NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

CoE, which are on a list drawn up for this purpose by the Governmental Committee of the Charter, 123 belong to the third group . The last, fourth group , has its specifics as it concerns only the states, which in accordance with Article 2 of the Additional Protocol to the Charter, made a special declaration in respect of national NGOs. 124 Such states must declare that they recognise the right of a national non-governmental organisation within its jurisdiction, which has particular competence in the matters governed by the Charter, to lodge complaints against it. The position of the first group is quite clear. Only the three mentioned organisations belong to it.The status of the second and the third groups depends on national legislation of the parties to the Charter. The second group includes only employers’ organisations and trade unions, which is very restricted. As to the third group, the international non governmental organisations, they have to fulfil the conditions stated in paragraph 20 of the Explanatory Report to the Additional Protocol providing for a system of collective complaints. First of all they have to apply for a participatory status and “each application must be supported by detailed and accurate documentation aiming to show in particular that the INGO has access to authoritative sources of information and is able to carry out the necessary verifications, to obtain appropriate legal opinions, etc., in order to draw up complaint files that meet basic requirements of reliability”. 125 In the Explanatory Report, 126 we may find an additional clarification of what the Charter means by ‘INGOs’, explicitly, those are organisations who “consider themselves particularly competent in any of the matters governed by the Charter”. 127 It means that only NGOs, which have comptences in a study area may be considered suitable. It is unclear, whether business corporations may satisfy this condition. As to political parties, there is a requirement that they should be national in scope. 128 Consequently, they cannot be regarded as intenational NGOs. 129 The last fourth group contains national NGOs, which have particular competence in the matters governed by the Charter. It may signify that business entities and political parties are excluded from this group, as they probably will not have sufficient 123 List established by the Governmental Committee following the decision of the Committee of Ministers on 22 June 1995. The list of 1 January 2014 is available from URL: accessed 16 February 2015. 124 At the moment, national NGOs may lodge complaints only against Finland.The Kingdom of the NetherlandshasdeclaredthatitacceptstheProtocolfortheKingdominEurope,howeverwithoutfurther clarifications in respect of NGOs. List of declarations is available from URL: accessed 20 July 2015. 125 Explanatory report to the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter providing for a system of collective complaints. URL: < http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/en/Reports/Html/158.htm> accessed 20 July 2015. 126 Ibid. 127 Explanatory report to the Additional Protocol to the European Social Charter, cited above. 128 The Court recognised reasonable a ban on financing of a French political party by a foreign political party in the case of Parti nationaliste basque – Organisation régionale d’Iparralde v. France , no. 71251/01, ECHR 2007-II. 129 Theories exist on a need to create international political party, but they are not efficient at the moment.

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