Article 15: The Right to Freedom of Association and Assembly

Abstract‘What are the laws put forth by the government for those stopping us to peacefully associate ourselves in public and community places?’ (Africa)

POLITICAL PARTIES AND FREEDOM OF ASSOSIATION

The content of the constitutional right to freedom of association in political parties in Ukraine is one of the elementsof this subjective right. Traditionally, the structure of any subjective right is analyzed in the composition of the subjectsof this right, its object (objects), as well as the content, and constitutional subjective rights are not an exception to thisrule. It should be emphasized that this approach is fully justified and should be followed. In studying the content of theconstitutional right to freedom of association in political parties in Ukraine, the question of distinguishing between theconcepts of “union” and “association” arises.The relevance of the research topic is that European integration processes are currently underway in Ukraine,which provide for the harmonization of national legislation with human rights standards adopted in the EU. It is withinthese processes that the author analyzes and substantiates the need to move to a wider application of the concept of"association" in national legislation and Ukrainian legal literature.So far, experts in constitutional law have not analyzed the issue of distinguishing between the concepts of “union”and “association” in the context of the study of the right to freedom of association in political parties in Ukraine. Inthis regard, in writing the article used works devoted mainly to general issues of the theory of state and law (primarilythe development of professors Krestovskaya, Matveeva), as well as general issues of constitutional law in terms ofsubjective rights (primarily developed by professors Shapoval, Mishyna). We should also take into the account thedissertation for the degree of Candidate of Law, devoted to the constitutional right to unite in political parties, that wassubmitted by A.M. Moiseev on the materials of foreign law and case law.The author argues that the need to distinguish between the concepts of “union” and “association” in relation to theconstitutional right to freedom of association in political parties in Ukraine.The author recommends to abandon the use of the concept of “association of citizens” in favor of the concept of“association” in Art. 36-37 of the Constitution of Ukraine and bring other laws and bylaws in line with the Constitutionof Ukraine, first of all – the Law “On Political Parties in Ukraine”, where in Art. 2 “The concept of a political party”gives this definition. Prospects for further research are to use the same thesaurus used by foreign scholars working inEU countries when studying the right to freedom of association in political parties in Ukraine

The Rights of Workers, Migrant Workers and Trade Unions in the Light of the European Convention on Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights (the Court, the ECHR) has made a significantcontribution to the protection of social rights in general and labor rights in particular. The articlefocuses on four specific areas that demonstrate the richness of case-law in this area. First of all, theauthor focuses on individual issues related to the general rights of workers, drawing attention to issuesof unfair dismissal, the right to respect for private and family life, freedom of religion and freedomof expression. Secondly, the author dwells on the protection of the rights of migrant workers underthe Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Third, the articleexamines trade union rights in the light of freedom of association. Finally, reflecting the economiclandscape of the past decade, case-law is provided to demonstrate how austerity measures can affecthuman rights and how the Court has responded to this problematic issue.Social rights, including labor rights, have received many advantages from the fact that they wereconsidered in the case-law of the Court, since its practice clarified the boundaries and limited thestate’s unlimited discretion in the management of these rights. At the same time, a certain trend hasformed. If at first the protection of workers’ rights and freedoms sharply increased, which is confirmedby some textbook cases of the ECHR, now it is impossible not to notice a regressive trend that isassociated with labor legislation, expands the discretion of governments and significantly limits theeffectiveness of the Court when considering labor rights. However, this regressive trend should notbe regarded as irreversible. The article highlights how meaningful consideration of soft law principlesallows the Court to take a progressive position that promotes labor rights and how it can continueto help protect workers’ rights.

