Registration of a Religious Organization

Introduction

A Religious Organization acquires the status of a legal person and the rights prescribed by Article 7 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations from the moment of state registration.

A Religious group is entitled to apply for state registration if it satisfies the requirements prescribed by Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, namely:

a) it is not contrary to the provisions of Article 3 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations, during its activity it does not coerce or compel a citizen to make a decision to participate or not to participate in services, religious rites and ceremonies, and religious education; by its activity it does not endanger public safety, law and order, the health and morality of the citizens, the rights and freedoms of other citizens;

b) it is based on a historically recognized holy scripture;

c) its religious belief is a part of the system of modern world religious-ecclesial communities;

d) it is free from materialism and is intended for purely spiritual goals;

e) it has at least 200 members.

The conditions prescribed by Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organizations except for subpoint «a», are not applicable only to religious organizations of ethnic minorities with their national religion.

Children under the age of 18 are not permitted to become members of a religious organization, regardless of their participation in religious rites or other circumstances.

Process of State Registration of a Religious Organization

For state registration a Religious Organization shall:

  • convene a founding meeting,
  • apply to the Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA for expertise of the conditions prescribed by subpoints «b»-«e» of Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations,
  • apply to the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA for state registration.

Convening of the Founding Meeting

At least 200 adult citizens of RA must participate in the founding meeting (hereinafter referred to as the Meeting).

The Meeting is convened for making decisions on the establishment of a Religious Organization, approval of the charter, election of the head or acting head of the executive body.

Before convening the Meeting and approving the charter, it is recommended to check whether the name of the organization to be established is identical with the full name of another legal entity, registered in the prescribed manner, or is identical to the full name (name abbreviation) of another legal entity liquidated in the last year prior to the registration of the organization, through the search section of www.e-register.am website.

A Protocol is drawn up as a result of convening the meeting (Article 17.6), which includes information on:

  1. the day, month, year, place of drawing up the Protocol, number of pages thereof;
  2. the day, month, year, place of convening the Meeting;
  3. number of persons having the right to participate in the Meeting (at least 200 participants) and number of other participants (if any);
  4. first names, last names, patronymic names of the chairperson and secretary of the Meeting;
  5. agenda of the Meeting;
  6. on issues put to vote;
  7. results of the voting;
  8. decisions adopted as a result of voting;
  9. passport data of the head or the acting head of the elected executive body (passport series, number, issuing authority, date of issue), registration address; telephone number, e-mail address;
  10. in case the application on state registration of information concerning the Religious Organization and the head or the acting head of the executive body is submitted to the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA by an authorized person, the latter shall also submit a document certifying the scope of his/her authority, first name, last name and passport data. The authorized person must be a member of the Meeting, if the Meeting was attended only by the members.

The Protocol of the Meeting is signed by the chairperson and secretary of the Meeting, the list of members is also appended to the Protocol. The list includes first names, last names, patronymic names, passport data (passport series, number, issuing authority, date of issue), address of the place of registration in RA and in its absence the actual residence address of the members of the Meeting. As an integral part of the Protocol of the Meeting, the list is signed by each member of the Meeting, next to his/her name.  

The Protocol is drawn up at least in 3 copies, one copy of which is submitted to the Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA, the second copy is submitted to the the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA and the third one is withheld by the Religious Organization.  

The list of members of the Meeting is drawn up at least in one copy and is submitted to the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA, when applying for state registration. The Religious Organization may keep a printed copy of the list of members of the Meeting.  

Pages of the Protocol and the list of members of the Meeting must be numbered and bound, ensuring wholeness of the document.

Charter of a Religious Organization

According to Article 15 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations, the charter of a Religious Organization shall contain mandatory information on the following data:

  • the nature of the Religious Organization;
  • place of activity;
  • confessional affiliation;
  • structure of religious association;
  • houses of worship and ritual objects;
  • initiation of activities, intention of establishing educational and publishing facilities;
  • disposition of property and procedure for resolving other issues in case of termination of activity;
  • other provisions related to the specifics of organizational activity.

The charter of a Religious Organization must indicate the full and abbreviated names of the Organization (Civil Code of RA Article 58), translations of the name in the preferred languages of the Organization, the symbol if available, the interpretation of the symbol, the purpose and subject of activity (Civil Code of RA Article 55), the rights, membership-related issues, competence of the management bodies of the Organization, sources and forms of ownership formation, as well as other information prescribed by Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organization.

