Community event in Moldovan Gagauzia

Chisinau, 2 November /MOLDPRES/ – The conference "Human Rights Protection" has been recently held in Comrat. The level of the conference permits to conclude that the event was not only of a regional level but rather of a national one. The conference was organized by the Institute for Democracy (Comrat) and State University of Comrat in partnership with the Bulgarian Culture Society "Rodoliubets" (Transnistrian Region) and the Centre for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Young Women (Chisinau), within the project "Growth mutual trust between teachers on the two sides of the Dniester river: Capacity building for continuous development of teacher competences in the field of modern pro – active human rights education "funded by the European Union (Confidence Building Programme).

Among the conference participants, there were leaders and teachers from schools, lyceums, colleges and universities in Gagauzia, Chisinau, Transnistrian region, heads of non – governmental organisations (NGOs) on both banks of the Dniester, officials and others.

A special guest at the conference was the head of the European Union Delegation to Moldova, Ambassador Peter Mikhalko, who emphasized the importance of the event. In his conference speech, Ambassador Peter Mikhalko said that he could just come with congratulations, because it was a pleasant occasion for him, as far as it was his first time official visit to Comrat, in that position.

The Ambassador mentioned that he has the great honor that, coming to Moldova, he can work as Head of the EU Delegation, according to the legal framework already existing between the European Union and the Republic of Moldova. The Association Agreement speaks specifically about the values ​​of human rights that underlie our relations, and it is very important to realize everything that is related to democracy, human rights and the rule of law.

Ambassador Peter Mikhalko has given assurances that the European Union attaches great importance to human rights and democracy in the partner countries of the European Union, noting that this is a very important moment in our relations, and has an impact on all areas of joint cooperation. The European Union provides support to human rights partners to raise standards in the field of human rights protection, and the EU Delegation to the Republic of Moldova is active in this direction.

The Ambassador noted that the EU Delegation is interested in being in contact with all the layers of society for which these issues are important because it actively promotes the confidence building program in cooperation with non-governmental sector partners being the most active part of society, that part of society that wants, through its work and work, to help make reality and everyday life better and therefore the EU Delegation will continue this support and will always remain open to cooperation talks.

The Ambassador assured that with the beginning of his mandate, he would permanently activate in that direction and being open to mutual contacts.

With a welcome speech for conference participants came the President of the Council of the Institute for Democracy, Andrei Borsevski, Rector of the State University of Comrat and member of the People's Assembly of Gagauzia (who, at the same time, was the conference moderator), Serghei Zaharia, Mayor of Comrat, Sergey Anastasov, National Human Rights Coordinator, Veaceslav Balan.

The mayor of Comrat, Serghei Anastasov, congratulated the participants on occasion of such an important event, remarked its worth, wished everyone success and assured the participants that the city hall of Comrat was always open to cooperation.

Anatolii Rapoport, a world – level scientist in education, human rights and civic education, PhD in pedagogy, editor of the International Public Research Journal and a professor at one of the world's leading universities – Purdue University in the USA is ranked 60th in the rankings of the best universities of world “Times Higher Education” and on position 77 in “Academic Ranking in the Universities World”, where, for example, the Moscow State University “M. Lomonosov” is on 93rd position), opened the plenary part of the conference with his report "Active methods in education for human rights and democratic citizenship".

His speech impressed the audience, which learnt about the most advanced Western methods of human rights education.

An big impression on participants left the speech at conference plenary session of Veaceslav Balan, National Coordinator of the UN Office for Human Rights, which not only described the role of the UN in the protection of human rights but also shared UN human rights education success stories in Moldova. Also, the speech of Svetlana Hodakova, director of Open Society Institute (Ukraine), Svetlana Mironova, the head of the People's Advocate Office in Comrat, raised a great interest among the participants, who learnt more new and useful things for themselves; teachers will be able to apply this knowledge to students and NGO representatives – in their human rights activities. There have also been very interesting and useful reports from other conference participants. An active participation in the conference of Transnistrian NGO teachers and managers demonstrates that human rights issues are becoming increasingly vital for civil society on the left bank of the Dniester river. During the conference, teachers and NGO representatives from both sides of the Dniester shared their experiences, improved the level of human rights skills and modern methods of teaching human rights and democracy. According to the participants, the conference was held at a high level, the teachers and representatives of the NGOs were interested and participated actively in all discussions and debates, came up with many questions to the speakers, being able to use acquired knowledge within their professional activities.