De-registration of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights
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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 09:37:28 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: De-registration of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Britt Elliott <[email protected]>
De-registration of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights
This message recently appeared on another listserv. It concerns the
recent de-registration of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights by
Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Justice. The message begins with a quote
from a local newspaper, and then offers KCHR's response.
Britt Elliott
Human Rights Internet
[email protected]
-----Original Message-----
From: Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights <[email protected]>
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Date: October 1, 1998 10:55 AM
Kyrgyz Committee's for Human Rights was banned from its
registration
This morning two pro-governmental newspapers (Utro Bishkeka and Slovo
Kyrgyzstana) reported that Chamber of the Ministry of Justice banned
the registration of the Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights. The text
of the article published in "Utro Bishkeka" follows:
TEXT OF ARTICLE:
** By the decision of the Chamber of the Ministry of Justice of the
Kyrgyz Republic a decree #755 "On Approval of the Charter of the
Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights (KCHR)" was annulled. However, the
reason for exemption of the registration certificate of this
well-known organization led by famous public figure Ramazan Dyryldaev
was not opposition to authorities.
Way back in the beginning of the current year Prosecutor General filed
a protest with the Ministry of Justice, which stated that founders of
KCHR breached Article 8 part 3 of the Law on Public Associations
("Initiators of a public association call the founding general meeting
(conference), on which the Charter (Articles or other relevant act of
law) is adopted and governing body of the organization is formed").
These violations were revealed by the Office of Prosecutor General
when investigating materials for the criminal case against former
vice-chairman of KCHR S. Botaliev on charger of Article 87 of the
Criminal Code.
It was found that many of the members of the association, marked in
the minutes as participants of the founding general meeting, were
actually absent or left the conference hall in the beginning of the
meeting. Those present allege that they discussed the issue of the
Charter only, and did not discuss the issue of formation of the of the
governing body of the organization at all. According to the
Prosecutor General office, this is an evidence of the violation of the
relevant article of the law. ** (end of
article)
KCHR RESPONDS:
Until now, KCHR did not receive any official document supporting this
decision of the Chamber of the Ministry of Justice. A worker of KCHR
requested the document from the registrar office in the Ministry of
Justice, he was denied one because he "did not have a trust deed".
KCHR was never informed of the possible annulling the registration.
Decision of the Chamber was rendered without presence of the
Committee�s members. Meanwhile Article 5 of the Law on Public
Associations states that "State institutions are not entitled to
interfere into internal affairs of a public organization". Article 8
(clause 1) of the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic states "In
Kyrgyz Republic political parties, trade unions and other public
associations can be formed on grounds of free will and community of
interests."
We workers and activists of KCHR believe that this action is a direct
backstroke to activities of the organization: monitoring human rights
violation in Kyrgyzstan for international community, openly protesting
illegal actions of authorities and expressing opinion not conforming
with the official opinion, directly interfering into cases of human
rights violations with a focus on cases of violations of rights of
journalists and political opponents, and other activities.
Banning KCHR from its registration is a perfect way to prevent KCHR
activists from observing the upcoming presidential referendum which is
tentatively scheduled on October 17, 1998. KCHR was about to file a
proposal to include its members into special observing commissions as
they have a rich experience of independent observers on various
elections and referendums. As members of election commissions they
prevented a many violations of electoral rights, and brought cases of
breaching the rights before Central Electoral Commission and reported
them to international human rights organizations. Back in 1995, Kyrgyz
Rights Protecting movement (the previous name of KCHR) was also banned
from its registration, right before Presidential elections, where
members of the Committee were appointed as independent observers. As a
result members of the organization could not participate in the
elections. Later, the Kyrgyz Rights Protecting Movement was renamed
into Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights. We think that similarities of
these two cases are more than obvious and speak for themselves.
Workers of neighboring offices in the building where KCHR is located
often report that people (some of them in militia uniform) come up to
them and ask certain questions about KCHR and its workers. This case
is another evidence that authorities are well aware about all
activities of the organization.
As mentioned above, KCHR was not given any official statement about
annulling its registration. Until then, the organization will function
in its previous volume and pace.
Ramazan Dyryldaev
Kyrgyz Committee for Human Rights
Chairman Ramazan Dyryldaev
Kievskaya St 96-A
apt 713-714
Bishkek 720030, Kyrgyzstan
Tel: 996-3312- 66-13-42
Fax: 996-3312-66-01-83
--
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