UNITED MACEDONIAN ORGANISATION ILINDEN AND OTHERS v. BULGARIA and 9 other applications

Published on 26 February 2024

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 8026/19
United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden and Others against Bulgaria
and 9 other applications
(see appended list)
communicated on 7 February 2024

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

1.  These ten applications concern ten successive refusals of the Bulgarian Registry Agency, dating from the period between June 2018 and February 2023, to enter the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden (“Ilinden”) – or, in four of the applications, Ilinden’s chapters in Blagoevgrad and Plovdiv – in the register of non-profit organisations kept by that Agency. By section 6(1) of the Bulgarian Non-Profit Legal Persons Act 2000, such registration is a prerequisite for a non-profit organisation to acquire legal personality.

2.  Ilinden advocates the view that there exists an oppressed Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and seeks to protect its rights.

3.  Ilinden’s successive chairpersons (respectively the chairpersons of its chapters) sought judicial review of each of the ten refusals, but the competent courts upheld all of them. In eight cases the final court of appeal was the Sofia Court of Appeal, and in two cases it was the Plovdiv Court of Appeal. In some cases, those courts pointed to formal deficiencies in Ilinden’s registration documents. In other cases, they stated that Ilinden’s aims, as set out in its articles of association, implied that there existed an oppressed Macedonian ethnic minority in Bulgaria, and held that the creation of an association having such aims was directed against the unity of the nation and was meant to stir up ethnic hatred, contrary to the prohibition in Article 44 § 2 of the Bulgarian Constitution. In one case, the Plovdiv Court of Appeal held that Ilinden’s aims, as set out in its articles of association, were political, and that it hence had to seek registration as a political party rather than an association – since by Article 12 § 2 of the Constitution associations could not pursue political aims or carry out political activities. In another case, the Sofia Court of Appeal held that since Ilinden’s stated aims and activities were directed towards an undefined category of people, it could not obtain registration as an association in private interest but had to seek registration as an association in public interest instead.

4.  In each of the ten applications, Ilinden, its successive chairpersons (respectively the chairpersons of its chapters), and, in one case, members of its managing board complain under Article 11 of the Convention of the respective refusals to register Ilinden.

5.  In eight applications (nos. 15845/21, 47911/21, 29253/22, 57686/22, 57690/22, 23329/23, 34534/23 and 39017/23), they also complain under Article 14 of the Convention taken together with Article 11 of the Convention that those refusals were motivated – some implicitly and some overtly – by the Macedonian ethnic identity of Ilinden’s founders.

6.  In one application (no. 40644/23), they further complain under Article 18 of the Convention that the real reason for the one of the refusals to register Ilinden – which was in that case based on its failure to seek registration as an association in public interest – was to deny the Macedonian ethnic identity of its founders.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1.  Has there been a breach of the applicants’ right to freedom of association, contrary to Article 11 of the Convention? In particular, were the ten refusals to register Ilinden “prescribed by law” and “necessary in a democratic society” for the attainment of one or more of the aims set out in Article 11 § 2, in the light of, in particular, the reasons given to uphold those refusals by the final courts of appeal hearing the legal challenges against them – the Sofia Court of Appeal in eight of the cases and the Plovdiv Court of Appeal in two of the cases (see, mutatis mutandis, United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden-PIRIN and Others v. Bulgaria (no. 2), nos. 41561/07 and 20972/08, § 80, 18 October 2011)?

2.  Did the refusal to register Ilinden at issue in application no. 40644/23 pursue a purpose other than those envisaged by Article 11 of the Convention, contrary to Article 18 of the Convention?

APPENDIX

[1]  Mr Yordan Ivanov died on 23 August 2019.

[2]  Mr Tilev says that he is a national of both Bulgaria and North Macedonia.