NGOs under European Convention on Human Rights / Tymofeyeva

engage in any lawful economic, business or commercial activities in order to support their not-for-profit activities without any special authorisation being required, but subject to any licensing or regulatory requirements generally applicable to the activities concerned. 136 An additional explanation of Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14 elucidates that NGOs encompass bodies or organisations established both by individual persons (natural or legal) and by groups of such persons. 137 This illuminates that the subject ‘group of individuals’ in Article 34 of the Convention may be absorbed by the phrase ‘non-governmental organisation’. Such NGOs can be either membership or non membership based. The specific formal existence requirement is of key importance. According to Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14, NGOs can be either informal bodies or organisations or ones which have legal personality. 138 Consequently, legal registration is not required. The Recommendation also specifies that NGOs can be national or international in their composition and sphere of operation. Accordingly, it does not make a distinction between pure NGOs and INGOs. The document also highlights the condition that NGOs should not be subject to direction by public authorities. 139 Although Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14 on the legal status of non governmental organisations in Europe is not binding on the CoE member states, in view of the absence of a more specific definition in the other CoE treaties, it can be expected that the Council of Europe bodies will take this instrument into consideration. On the basis of the explanation given in Recommendation CM/ Rec(2007)14 and the other CoE instruments, it is possible to summarise common features of the term ‘NGO’, which are as follows . It is a non-profit-making organisation, which follows the aims in compliance with the CoE treaties and has a particular competence in this field. NGOs do not include political parties, trade unions, organisation of employers and INGOs. They must be independent from state authorities, but this does not mean that they disobey national law. The formal existence of an NGO is not required. The other European human rights mechanisms At this point, we will have a look at how the term ‘NGO’ is understood in the human rights documents of the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. This part of the book will cover only the basic human rights instruments of these intergovernmental organisations, starting with the OSCE. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe is the largest regional security institution in the world with headquarters in Vienna. 140 The OSCE was formerly known as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe 141

136 Paragraph 14 of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14, ibid . 137 Paragraph 2 of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14, ibid . 138 Paragraph 3 of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14, ibid . 139 Paragraph 6 of the Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)14, ibid . 140 See < http://www.osce.org/who> accessed 20 July 2015. 141 TOMUSCHAT, 2008, cited above, p. 164.

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