In accordance with Art.47 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus, the actual moment of establishment of a legal entity is a moment of its state registration. Public association can obtain a status of legal entity by means of state authorization.

Consideration of the application by the registering body
The registering body is entitled to send inquiries to state authorities and administration, to the enterprises, institutions and organizations with the purpose of obtaining "expert conclusions" on issues related to state registration of the association. In practice, all statutes of public associations are sent to various state bodies for the expertise.
After examining the materials for state registration, the registering body sends them to the Republican Commission on Registration (re-registration) of Public Associations. The Commission shall consider materials and within 5 days after obtaining them it shall give a conclusion on possibility of registration (re-registration) of the association.
Decision on state registration (re-registration) of the association is taken by the registered body on the basis of the conclusion of the Republican commission on registration (re-registration) of public association.
After obtaining the results of consideration and within a month after it obtained the documents, the registering body shall decide on one of the following:

• on state registration of the an association;
• on postponement of registration of an association;
• on refusal in state registration of an association.

Registered association receives a certificate on registration and one copy of Statute, stitched and stamped by the registered body.

Deadlines for consideration of the application for state registration
Registering body shall examine the application for state registration within a month after obtaining the papers.
If the procedure of establishment of an association or the procedure of changing and amending a statute is violated, the registering body may decide on postponing the registration for a period of up to one month (for the elimination of the reasons for postponement).
Today, observance of deadlines for registration is a common practice. The Republican Commission on State Registration (re-registration) of Public Associations has basically not carried out its obligations for almost 4 years. There are no legal acts which would define the procedure for Commission’s activities, and the Commission holds its sessions irregularly and rarely. In 2003 there were only 4 sessions.

State registration fee
Legislation of the Republic of Belarus sets forth a fee for state registration. The amount of the fee depends on status of a  public association:

• for the registration of republican and international public associations, the fee shall be 25 basic units (as mentioned earlier, the value of the "basic unit" shall be set by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. On June 30, 2004 the value of "basic unit" was equal to 19.000 (approximately USD 8.8, and EUR 7.3)). 50% of the fee for the registration of international associations may be paid in hard currency;
• fee for registration of local public associations shall be 10 basic units.

Republican and local youth and children public associations shall be exempt from the registration fee.

Refusal in state registration
Decision on refusal in state registration shall be adopted in following cases:

• the process of establishment of the association is violated;
• the statute of the association (goals, purposes, methods of work, territory of activity of the organization) does not correspond with legal requirements;
• the association failed to not provide the papers necessary for state registration;
• the name of the association, including contracted name, and conditions of membership do not correspond with legal requirements and its statute;
• association failed to meet the requirements stated in the decision on the postponement of registration of the association within a month after the adoption of the decision on postponement.

In 5 days after the registering bodies decided on the refusal in registration, they shall notify in written the administrative body of the association and state the reasons for the refusal. However, in practice the paper on refusal does meet these requirements. Often, the registering body does not state the details of the reasons for the refusal, or it uses wording "and other reasons for the refusal", or the reasons are not stated at all. So the founders of a public associations can seek the reasons for the refusal only in court.

Appeal of the refusal in registration
In case of the refusal in registration the initiators may argue the refusal in court. The decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus on the refusal in state registration of a public association may be argued in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus, decisions of the justice departments of oblast executive committees and Minsk city executive committee  - accordingly to oblast and Minsk city Courts. The decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus cannot be argued in the procedure of appeal.
As showed by practice, there are not that many individuals who would defend their violated right to the freedom of associations in the court. To a great extend this can be explained by the lack of faith in a fair and independent decision.

In the majority of cases the courts issue decisions in favor of registering bodies. Moreover, Belarusian courts do not have enough experience of work with mentioned category of cases, they do not fully understand the importance of the principle of freedom of association, they do not apply the Constitution as law of direct application.
Only in single cases the judges may issue private rulings to the judicial bodies with the reference at their violations of the legislation in force. As an example, at the proceeding on the case on the appeal of Public association "Young social-democrats", the Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus found out that the Ministry of Justice violated the time limits for issuing the decision on refusal in registration and notification of the administrative body of the organization, also the refusal in registration was not motivated. On the basis of the ruling, the Supreme Court issued a private ruling at the address of the Ministry of Justice.

Re-registration of public associations
According to the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus legal entity shall be re-registered in cases provided in law.
The most recent re-registration of the public associations was conducted from February 1, till August 1, 1999 in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No.2 "On certain measures for regulation of activities of political parties, trade unions and other public associations" adopted on 26.01.1999. This decree prohibited the activity of public associations not re-registered in accordance with procedure specified by law on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, such associations were subject to liquidation in stated procedure.

The official reason for re-registration of public associations in 1999 was need for bringing the statutorial documents of public associations into conformity with the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus which entered into force on July 1, 1999 (the Chapter "Legal entities" - since March 15, 1999). The experts doubted this official reason for re-registration, since the analysis of normative acts in force at the monument of declaring state re-registration showed that neither the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No.2 nor new Civil Code provided vital changes of legal framework for public association (the exception is membership in the associations of legal entities).

As an additional reason for re-registration the registering bodies provided the need for discovering and eliminating associations, whose activities do not correspond with the legislation in force. However, the Law of the Republic of Belarus itself determines the procedure of cessation the activities of public associations, whose activity does not correspond with the legislation in force.
In process of re-registration the Republican commission on registration (re-registration) of public associations introduced and carried out a number of requirements, which are not found in any normative acts. So, the following requirements for re-registration of public associations were set by non-legal procedure (they were introduced into normative acts and legalized later):

• the requirement for republican associations to have no less than 10 founders (members) from the majority  of oblasts of the Republic of Belarus and from Minsk;
• for re-registration of local associations - no less than 10 founders (members) in the majority of administrative and territorial regions of the activities of the association;
• public associations can have only fixed membership;
• public associations cannot  use words "national", "popular" in any case.

These innovations were legalized by introducing changes and innovations into the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On public associations" adopted on 29.11.1999 (law of the Republic of Belarus "On introducing changes and amendments into some laws of the Republic of Belarus"), i.e. after the re-registration under these conditions was completed.
Before, public associations had to follow the decisions of the Republican commission on registration (re-registration) of public associations and requirements of the registering bodies under the threat of refusal in re-registration.
Analysis of legal practice showed that in process of re-registration, the registering bodies violated legal requirements everywhere. They did not follow the legally stated time-limits of examining the papers of public associations. The reasons for refusal did not correspond with legal requirements.
According to statistics of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus the re-registration was passed:

• In Brest oblast - 58% of public associations;
• In Vitebsk oblast – 55% of public associations;
• In Gomel oblast – 57 % of public associations;
• In Grodno oblast – 50% of public associations;
• In Minsk –55% of public associations;
• In Minsk oblast – 44% of public associations;
• In Mogilev oblast – 59% of public associations;
• International and republican public associations – 61%.

Hence, in result of the registration, almost half of all associations in the republic were not registered (in January 1, 1999 there were 2210 organizations; and in January  1, 2000 – only  1268 organizations).

State Register of Public Associations
In accordance with the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On public associations" the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus keeps the State Register of Public Associations. Justice departments of executive committees of oblast and Minsk city councils keep Registers of Public Associations.
Information in mentioned documents is not public and accessible. Moreover, state bodies do not give out such information even on the inquiries of public associations and citizens.