Summary
The procedure for notifying authorities of a planned assembly should be clear and simple.
Obligations
Election Parts
Quotes
- Notification systems requiring that those who intend to organize a peaceful assembly must inform the authorities in advance and provide certain salient details are permissible to the extent necessary to assist the authorities in facilitating the smooth conduct of peaceful assemblies and protecting the rights of others. (...) Notification procedures should be transparent, not unduly bureaucratic, their demands on organizers must be proportionate to the potential public impact of the assembly concerned, and they should be free of charge.
- Where authorization regimes persist in domestic law, they must in practice function as a system of notification, with authorization being granted as a matter of course, in the absence of compelling reasons to do otherwise. Notification regimes, for their part, must not in practice function as authorization systems.
- A notification regime should never be turned into a de facto authorization procedure. The procedure for providing advance notification to public authorities should not be onerous or overly bureaucratic.
- To the extent the law suggests that assembly organizers provide the authorities prior notification, the purpose of that notification should be to enable the State to put in place necessary arrangements to facilitate the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to protect participants, public order, public safety and the rights and freedoms of others.