Brest authorities refuse to register NGO because of its name

Main Department of Justice of the Brest Regional Executive Committee refused to register the educational association "Brest Christian Democrats". According to the reply, received by Chairman of the organizing committee of the NGO Dzmitry Shurkhai , the lawyers of the executive committee are of the opinion that the organization name does not meet the definition of a public association.

The response states that the word "Christian" can be used in the name of a religious organization that seeks to educational activities in the field of Christian faith and the word "Democrats" can be used a part of the name of a political party.

The Department of Justice also reported that according to the laws a public association is "a voluntary association of citizens for joint realization of civil, social, cultural and other rights , but not for the exercise of freedom of conscience or political programs".

It should be added that the previous attempt to register the Brest Christian Democrats also was unsuccessful, partly due to the fact that the initiators of the public association didn't receive the consent of the "registration authority" for its title. At that time the dissent of the justice department was allegedly caused by adiscrepancy between the Russian and the Belarusian versions of the organization name: ("Brest Christian Democrats" and "Berastse Christian Democrats" respectively).