TM: Decision to Terminate the Activities of Seventeen Religious Organisations

In October this year, the Register of Enterprises adopted a decision to terminate the activities of seventeen religious organisations due to their failure to submit an activity report of the religious organisations.

Pursuant to Paragraph seven of Section 14 of the Law on Religious Organisations, religious organisations must submit an annual report on their activities to the Ministry of Justice.

Amendments to the Law on Religious Organisations entered into force on 21 April this year. They provide for the termination of the activities of a religious organisation if, following a repeated warning from the Ministry of Justice, the religious organisation has still not submitted a report on its activities to the Ministry of Justice in accordance with the procedure laid down by law.

The Ministry of Justice informs that, after failing to submit their reports, the religious organisations were notified in writing by means of two warnings, which set a deadline for submitting the reports.  This is the first time that the activities of religious organisations have been terminated on the basis of failure to submit a report.

            The procedure by which religious organisations submit reports on their activities is laid down in Cabinet Regulation No. 930 of 18 August 2009, “Procedure for Religious Organisations to Submit Reports on Their Activities”.

Additional information:

Pursuant to Paragraph two of Section 18.1 of the Law on Religious Organisations, the Register’s decision to terminate the activities of a religious organisation enters into force when it is notified to the addressee. The Register makes an entry in the Register of Religious Organisations and Institutions concerning the termination of the activities of a religious organisation after the Register’s decision to terminate the activities of the religious organisation has become non-appealable. The current deadline for challenging the decision is 17 November of this year.

The report and its annexes concerning the reports submitted by religious organisations for 2021 are available on the Ministry of Justice website.