Digital Right Advocacy: Advocacy for Life in the Digital World

One of the lessons taught by the Covid 19 epidemic experience is that the world physical streets, schools, markets, places of worship and other environments for human physical interactions could self-shutdown for months in order for man to preserve its existence. As the physical world was, literarily speaking, systematically shutting down in the year 2020, due to the rapid spreading of Covid 19, the digital world was gaining momentum, more citizens and expanding its usefulness and usage. Online streets where people could meet and interest were enlarged, many schools were opened in the digital world, markets became common feature online, places of worship became normal and meetings of all kind were held online, courts proceedings, movies premiere, dating, training… life simply moved into the digital world. This actuality unlined the importance of access to internet (as the door to the digital world) and instigated this article. This library-based research examines, in the main, the correlations between the basic human rights and right of access to the digital world via the internet. The study also suggests that right of access internet access encompasses the fundamental rights of freedom information, freedom of association and other basic human rights that are constitutionally protected by domestic laws of nations. The study also takes a peep at concept tagged as Internet of things (IoT), supports the debate that digital right is a distinct right that needs specific protection and argues that digital right enjoyment and enforcement are not limited to natural persons alone. The study concludes by emphasising the need to design international legal regime that will internationally protect the all-importance digital right of citizens from domestic interference by municipal authorities of nation states.

OSTVARIVANjE PRAVA NA KOLEKTIVNO PREGOVARANjE U REPUBLICI SRBIJI

Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining are fundamental rights of workers and a means of achieving a balance between the interests of workers and employers. Through collective bargaining, the parties in the collective negotiations identify common but also mutually conflicting interests and come to a common agreement. In this sense, collective bargaining can be a means of achieving a balance between, on the one hand, employers' desire for greater flexibility at work and on the other hand, the desire of employees to adapt their obligations and needs. It is important to note that the success of collective bargaining depends largely on the economic, institutional, political and legal framework in which collective negotiations between unions and employers take place. For this reason, the level of development of collective bargaining and social dialogue is different from state to state. Today, the right to collective bargaining has become widely recognized in the academic community as a key instrument for regulating working conditions and relations between employers and workers in a way that ensures fairer distribution of funds, improves working conditions and preserves the dignity of workers,but also institutionalizes industrial conflicts.

Striking a Balance between Free Association and Regulating Membership of a ‘Community’: Exploring s 235 of the Constitution of South Africa

Section 235 of the Constitution of South Africa contains a promise of potential self-determination of language and cultural communities. An essential question arising from this promise is how an individual’s freedom of association interacts with the ability of a community to determine its membership. This article reflects on this question with reference to standards developed in international law and practices in the constitutional law of selected case studies. Whereas international law sets a universal standard of free association, states have developed practices whereby the individual’s right to free association is recognised, but where there are also some measures allowed to ensure that an individual is indeed accepted by and part of the community. Any conflicts that arise are, generally speaking, subject to a form of judicial review.

Legal Recommendations on the Establishment of Worker Representative Organization in Enterprise in Accordance with International Standards

In addition to Trade Union, from 1st January 2021, employees in Vietnam are entitled to establish and join worker representative organizations in enterprises. This is one of the new legislative developments that lack clarifying regulations . In this context, the International Labor Organization (ILO) published a Digest of decisions and principles of the Freedom of Association Committee of the Governing Body of the ILO, based on about 200 cases presented to this organization. Therefore, the research on this vital document might provide Vietnam with the opinions of international experts and practical experiences from many countries worldwide on the concerned issue for further developing regulations on freedom of association. As this is a big topic, this article only focuses on international standards on establishing worker representative organization, then comparing them with Vietnamese regulations to find out the gaps to be supplemented.

Living According to Conscience

We discuss the proposal of Chandran Kukathas engaged in one of the goals of‎liberal theories: the protection of freedom of conscience. Kukathas proposes‎the metaphor of a liberal archipelago where different communities are sovereign‎in enforcing their worldview on their territory. We share Kukathas’s‎intention to strongly protect freedom of conscience, but we think that Kukathas’s‎theory fails to adequately protect it. In Kukathas’s view, freedom of‎conscience is protected through freedom of association and the related freedom‎to exit an association. But freedom of exit, intended only as a right not‎to be coerced when one wants to leave, is insufficient. It must be sustained by‎the provision of capabilities to leave that one can exercise, as well as by capabilities‎to evaluate her condition. We discuss, then, a more promising proposal‎of an egalitarian libertarian archipelago proposed by Michael Otsuka. After‎explaining why this system isn’t sufficiently stable, we conclude that the constitutional‎egalitarian liberal state is a better candidate.‎