Ministry of Interior - letter of dissolvering

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Vytvořeno 30. 1. 2007

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"According to the stipulation of § 12 par. 3 letter c) of Act no 83/1990 Coll., on association of citizens, in the version of later regulations (hereinafter referred to as "Act on association"), the Ministry of Interior hereby dissolves the civic association under the name Communist Youth Union based at Politických vězňů 9, 111 21, Praha 1."

Ministry of Interior
Department of Elections and Association
140 21 Praha 4, náměstí Hrdinů 3
___________________________________________________________________________
Ref.: VS-6590/SDR/1-2006 Prague, October 12th, 2006

Decision

According to the stipulation of § 12 par. 3 letter c) of Act no 83/1990 Coll.,
on association of citizens, in the version of later regulations (hereinafter referred to as
"Act on association"), the Ministry of Interior hereby

dissolves

the civic association under the name Communist Youth Union based at Politických
vězňů 9, 111 21, Praha 1.

Grounds of the decision

Based on § 12 par. 3 of the Act on association, the Communist Youth Union
(Hereinafter referred to as "KSM") was summoned by a letter from the Ministry of
Interior (hereinafter referred to as "ministry") dated November 25th, 2005, Ref no. VS-
7398/SDR/1-2005, to discontinue its non-allowed activity in accordance with the
wording of the § 4 of the Act on association, and to inform the ministry on the related
measures taken within December 31st, 2005. The ministry decided to summon the
KSM after having had obtained an incentive notifying it about KSM’s activity, in
particular data presented by KSM on its web pages. Based on consequential request
of KSM concerning extension of such term justified by the need to discuss the whole
matter within the relevant KSM bodies in accordance with its statutes, the term was extended to March 3rd, 2006.