Pages of the charter must be numbered and bound, ensuring wholeness of the document, the title page must indicate the day, month, year of its compilation.

The Charter shall be drawn up at least in 3 copies, one copy of which is submitted to the Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA, and two copies are submitted to the the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA.

Submission of an Application For Expertise

After convening the founding Meeting the Religious Organization applies to the Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA, to obtain an expert opinion on the conditions prescribed by subpoints «b»-«e» of Article 5 of RA Law օn Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations.

To obtain an expert opinion the Organization shall submit to the Office of the RA Prime Minister's Staff in person or by post the following package of documents:    

  • an application addressed to the Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister;
  • a document certifying that the religious community does not enroll persons under the age of 18 and does not impose on them the rights and obligations of a community member provided by charter;
  • a reference on information confirming the conditions prescribed by Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations;
  • a list of members of the Religious Organization which shall contain information on the first names, last names, patronymic names, the day, month, year of birth, passport series and number, the address of the place of residence and the telephone numbers of the members. The list shall be signed by each member, next to his/her name;
  • one copy of the charter signed by the head or acting head of the executive body;
  • one copy of the Protocol of the Meeting (which may be submitted without the list of members of the Meeting);
  • electronic files of the submitted documents on an electronic (CD)

To obtain an expert opinion the Religious Organization may also submit an application to the Office of the RA Prime Minister's Staff through the https://e-request.am/hy website, attaching to the application the photocopies of the documents included in the package.

The expert opinion is provided to the applicant no later than within 10 days after submitting the application.

The Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA determines the standard form for expert opinion.

It is recommended to submit an identical package of documents (original or copy) to the Division for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA.

The necessary information on the Division  for Ethnic Minorities and Religious Affairs of the Government of RA is available by the following link: https://www.gov.am/am/religion/.

Application for State Registration

After obtaining an expert opinion on the conditions prescribed by Article 5 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations, the Religious Organization applies to the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA for state registration.

Decisions on state registration or rejection of registration of a Religious Organization is made within one month after submission of the application (Article 16)(Article 2.2)(Article 35.3).

State duty in the amount of 10000 AMD shall be charged from a Religious Organization for carrying out state registration, which shall be transferred to 900005160727 treasury account (Article 10․1).

It should be noted that unlike other non-commercial organizations which have the opportunity of carring out state registration procedure within shorter time limits for relevant extra fees prescribed by the Government of RA, for a Religious Organization there is no procedure of carrying out state registration within time limits shorter than those prescribed by law (Article 10.2).

The right to apply for state registration of a Religious Organization has(have) the founder(s) of the legal person, the head or acting head of the executive body, any other person authorised by the latters, who has active legal capacity (Article 33).

For state registration shall be submitted (Article 34):  

  • An application for state registration (Article 17.1).

The application form is provided by the Agency when applying for registration

  • Expert opinion (Article 14)
  • Protocol or excerpt from the Protocol of the Founding Meeting (Article 17.6,7).

The list of members of the Meeting is an integral part of the Protocol. Pages of the Protocol and the list of members of the Meeting must be numbered and bound, ensuring wholeness of the document.

The excerpt from the Protocol must contain all mandatory information required for the Protocol, except for the information on the agenda of the Meeting, issues put to vote, results of the voting, decisions adopted, which the excerpt may contain partially.  The excerpt must contain information on persons having signed the Protocol (including persons having submitted a special opinion)

  • Two copies of the charter signed by the head or acting head of the executive body. A charter (amendments to the charter) must contain an indication with regard to the approval, number of submitted copies and reference number of the copy
  • Information on the head (acting head) of the executive body of the Religious Organization: passport data and social card number (public service number) or an indication on declining the social card and the reference number of the relevant statement of information, e-mail address; or the printed copies of the passport (identification card), public service number of the head (acting head) of the executive body, attested by the signature of the head of the executive body with an indication of the date of signature or through a notary procedure (Article 17.8)
  • Statement on real beneficiaries (Article 66.3)
  • State duty payment receipt
  • In case of acting in the Agency by an authorized person a power of attorney, a copy of passport of the authorized person

The power of attorney must contain an indication on the power of submitting or receiving documents from the Agency, as well as signing the statement on the real beneficiary. The printed copy of the passport of the authorized person must be attested by the signature of the head of the executive body with an indication of the date of signature or through a notary procedure.

