A/HRC/41/52 organizations and extremist symbols. 39 Human rights organizations have expressed concern that the law contains unclear definitions and imprecise procedures determining what is considered “extremist”, which leaves room for selective interpretation and implementation of the law, with a potentially restrictive impact on freedom of opinion and expression. 40 The Special Rapporteur would like to point out that legislation should provide clear definitions in order to avoid unnecessary and disproportionate interference with freedom of expression and freedom of the media. 41 41. Recent examples of the application of the existing anti-extremism legislation already give cause for concern. On 1 November 2018, Maryna and Viačaslaŭ Kasinieravy, two anarchist activists, were fined the equivalent of about US$ 850 under article 17.11 of the Code of Administrative Offences for “distribution of extremist material” for a picture posted on Facebook in which they were wearing clothes with the inscription “class war”.42 On 25 January 2019, the couple were again arrested and sentenced under the same article because the picture had not been removed from the Internet.43 During the reporting period, several cases of individuals fined for reposting online material considered extremist were reported, raising the question of the way the notions of extremism and distribution of extremist material are defined.44 The anti-extremism legislation has also been applied to journalists. On 17 March 2019, two Russian journalists were arrested in Minsk ahead of a lecture at the Press Club Belarus and charged with “distributing extremist content”.45 The two journalists are members of a group working on the issue of violence and had published books on topics such as terrorism, drugs and revolution. 2. Freedom of association 42. On 19 December 2018, the draft law repealing article 193.1 of the Criminal Code which foresaw criminal liability for participation in an unregistered organization was approved by Parliament at its second reading. Article 193.1 had been continuously criticized for its blatant violation of basic human rights standards and its removal is a positive step. However, the Special Rapporteur would like to stress that this development can only be considered a partial success, since it is tarnished by the adoption of article 23.88 of the Code of Administrative Offences, introducing administrative liability instead. 43. In the first half of 2018, the number of new registrations of non-commercial organizations decreased compared to previous years. 46 Ninety-two new public associations were registered in 2018, which is lower than the average annual index for the previous decade. 47 Procedures to register organizations remain cumbersome and provide broad discretionary powers to the registration authorities. That is especially the case for human rights organizations, independent groups or political parties. In May 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party after the Ministry of Justice rejected its registration application for the seventh time owing to minor errors in the application, such as an omission to include home numbers for several founders of the 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 10 Belarus already had a list of material considered as extremist. See http://mininform.gov.by/ documents/respublikanskiy-spisok-ekstremistskikh-materialov/ (in Russian). See https://naviny.by/article/20181206/1544112777-v-borbe-s-ekstremizmom-belarus-mozhet-vybratput-rossii (in Russian). See Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 34 (2011) on the freedoms of opinion and expression, para. 46. See https://news.tut.by/society/614034.html (in Russian). See http://spring96.org/ru/news/91909 (in Russian). See https://news.tut.by/society/614047.html (in Russian) and https://news.tut.by/society/615689.html (in Russian). See https://news.tut.by/economics/630142.html (in Russian). See https://minjust.gov.by/directions/compare_coverage/ (in Russian). See Legal Transformation Center (Lawtrend) and Assembly of Pro-Democratic NGOs, “Freedom of association and legal conditions for non-commercial organizations in Belarus: review period 2018”, p. 7, available from http://belngo.info/2019.review-of-freedom-of-associations-in-belarus-2018.html.