General principles and requirements for the establishment of non-profit organizations

Abstract

Formulation of the problem. One of the main constitutional rights of citizens in a democracy is the right of association, i.e. the right to freely create different organizations, to enter into them and out of them. Article 36 of the Constitution declares that every citizen has the right to freedom of association in the public organizations in order to exercise and to protect its rights and freedoms. However, this is not enough to ensure the existence of non-profit organizations that combine equal and independent citizens ofUkraine. In modern conditions of rapid civil law reforms, there are new and convenient forms of association of citizens for the purpose of exercising their rights, which are aimed at achieving social benefits. In our country, an effective mechanism needs to be realized for the rights and freedoms of citizens by establishing and guaranteeing activity of non-profit organizations and non-interference of the state in the activities of these organizations, with the exception of restrictions established by law in the interests of national security and public order, public health or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

The relevance of the problem of the general principles and requirements for the establishment of non-profit organizations consists in setting up the optimal mechanism for implementing the citizens' right to freedom of association. This mechanism should be transparent and understandable to ordinary members of civil relations with the inception of non-profit organization and guarantee citizens the right to freedom of association.

Analysis of the recent research materials and publications. Problems that occur during activity of non-profit organizations studied and continue to be studied by well-known civil law scientists such as V. Borisova, I. Kucherenko, I. Spasibo-Fateeva, M. Galyanticha, I. Zhyhalkina, V. Poddubny, V. Kochin, O. Bіlyaeva, N. Fіlatova, M. Mendzhul, and etc., which underlines the importance of scientific research.

Despite the considerable interest of scientists on the activities of non- profit organizations, there are still many unsolved issues, such as a list of basic principles and requirements for the establishment of non-profit organizations.

Purpose of the article – to analyze the process of establishing non-profit organizations and determining the requirements that apply at different stages of their establishment.

Presenting the main material. The Civil Code of Ukraine, which contains general requirements for the establishment of legal persons of private law, unfortunately, does not set up the features of establishment of non-profit organizations, giving preference to specific legislation that regulates its individual types. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the stages of establishing non-profit organizations inUkraine, indicating the particular requirements for each of them.

As stipulated in the Civil Code, a legal entity of private law arises from the moment of state registration. However, this process may be preceded by the development and adoption of constituent documents, if necessary, special permissions should be obtained, i.e. two or three legal fact have to be performed.

Considering features of a non-profit organizations legal status, it may be noted that the stages of creating a non-profit organization are the next:

1. defining the purpose of the organization activities;
2. empowering organization attributes of a legal entity of private law;
3. fixing the founders' will in the constituent documents;
4. registration of non-profit organization in the order provided for legal entities of private law in light of the individual characteristics of their types.

Conclusions. The choice of a form of non-profit organization, as well as the nature of its activities may impose some peculiarities on the general procedure for its registration process. After receiving the documents, a non-profit organization is formally valid and can start its activities in accordance with the stated objectives. Therefore, a non-profit organization will acquire the rights and obligations, will have its own property, and will be liable to the full extent of its assets. Activities of non-profit organization is established as a perpetual via default, if the term is not limited by the founders in the documents of the organization.