims cited by the government. Accordingly, there had been a violation of Article 11 of the Convention. The prohibition and dissolution of political parties as a form of disconnection with former regimes and the way to promote ideas of a certain type was widespread in Europe to such an extent that the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) adopted on 10 January 2000 the Guidelines on prohibition and dissolution of political parties and analogous measures. 976 In accordance with this document, states should recognise that everyone has the right to associate freely in political parties, including the freedom to hold political opinions and to receive and impart information without interference by a public authority. Additionally, any limitations on the exercise of the above-mentioned fundamental human rights through the activity of political parties have to be consistent, inter alia , with the relevant provisions of the Convention. Dissolution of political parties, to a large extent, was the subject matter of applications lodged under Article 11 by political parties against Turkey. 977 In a judgment delivered in the case of Freedom and Democracy Party (ÖZDEP) v. Turkey, 978 the Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 11 of the Convention. As to the facts of the case, the applicant party was dissolved on the grounds that its programme allegedly sought to undermine the territorial integrity and secular nature of the state and the unity of the nation. The party complained that its dissolution by the Turkish Constitutional Court had infringed the right of its members to freedom of association, secured by Article 11. 979 Having analysed the party’s programme, the Court did not find anything that could be considered a call for the use of violence, an 976 Guidelines on prohibition and dissolution of political parties and analogous measures adopted by the Venice Commission at its 41st plenary session (Venice, 10 – 11 December, 1999). 977 United Communist Party of Turkey, cited above; Demokratik Kitle Partisi and Elçi, cited above; Socialist Party, cited above; Socialist Party of Turkey (STP), cited above; and Refah Partisi (the Welfare Party) [GC], cited above. ALGAN, Bülent. Dissolution of Political Parties by the Constitutional Court in Turkey: An Everlasting Conflict Between the Court and the Parliament? AUHFD , 60 (4) 2011: 809-836. 978 Freedom and Democracy Party ( ÖZDEP ) [GC], cited above. 979 AROLD, Nina-Louisa. The Legal Culture of the European Court of Human Rights . Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007, p. 202.

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