On the 18th of October the European Court of Human Rights passed a judgement against Bulgaria and found violation on the freedom of assembly and association. The violation is related to the refusals by the Bulgarian authorities' to register an association (United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden) and a political party (UMO Ilinden-Pirin), and to allow peaceful rallies by supporters of the two organizations.
In particular, the courts refused to register UMO Ilinden as an association, citing three main reasons:
- the organisation professed separatist ideas
- it had political aims
- and the number of members on its managing council was not in conformity with the legal requirements.
The European Court of Human Rights had already found in previous judgments in respect of Bulgaria that professing separatist ideas and pursuing political aims did not amount to sufficient grounds to refuse the registration of an organisation. As regards the third reason advanced by the Bulgarian courts the Court found that it was too insignificant as a defect to amount in itself to grounds to refuse registration.