The
rights of the minorities are human rights. They function to ensure that the
minorities can enjoy human rights on the same basis as other people. These
rights are part of human rights standards which protect the minorities,
including Article No. 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial
Discrimination and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to
National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The minorities’ rights
facilitate the equal engagement of minorities in public life and in the
decision making process. These elements – the protection of existence, non-discrimination,
protection of identity and participation – constitute the foundation of the
minorities’ rights .
While the UN Declaration is devoted
to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, it is important to
ensure multiple non-discrimination and to remedy the situations in which a
person belonging to a national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is
also discriminated on other criteria such as gender identity, disability , health status or sexual
orientation.
Considering the Republic of Moldova’s
commitments in ensuring the application without any discrimination of the human
rights and the conclusive observations and recommendations addressed to the
Republic of Moldova by extra-conventional mechanisms of monitoring the application
of human rights, the ombudsmen have proposed to initiate a complex evaluation
of the principle of equality of opportunity and non-discrimination related to
minorities for the year 2011.
The evaluation included the
documentation, the identification of legal and institutional deficiencies, the
setting up of possibilities for the remedy of the situation and, as finality,
to organize awareness raising campaigns on the prevention and combating of
discrimination, in order to increase the awareness degree to the given
phenomenon and to strengthen the role of public institutions responsible for
combating it.
While analysing the received
information, some positive tendencies have been noted, yet, there exist a
number of drawbacks in the LPA activity caused, in the main part, by the
erroneous perception of the principle of equality and non-discrimination, as
well as, the lack of a mechanism for the documentation, storage and processing
of the data on the application of the equality and non-discrimination principle
related to minorities. This fact determines the unsatisfactory involvement of
LPA in the monitoring and analysis of the existent situation on the site, the
provision of observing the Constitution and of the legislation in force related
to minorities and the protection of citizens’ rights.
Thus, it is stated that the majority
of LPA representatives do not possess actual and complete data on the ethnic
composition of the population on the territory they administer . Also, there are no data on the documentation of the
cases of admitting discrimination related to minorities, including information
on the situations when women that belong to minorities were exposed to certain
risks. These concerns are expressed in the information submitted by the District
Council from Edinet, the District Council from Anenii-Noi and the District
Council from Briceni. Moreover, out of the 32 territorial-administrative units,
only the District Council from Donduseni registered a case of a Roma woman
being insulted. According to the submitted information, „the citizen received
necessary consultation on behalf of the district executive authority, following
to address the competent institution”.
The interpretation of the notions “non-discrimination”, “social
inclusion”, “provision of equal opportunities in accessing goods and services”
is done through the prism of the cultural and spiritual dimensions, thus it is
being attested the tendency to mimic the application of civil, political,
economic and social rights with the cultural ones, especially in the
organization of cultural and artistic events.
What concerns problematic issues, the lack of ‘linguistic centres’ and of programs for the free of charge study at regional level of the state language by the adult speakers of other languages can be mentioned. The Centre for Human Rights has also been informed about the insufficiency of textbooks and fiction literature in schools with instruction in the Russian language, the lack of a textbook on the history, traditions and culture of the Gagauz people, the lack of representation / or limited representation of the minorities in public administration bodies and civil service . Cases of discriminatory behaviour on behalf of some civil servants have been signalled in relation to Roma people , and cases of refusal to hire Roma ethnicity people .
In this context, the issue to limited
access of the population to public interest information in the territory should
also be mentioned. For instance, in the majority of communities of ATU
Gagauzia, only local cable TV channels can be received (such as „Bashku” from
Comrat), which are politically influenced, thus the people are deprived of
alternative information.
In 2011, the Centre for Human Rights
recorded 4 cases in which the petitioners alleged to have been victims of
discrimination on the basis of the criterion „ethnic origin”. Simultaneously,
the ombudsmen, who were carrying out their duties stipulated in the Law on
Ombudsmen No. 1349 of October 17, 1997 , got self-informed on 5
cases of discrimination and intolerance.
The
registered cases are related to
the discriminatory attitude and denial of medical care at Ungheni district
hospital, the refusal to serve and discriminatory behaviour exhibited by the
administration of the canteen of the Drochia district hospital; acceptance of
ethnic segregation in schools towards Roma children, reason for which the
latter refuse to attend educational institutions; the absence of a medical
centre in the village Schinoasa that might offer the population access to
health care, secure and qualitative essential medical services.
As consequence of ombudsman’s intervention,
the local authorities have undertaken necessary steps to reinstate the given
people into their rights. Yet, in the majority of cases, the representatives of
the local administration do not display promptness and receptiveness in
addressing this kind of situations.
On
the other hand, the positive developments, registered by the national judiciary
practice in 2011, should be noted. They address the non-discrimination
principle through the prism of international standards that aim at human rights
protection, especially of the minorities. Here, it is worth mentioning the fact
that the common law court confirmed the existence of discrimination by
admitting that the declaration made by a public official was discriminatory and
racist against Roma persons , and the admittance by
the accused (administrators of the site www.privesc.eu) responsible for the speech full of hatred against
sexual minorities. It is
not accidental that in both cases, the accused have been obliged to apologize
publicly to the plaintiffs and to pay moral damage.
In
this context, in 2011, the ombudsmen
urged, on different occasions, senior dignitaries and officials,
representatives of Orthodox religious groups and representatives of political
parties to promote tolerance and respect for human rights in society and to refrain from
discrimination acts. Moreover, the ombudsmen strongly condemn such acts,
including the ones committed by public officials. The ombudsmen require that
politicians and „opinion leaders” demonstrate balanced and responsible
behaviour, and prevent racist, xenophobic and discriminatory manifestations
against community members. However, the right to expression is not an absolute
right and it should be applied in certain conditions established for the
protection of the individual’s dignity.
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