The Human Rights and Press Monitoring Public Union filed a lawsuit against the Justice Ministry of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic for refusing to register the union. Specifically, despite the fact that 3 months have passed since the organization appealed to the ministry for registration, no response has been given, Union co-founders Hakimeldostu Mehdiyev and Elman Abbasov told the Institute for Reporters’ Freedom and Safety (IRFS).
Abbasov said that they have submitted all the documents required by law and all the documents satisfy the legislation.
“By not considering our appeal within the period defined by the law, the Ministry of Justice violated our right to association, which is defined by Article 58 in the Azerbaijani Constitution. Further, for not returning the documents of the Public Union within the period defined by Article 8 of Law on State Registration of Legal Entities, the Ministry of Justice should have granted the state registration certificate to the union. But, apparently, the Ministry roughly violated the law requirements and didn’t respond to the appeal at all,” said Abbasov.
No one in the Justice Ministry of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic commented on the public union’s registration problem.
The Human Rights and Press Monitoring Public Union was founded on May 5th, 2010 and documents were submitted to the Ministry of Justice for registration on May 20th, 2010.