Fwd: GHM/MRG-G: Statement at the OSCE on Freedom of Association of Macedonian Minorities
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Subject: Fwd: GHM/MRG-G: Statement at the OSCE on Freedom of Association of Macedonian Minorities
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Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
Fwd: GHM/MRG-G: Statement at the OSCE on Freedom of
Association of Macedonian Minorities
GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM)
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE (MRG - G)
Address: P.O. Box 60820, 15304 Glyka Nera
Telephone: (+30-1) 347.22.59. Fax: (+30-1) 601.87.60.
e-mail: [email protected] website: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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STATEMENT ON BULGARIA AND GREECE
AT THE 2000 OSCE IMPLEMENTATION MEETING
20 October 2000
Freedom of Association of Macedonian Minorities
Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Greece have for
years worked on human rights and in particular on minority rights in
Southeast Europe. The concerns below reflect their related work, but
also the views of the International Helsinki Federation, the Bulgarian
Helsinki Committee, and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the
Republic of Macedonia.
On 29 February 2000, the Constitutional Court declared a
Macedonian-based political party OMO "Ilinden" - PIRIN
unconstitutional. This decision is in violation of the right to
freedom of association and the right to freedom from discrimination
and could lead to an effective ban on the party, deprivation of its
juridical person status, confiscation of its property and the
impossibility to take part in elections.
The Constitutional Court was petitioned a year ago by a group of MPs,
mainly from the Bulgarian Socialist Party (former communists) along
with several non-communist nationalistic MPs. The petition asked the
court to declare the party unconstitutional, alleging a threat to
national security in Bulgaria. The cabinet and several government
ministries subsequently supported the petition. OMO "Ilinden" - PIRIN
was registered as a political party in 1999 and took part in the
municipal elections in October 1999, when it elected five local
officials. It was registered as an all-Bulgarian political party, as
the Bulgarian constitution prohibits the formation of political
parties along ethnic and religious lines. Nevertheless, it drew its
support mainly from ethnic Macedonians (more than 10,800 people
according to the 1992 census).
The Bulgarian government has never recognized Macedonian identity and
has undertaken a variety of repressive measures to suppress its free
expression, both before and after the fall of communism. A number of
human rights organizations, both in Bulgaria and abroad, have
expressed concerns that the motive of the Constitutional Court in the
present case was the fact that it regarded the party as a threat to
the national security of Bulgaria because some of its members have
made separatist statements in the past. The party itself has never
made any separatist statements; it declared in the beginning that it
would respect the constitutional and legal system of Bulgaria and
carry out its political activities peacefully.
In fact, the decision of the Constitutional Court revives
communist-era theories that not only the actions, but also the
thoughts and statements of political groups and leaders could be
subject to scrutiny and repression. It is also discriminatory as there
are a number of monarchist political parties in the Republic of
Bulgaria with expressly anti-constitutional views and yet they operate
freely and routinely take part in elections.
This case has striking similarities with that of the Greek-based
Macedonian association "Home of Macedonian Culture." Greece's past
refusal to register it, on grounds similar to those for the OMO
"Ilinden" - PIRIN ban, led to a ECHR conviction in 1998 for violation
of freedom of association. Two years later, the Home had not been able
to register as all lawyers of the district of Florina, where the seat
of the association is, had refused to process the registration before
the courts. And, in Greece, an association cannot register without a
local lawyer's services�
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GHM Board: Panayote Dimitras, Dionysis Gousetis, Dimitrina Petrova,
Alan Phillips, Gregory Vallianatos.
MRG-G Executive Committee: Mehmet Dukkanci, Nafsika Papanikolatos.
International Advisory Committee: Savvas Agouridis, Teuta Arifi, Ivo
Banac, Vladimir Bilandzic, Marcel Courthiade, Loring Danforth, Fernand
de Varennes, Eran Fraenkel, Victor-Yves Ghebali, Henri Giordan,
Krassimir Kanev, Will Kymlicka, Remzi Lani, Theodore S. Orlin,
Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Aaron Rhodes, Patrick Thornberry,
Stefan Troebst, Boris Tsilevich, Tibor Varady.
Affiliation to International Organizations: Consortium of Minority
Resources (COMIR), European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), International
Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX), International Helsinki
Federation for Human Rights (IHF), Minority Rights Group International
(MRGI).
--
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