The parliament will toughen the law on political parties
The House of Representatives will examine amendments to the laws on political parties and public associations.
The House of Representatives is planning to scrutinize the draft law “On the introduction of amendments into certain laws of the Republic of Belarus on the issues of the activities of political parties and other public associations” in the first reading of the spring session.
The draft law’s biggest surprise is for the organizations, which get registered as international outside Belarus. For example, Legal Assistance to Citizens and the Union Charnobyl Belarus are registered in the Ukraine, Independent Institute for Social Economic and Political Studies – in Lithuania, Young Front – in Czech Republic, Zavtra Tvoey Strany reports.
The introduction is intended of such a term as an affiliate of an international public association and its status.
As the experts note, such affiliates are created for the representation of an international organization’s interests on the territory of Belarus and carry out their activities exclusively here, which should be aligned with a status at the level of republic, not the international level as it is provided by the actual legislation. An international organization registered in Lithuania will have to additionally register an affiliate in Belarus. Otherwise it will be considered that such an organization is not legal on our territory and its founders will be responsible under the article 193-1 of the Criminal Code, which provides for criminal responsibility for acting on behalf of an unregistered organization.
The draft law foresees also that if a political party, public association or their unions repeatedly fail to submit annual information reports on their activities to respective agencies, it may serve a ground for elimination.