As per 01.04.2021 there is no possibility of electronic submission of application for state registration of a Religious Organization through the information system of the official website of the Agency of State Register of Legal Entities of the Ministry of Justice of RA, since there are no available sample forms of documents required for registration of Religious Organizations.

A Religious Organization shall be considered as established from the moment of state registration, of recording the information prescribed by Law in the State Unified Register (Article 35.7,8,10).

State registration shall be certified by the excerpt issued from the State Unified Register.

Together with the registration, the registration number of the legal person and the year, month and day of registration shall be recorded in the charter of the Religious Organization, which shall be attested by the electronic signature of the Agency or by the signature of the relevant employee of the Agency.

Rejection of State Registration of a Religious Organization, Correction of Errors After Rejection

The Agency rejects the state registration of a Religious Organization within one month from the date of receipt of the documents in case of its violation of the procedures prescribed by legislation (Article 16), as well as in case of existence of the following grounds (Article 36):

1) violation of the procedure of formation of a Religious Organization prescribed by law;

2) failure to submit the documents prescribed by RA Law on State Registration of Legal Persons, State Record-Registration of Separated Subdivisions, Institutions of Legal Persons and Individual Entrepreneurs and RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations;

3) incompliance of submitted documents with the law or with other documents submitted by the Religious Organization;

4) incompliance of the name of entity with the requirements prescribed by law, where registration of the entity name has been rejected and the person has not submitted another name.

The Agency has no right of rejecting the registration of a Religious Organization on the motive of inexpedience.

The decision on rejection of state registration must be in written form, reasoned and must contain a reference to those specific norms of law, the requirements whereof have been violated while establishing the Religious Organization or whereto the charter of the Religious Organization contradicts.

The decision on rejection must mandatorily contain all the grounds for rejection and all the inaccuracies present in the submitted documents and hindering the registration process, as well as must contain a reference to a specific legal norm which has served as a ground for rejection (Article 21). Rejection of registration of a legal person shall be signed by the employee of the Agency by an electronic signature, and the electronic document on rejection shall be sent to the e-mail address provided by the legal person, as well as it shall become available on the Internet by entering the relevant code into the information system.

The decision on rejection shall be considered as adopted from the moment it is sent to the e-mail address of the applicant or it becomes available on the Internet.

After receiving a written decision on rejection, the applicant may within two working days correct the errors and resubmit the documents to the Agency for state registration.

In this case state duty shall not be repaid, and application on state registration shall indicate data of the earlier submitted document, certifying the payment of state duty.

If the applicant fails to submit the corrected or supplemented documents for state registration within two working days after receiving the decision on rejection, or there are also grounds for rejection in the documents resubmitted, except for the case where in the resubmitted documents there are such grounds for rejection of state registration that were present during the first submission but were not indicated in the decision on rejection, rejection shall be considered to be final.

If in the resubmitted documents, there are such grounds for rejection of state registration that were present during the first submission but were not indicated in the decision on rejection, the applicant may reapply to the Agency within two working days after receiving decision on rejection, without repaying state duty.

State duty and the document certifying the payment thereof, as well as the document having served as a basis for rejection, shall not be returned to the applicant.

Appeal of Agency Actions or Inaction

Rejection of state registration of a religious organization by the Agency, avoidance of state registration may be appealed to the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia or to a court (Article 23) within the timeframes and procedures prescribed by chapter 10 of RA Law օn Fundamentals of Administration and Administrative Proceedings and in accordance with Chapter 12 of RA Administrative Procedure Code.

Termination of the Activities of Religious Organizations

According to Article 16 of RA Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious organizations the activity of a Religious Organization may be terminated by liquidation or by a court decision in case of violation of the laws of the Republic of Armenia.

A Religious Organization can also be liquidated in cases as prescribed by Article 67 of RA Civil Code.

In case of liquidation of a Religious Organization, its property shall be directed to the purposes provided by law, and if this is not possible, it shall be transferred to the State Budget.