National Institution for Human Rights – Kingdom of Bahrain or requested the permission. The competent public authority’s failure to respond within this period leads to the assumption that the associations or trade unions act unlawfully. Any decision issued by the authorities should be clearly reasoned, and these entities should be given the opportunity to object to the administrative decisions before the courts. 11. Concerning the exercise of the right to organize, the State has a positive obligation to enable individuals to exercise this right freely without any fears or exposing them to any threat, including any arbitrary measures, such as detention, torture, ill-treatment, or slander media campaigns, or restricting freedom of movement or arbitrary dismissal from work, especially in respect of workers in trade unions. 12. The State has a negative obligation to avoid undue obstruction of the exercise of the right to freedom of associations or trade unions. The members of these entities should be able to freely determine their bylaws, organizational structure, and activities, make decisions without interference by the State, and enjoy other rights such as freedom of opinion, the right to expression, the right to disseminate information, and the right to peaceful assembly. 13. According to the provisions of Decree-Law No. 21 of 1989 Promulgating the Law on Societies, Social and Cultural Clubs, Youth and Sports Private Bodies and Private Institutions, it is clear that the registration of associations - of civil nature – is based on an application submitted to the competent ministry. The latter publishes the registration in the Official Gazette, within sixty days from the date of submission of the application. Furthermore, under Article 11 of this Law, the competent administrative authority has the right to “refuse the registration of an association, if the community is not in need for its services or if there is other association(s) that fulfills the community needs for the activity, which the association wants to practice. The authority may refuse to register an association if the creation of such association undermines the welfare and security of the State; if the premises of the association or the place where its activity is practiced are not appropriate from health or social perspective; or if the association is created to revive another association which has been previously dissolved”. In addition, the Law considers that the elapse of the aforementioned period without completion of registration or notifying the application will be deemed as implicit rejection of the registration application of the association. It guarantees the right to challenge before the authority that issued the decision, and then appeal the decision before the courts. The Law permits dissolving the association compulsorily and closing its administratively on temporary basis for no more than 45 days as per a resolution by the competent minister in the cases exclusively set out in the law. 14. The Law considers the expiration of the prescribed period without answering the applicant as implicit rejection of the application. According to this procedure, the rule is to not register or announce the association, while the exception is to approve the application by competent ministry. This conclusively constitutes violation of the right to organize and does not comply with the principles of international human rights law. Despite that the Law limits the circumstances under which the association may be dissolved compulsorily or closed administratively for a certain period, granting the dissolution authority to the competent minister may raise the suspicion of abuse of power, as opposed to vesting this authority in the courts. 15. Further to Law No. 26 of 2005 on Political Associations, it is clear that the establishment mechanism set out in the Law is based on submitting an application to the Minister of Justice Affairs. The application should be signed by the founders, their signatures 70