Freedom Of Assembly

Freedom of assembly is the freedom to associate with, or organize any groups, gatherings, clubs, or organizations that one wishes. It is explicitly guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which is constituted as Part I of the Constitution of Canada of 1982.

Freedom of assembly is a key right in democratic countries, as it allows its citizens to form or join any political party, special interest group, or union, without any government restrictions.

In countries without freedom of assembly, certain political parties or groups may be banned, with harsh penalties for any members. Public protests against the government are usually banned as well.

It is important to note that even democratic countries will occasionally implement outlaws banning groups that they deem to be sponsors of terrorism or violence.

This makes freedom of assembly closely linked with notions of freedom of speech. Thus, while one can be allowed to advocate the murder of the President, one is not necessarily allowed to be a member of a group that seeks to achieve this goal.

The freedom of assembly in order to protest sometimes conflicts with laws intended to protect public safety, even in democratic countries: in many cities, the police are authorized by law to disperse any crowd (including a crowd of political protesters) which threatens public safety, or which the police cannot control. The idea is to prevent rioting. Often local law requires that a permit must be obtained in advance by protest organizers if a protest march is anticipated; the permit application can be denied. Sometimes this bureaucratic power is abused by lawmakers if the protest is not a popular one in the community or with the local government, with the permit process in some cities taking a great deal of time, organization, and even money required before a permit is issued -- and then, when issued, time and location restrictions are sometimes added.

From time to time, local permit laws collide in court with the freedoms of assembly and of speech, such as in February 2003 when protests were anticipated over the exclusion of women from membership at the Augusta National Golf Club where golf's Masters Tournament is played every year. The Richmond County, Georgia county commission implemented a new rule requiring 20 days of advance notice before a protest, and giving the county sheriff the power to approve or deny permits, and to dictate the location of demonstrations. The sheriff turned down a permit to protest in front of the golf club but approved a protest half a mile away. Two courts upheld the ordinance granting the sheriff this power.

Commercial Usage: Freedom Of Assembly

Non-Fiction Usage: Freedom Of Assembly

Subject	Topic	Quote
Civil Liberties	Central African Republic	In addition there are some legal restrictions on freedom of assembly. (references)
	Malaysia	Loosening restrictions on freedom of assembly was one of the Commission's principal recommendations. (references)
	Sri Lanka	The law provides for freedom of assembly and the Government generally respects this right in practice. (references)
Economic History	Seychelles	Basic liberties, such as freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, are respected, although the media is still government dominated. (references)
	Chile	In its later years, the regime gradually permitted greater freedom of assembly, speech, and association, to include trade union activity. (references)
	Gabon	The April conference approved sweeping political reforms, including creation of a national senate, decentralization of the budgetary process, freedom of assembly and press, and cancellation of the exit visa requirement. (references)
Human Rights	Malaysia	The report also identifies restrictions on freedom of assembly and expression, detentions without trial, and discrimination against women, among other issues. (references)
	Malaysia	In a separate report on freedom of assembly, a related Commission made detailed recommendations related to the proper policing of public assemblies and called for police officers that used excessive force to be identified and held accountable. (references)
Political Economy	Yemen	The Government at times limited freedom of assembly. (references)
Political Rights	Armenia	Nonetheless observers from OSCE/ODIHR categorized the 1999 Parliamentary elections as a step towards compliance with OSCE commitments, and noted improvements in the electoral framework and the rights of freedom of association, freedom of assembly, and freedom of expression. (references)
	Malaysia	By law citizens have the right to change their government through periodic elections; however, while votes generally are recorded accurately, there are some irregularities that affect the fairness of elections, and in practice opposition parties are unable to compete on equal terms with the governing coalition (which has held power at the national level since 1957) because of significant restrictions on campaigning, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and access to the media. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speeches: Freedom Of Assembly

Modern Translation: Freedom Of Assembly

Alternative Orthography: Freedom Of Assembly

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

46 72 65 65 64 6F 6D 4F 66 41 73 73 65 6D 62 6C 79

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

01000110 01110010 01100101 01100101 01100100 01101111 01101101 00100000 01001111 01100110 00100000 01000001 01110011 01110011 01100101 01101101 01100010 01101100 01111001

HTML Code (1990) (references)

&#70 &#114 &#101 &#101 &#100 &#111 &#109 &#32 &#79 &#102 &#32 &#65 &#115 &#115 &#101 &#109 &#98 &#108 &#121

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

0046 0072 0065 0065 0064 006F 006D 004F 0066 0041 0073 0073 0065 006D 0062 006C 0079

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Freedom of Assembly (Land of the Free (Brookfield, Conn.).) (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Ronald Reagan	1981-1989	Many countries have written into their constitution provisions for freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language		Translations for "freedom of assembly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Russian		свобода собраний. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Coverage	Language Translations
Russian	словарь, определение, трансляция, сдвиг, перевод, перемещение	русский
English	Dictionary, Definition, Translation	английский

Freedom Of Assembly

Definition: Freedom Of Assembly