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Newsletter 2010

April 7th to 11th
From the 7th to the 11th of April, a Meeting of Christian Lawyers and Religious Liberty Experts in Europe took place in Istanbul, Turkey, during the 7th European Religious Liberty Forum. 32 delegates from 22 countries including attended. A special attention was paid by non-EU colleagues to the ERLF and workshop on EU structures (main institutions and interaction between their bodies) and EU policy towards non-EU member states. A decision was taken to further develop the subject during the next Forums. The program of the Forum focused on the stance of religious liberty in Belarus, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan and legal analysis was made of the case “Lautsi vs. Italy” appealed to the Grand Chamber of ECHR by Italy, the new bill for the Equal Treatment European Directive and the 2009 new Azerbaijani Law for re-registration of religious denominations.

May 23rd to 27th
From the 23rd to the 27th of May, the annual European Leadership Forum will take place in Eger, Hungary under the aegis of CARE. CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) is a well established NGO with special consultative status at the UN that undertakes a variety of social caring and educational programs. It runs the Politics and Society Track which will focus on religious liberty this year and Mr. Popov is going to feature as a speaker with experience in the field. He will thereby having breakfast with lawyers and law students attending to share with them the mission and vision of Advocates Europe.

June 10th to 12th
From the 10th to the 12th of June, a Conference Anti-Corruption will take place in Sunny Beach, Bulgaria. It has been undertaken by the National Association municipal clerks in Bulgaria. The theme is going to center around prevention and fight against corruption in the judiciary system and a special attention will be paid to certain aspects such as: control mechanisms on administration work, other countries examples of the appliance of the procedure to respond to an invitation to tender, as well as verifications of the conflicts of interests in Inspectors’ work and so on. The Association asked the RLI to take part and to recruit relevant speakers in the field from other countries.

September
The next AE leadership meeting of AE is scheduled to 10-11 of September in Minsk, Belarus.

24th and 25th
AI Global Task Force Conference on the Integrity under the Rule of Law and Fight against Corruption will take place during 24-25th of September in Sofia, Bulgaria. The AE, sister organization of AI, is leading this Project of Global Task Force assigned to them by Advocates International. Experts, lawyers and organizations in the field from all around Europe and the world will attend the event. The two-day long Seminar is expecting specialists to contribute by sharing their own national battles. This event is going to mark the early beginning of the following venture engaged by Advocates Europe.

 
Events and Activities

2001

  • 1st Conference of AE in Portugal. The establishment of the organization was officially announced.

2002

  • 2nd European Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, 200 participants from 18 countries.

2003

  • 1st and 2nd Balkan Conferences, Sofia, 5 countries represented.
  • National Conference was held in Sofia, Bulgaria on the Bulgarian Law on Religion with international participation from 5 countries.

2004

  • 3rd Balkan Conference – Nish, Serbia and Montenegro, 34 participants from 6 countries.
  • 1st European Religious Liberty Forum (ERLF), Sofia, Bulgaria, 11 participants from 5 countries.
  • The Bulgarian Orthodox Church Case in Strasbourg – in July, 2004, a persecutor’s order was issued which forcefully drove out from 250 places of worship all Orthodox priests and people from the so called “Alternative Synod”. Some of them were also beaten and a total of 74 claims were submitted to the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg.
  • Kosovo Law on Religion – Delegation of AE visited Kosovo and submitted a statement on Kosovo Law on Religion. Later all remarks from this statement were taken in consideration from the government of Kosovo.

2005

  • A delegation from Kosovo government visited the office of AE in Sofia, and Bulgarian Parliament to take consultations for the law reform in Kosovo.
  • 2nd ERLF, Prague, Czech Republic, 19 participants from 9 countries.
  • AE submitted a statement on the Draft Law on Religion in Albania.
  • AE submitted a statement on the Draft Law on Religion in Moldova.
  • Pastor Ake Green case – AE submitted amicus brief in defense of the Swedish pastor taken to Appeal and Supreme Court of Sweden, because of preaching Biblical truth regarding homosexuals. The pastor was acquitted.
  • 3rd AE Conference in Croatia, 52 participants from 14 countries.


2006

  • 3rd ERLF, Sofia, Bulgaria, 25 participants from 14 countries.
  • AE made and sent to Belarus a Statement on Religious Freedom situation in the country.
  • AE made and sent to the country of Serbia and Montenegro a Statement on the newest Law on Religion
  • 4th AE Conference, Montenegro, 45 participants from 15 countries, the topic was “Integration of faith and practice”.


2007

  • 4th ERLF in Sofia, 25 participants from 14 countries.
  • AE, Leadership strategy meeting, London, 36 delegates from 14 countries

2008

  • Pastor Ake Green case Statement of AE against his expulsion as a member of the Swedish temperance organization IOGT-NTO.
  • 5th ERLF, Istanbul, Turkey, 30 participants from 12 countries.
  • 5th AE Conference, Washington DC, 81 participants from 21 countries