As Yury Chavusaw, the Assembly's legal expert, told BelaPAN, all documents needed for registration were submitted to the ministry on January 14.

"We understand that a decision on the registration of the Assembly of Pro-Democratic Non-Governmental Organizations has a political subtext rather than a legal one. But considering that Syarhey Matskevich, chairman of the Assembly's working group, has been elected speaker of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, there are no grounds to deny recognition to the Assembly," he said.

The Assembly's founding organizations include the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, the Human Rights Center, an organization called Supolnasts and Syamya, an association of families with three and more children resident in the Verkhnyadzvinsk district in northwestern Belarus.
The Assembly of Pro-Democratic Non-Governmental Organizations held a repeat founding conference in Minsk this past December, eight months after a registration denial by the justice ministry.

Explaining the registration denial in April 2009, the ministry said that the Assembly's founding agreement was invalid because it had been signed without the consent of the governing bodies of the member organizations.

The ministry also pointed out that the association's name and declared goals did not reflect the member organizations' agenda.

The Assembly of Pro-Democratic Non-Governmental Organizations made its first attempt to obtain legal status in 2002. The justice ministry then rejected the registration application 18 months after it had been submitted.

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