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Association: are there restrictions of the of the freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association for minorities

Code:
RED116
Key Area:
Public Life, Culture, Sport & Media
Strand(s):
Discrimination, Equality
24/02/2012 - 21:36
Short Answer

Officially no, but in practice yes.

Qualitative Info

The right to peaceful assembly is protected by art. 11 and the right to association by the art. 12 of the Constitution.

Nevertheless, the ECRI fourth report on Greece, noted that there serious shortcomings and obstacles by the state towards the recognition of identity and setting the conditions for the exercise of the freedom of association by minority groups in Greece. In particular, the ECRI reported that ‘representatives of the Macedonian community have expressed their feelings of discrimination, inter alia, as concerns the use of their names in their own language and failure to bring cases of hate speech in the media against Macedonians to court. Representatives of the Turkish community in Western Thrace have also stated that recognition of their identity is among the most important problems they face along with education and the right to religious freedom.

In addition, the UN CERD expressed its concern about the obstacles encountered by some ethnic groups in exercising the freedom of association and noted the forced dissolution and refusal to register some associations including words such as “minority”, “Turkish” or “Macedonian”. The CERD in its 2009 report on Greece recommended that the State party ‘adopt measures to ensure the effective enjoyment by persons belonging to every community or group of their right to freedom of association and of their cultural rights, including the use of mother languages’.

Data
Groups affected/interested Ethnic minorities, Religious minorities, Linguistic minorities
Type (R/D)
Key socio-economic / Institutional Areas Culture, Political participation, Daily life
External Url http://www.hellenicparliament.gr/UserFiles/8c3e9046-78fb-48f4-bd82-bbba28ca1ef5/SYNTAGMA.pdf; http://hudoc.ecri.coe.int/XMLEcri/ENGLISH/Cycle_04/04_CbC_eng/GRC-CbC-IV-2009-031-ENG.pdf; http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.GRC.19EN.doc
Situation(s)
Library