The mentioned summon was implemented in relevance with the notification of
KSM by the ministry that the intentions of KSM’s activity published on the above
stated web pages are in collision with § 1 Par. 3 of the Act on association, based on
which this law does non relate to grouping of citizens in political parties or political
movements, which makes it a non-allowed association in accordance with § 4 letter b)
of the Act on association, for it follows achieving its goals by means that are in
collision with the constitution and the laws, and furthermore with the fact described in
§ 4 letter a) of the Act on association stating, among other, that associations aiming to
deny or to restrict personal, political or other civic rights related to their nationality, sex,
race, origin, political or other thinking, religion and social position, ignite hatred and
xenophobia resulting from these reasons, support violence or otherwise violate the
constitution and the laws. The above mentioned conclusion of the ministry was made
in relation with a KSM’s document originally named "Political program of KSM"
which content involved:
"KSM strives for revolutionary overcoming of capitalism and establishing of
economic - removal of private ownership of means of production and its replacement
with collective ownership of means of production - and social - implementation of socialist democracy - conditions for building of socialism as the first stage towards creating of the communist society, the building of which is the ultimate goal.
[... ]
KSM is well aware of the fact that capitalism cannot be just reformed.
Therefore KSM fights for revolutionary defeat of the capitalist order by the working
masses".
In reaction to the summons of the ministry, KSM reacted by a statement dated
February 28th 2006, annex of which was the updated wording of the "Political
program of KSM" concerning a change in its title into "Program of KSM" and
replacement of wordings "KSM strives for a revolutionary defeat of capitalism..."
and "KSM therefore fights for revolutionary overcoming of capitalism... ", and "KSM
therefore stands by the side of efforts of revolutionary overcoming of capitalism...". In this
context KSM stated that in spite of its non-identification with the objections of the
ministry it carried out specification of the mentioned document, so that it does not
allow the ministry for an ambiguous interpretation.
After the examination of the submitted "Program of KSM" the ministry reached a conclusion that KSM did not react in full extent to the summons of the ministry, and therefore proceedings on its dissolving have been commenced in accordance with § 12 Par. 3 of the Act on association. KSM was notified on the commencement of the proceedings by a letter from the ministry dated July 20th, 2006 stating that KSM is entitled to acquaint itself with the ground papers of the decision in accordance with § 36 Par. 3 of the Administrative order, and to give its opinion on the mentioned ground papers, until August 4th, 2006. In relation with the stated above, KSM was on its request provided with the copy of a part of the documents on July31st, 2006. Based on KSM’s statement to the case dated August 3rd, 2006 containing also a request on extension of the term for giving its opinion, the ministry decided on August 10th, 2006 to adjourn the proceedings until the date of September 4th, 2006.
KSM’s opinion was delivered to the ministry on September 6th, 2006. The opinion states that the commenced proceedings are deemed unjustified with a simultaneously made request to stop the proceedings mentioning the repeated enclosed standpoint of KSM dated August 3rd, 2006, which states the following:
"The conclusion used by the Ministry of Interior of the Czech
Republic resulting from the ground papers of its decision that KSM tries for "other
ways of establishing the political representation of the state", is a conclusion of the
Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic: it is possible to state, that if anyone tries
for other ways of establishing of the political representation and the process of
establishing conforms to the democratic and legal state, with the up-to-date
constitutional order, it is not an illegal activity. Also, it is not the KSM’s goal to
participate in the elections, on top of this; there is not a relevant legal proof which part
of the KSM statutes or of the Program of KSM was supposed to represent the strive for activity reserved for political parties or movements.". It is stated that "no such stipulation
exists in the statutes and Program of KSM ". Furthermore, with the reference to the
statutes, which, in the KSM’s opinion is the only document that should be examined, it is objected that KSM does not strive by its program for restriction of rights, promotion of
xenophobia, etc., because the goal of KSM is the opposite - the actual spreading of the
fulfilment of all rights and freedoms," with the stated fact that "there is no mention
about proclaiming violence anywhere in the KSM´s document. KSM refuses
calling for any other struggle but political." At the same time, reaction is given to the
academic standpoints of the Institute of the State and Law of the Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic, West Bohemian University in Plzeň and the
Political scientist PhDr. Zdeněk Zbořil, required by the ministry. In this context, the
elaborator of the opinion of the State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the
Czech Republic was marked as biased with stating the fact that it is his personal
opinion and not the opinion of the Institute that was submitted.
Under the circumstances when the "Program of KSM ", on the ground of
which the proceedings on dissolving KSM were commenced, was not changed, even
though it could have been carried out so in connection with the adjournment of the
proceedings, the ministry release of the decision on dissolving KSM is based on the
following considerations.
The initial part of the "Program of KSM ", paragraph 2, states the
following:
"KSM stands by the side of the efforts of revolutionary overcoming
of capitalism and establishing of economic - removal of private ownership of
means of production and its replacement with collective ownership of means of production - and social - implementation of socialist democracy - conditions for building of socialism as the first stage towards creating of the communist society, the building of which is the ultimate goal. These efforts are expressed by the title of the organization, where the meaning
of term communist is perceived as a name for a vision of future highly organized non-class
society, where the administration over the people is replaced with free
administration of matters and management of production processes, where the
comprehensive and free development of every individual represents the fundament for
free development of all. In such society the life of a person shall not be realized on the
account of other people, nor on the account of the environment."
Firstly, it is necessary to draw the attention to the fact, that in
accordance with the stipulation § 12 Par 3 of the Act on association, it is the activity of
the civic association and not the wording of its statutes, that is decisive for the
implementation of the actions of the ministry. And as such, even the public
presentation of its program specifying the general stipulations of the statutes, should
be treated in the same way. Should this not be the case, the stipulation of § 4 of the
Act on association itself would be negated, which explicitly rules out achievement of
goals that, among others, violate the constitution and the laws with the fact, that such
civic association is not allowed. The ministry therefore dealt with the above
mentioned selected formulations in the "Program of KSM", which henceforth allows for
involvement of KSM into activities irreconcilable with the protection of right of every
individual guaranteed in Article 11 Par. 1 of the Charter of fundamental rights and
freedoms (hereinafter referred to as "Charter"). Signing in for the efforts aiming
towards denial of the right of private ownership of means of production, is irreconcilable
with the elementary democratic principles. As it results from the Article 9 Par. 2 of
the Constitution of the Czech Republic, the change of substantial pertinences of the
democratic legal state, the attributes of which include the protection of rights and
freedoms of the human and the citizen in accordance with Article 1 of the
Constitution of the Czech Republic, is inadmissible. Based on these facts it is
necessary to rule out the efforts of any subject which would be a violation of the
above mentioned constitution amendment resulting, among other, from the principles
expressed in the European Agreement on Human Rights and Elementary Freedoms.
Therefore it is impossible to accept the standpoint of the KSM, according to which the
changes in the society organization should take place democratically in accordance
with the up-to-date legal order, bearing in mind that KSM keeps on denying to call
for any other struggle than political struggle. The efforts for changes carried out by the above
mentioned methods are legal only in case these do not attack against any of the
elementary principles protected by international laws and constitutional order.
If KSM argues by stating that its intentions relate only to the
ownership of the means of production and not to the ownership taken complexly, for when it speak about the collective ownership of the means of production,
it means the means of production necessary and decisive for the development of the
society, on the extent of and forms of which it would be democratically
decided in accordance with the legal order, it is not taken into consideration that the right in the meaning of Article 11 Par. I of the Charter covers all the property regardless of its
character, i.e. also regardless on whether it is a private ownership of means of production
or not. Therefore it is out of question to take into consideration "removal of private
ownership of means of production and its replacement with collective ownership".
Although the applied interpretation of KSM does not
have, based on ministry’s opinion, any influence on other evaluation of the matter
than the above mentioned one, for completeness sake it is noted that only the text of
the examined document that is in the given case entirely unambiguous, should be
considered decisive.
The intention explicitly expressed in the "Program of KSM" is
therefore in collision with § 4 letter a) of the Act on association, according to which,
associations aiming to otherwise violate the constitution and the laws, are not
allowed.
Under these circumstances it is necessary, in accordance
with Article 20 Par 3 of the Charter according to which the execution of the association
right can be restricted in cases stipulated by the law, should that be necessary in the
democratic society in order to protect the rights and freedoms of the others, to decide
in a way described in the wording of the decision and to dissolve KSM.
As far as the objection of KSM not reasoned in detail is
concerned, which marked the elaborator of the opinion of the Institute of the State and
Law of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic as being biased, the ministry
declares that such opinion is not an expert’s opinion in accordance with the meaning
of § 56 of the Administrative order, but an academic standpoint requested with the
regard to the considered reasons of the ministry itself concerning the dissolution of
KSM. The implementation of the institution of the "exclusion from the proceedings
and decision on the matter" in accordance with § 14 Par 7 of the Administrative order
was therefore groundless.
Instruction: It is possible to file an action at the Municipal Court in Prague against this
decision within the period of 30 days from its delivery.

JUDr. Daria Benešová
Head of Department of Elections and Association

Stamp of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic

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