Moldova's national council for human rights holds meeting at government

Chisinau, 15 September /MOLDPRES/ - A meeting of the national council for human rights took place at the government today. Attending this event, chaired by Prime Minister Ion Chicu, were entire cabinet of ministers, NGOs’ representatives, as well as the head of the UN Office for Human Rights in Moldova , Beatrix Ferenci, the government’s communication and protocol department has reported.   

The PM said that the human rights sector was priority on the government’s agenda. ‘’Today, the International Day of Democracy is marked. We can speak about a truthful democracy in Moldova when the human rights are fully ensured. While in the times before the pandemic, we were talking about human rights while referring to a certain category of people, in the present conditions, we regard the entire population. Therefore, the launch of the work of this Council is vital. We do our utmost, in order to adjust our activities to the international standards,’’ Ion Chicu noted.  

Health, Labour and Social Protection Minister Viorica Dumbraveanu unveiled the report one and two on the Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which shows the measures undertaken by the state so far, in order to enforce the UN Convention, improve the legislation and ensure the observance of the rights of the people with disabilities, in order to improve the quality of their life. In this respect, numerous achievements have been recorded, among which: approval of a national plan on social inclusion, adjusting the normative acts, increasing the disability allocations and pensions, regulating  and developing more types of social services, launching information and awareness campaigns; also, services were developed for victims of violence and day social centres were opened for children with special needs and personal assistance was provided to a number of 1,000 beneficiaries.   

In early 2020, Moldova was evaluated at the 75th session of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Following the revision of the sixth Periodical Report of Moldova, the Committee issued conclusive notices, as well recommendations for a better implementation of the Convention’s provisions.

Among the most important UN Convention’s observations, there are: access to justice, equal participation in the political and public life, employment, social and economic benefits, health, education, etc.  

At the meeting, the leadership of the Health, Labour and Social Protection Ministry enumerated the actions planned for the implementations of the provisions: adopting special measures for speeding up the equal access to public offices, education and employment for women; ratification of more international treaties; optimizing programmes on protection of women from rural settlements.   

On 21 October, Moldova is to submit the report in the context of the third periodical universal evaluation of the country. This implies a comprehensive and multidimensional evaluation of the state as to the actions taken to improve the situation in the human rights sector, according to the commitments assumed.  

In this context, the PM asked the council members to fully get involved in the exercise of preparing the report to the UN Human Rights Council, due to start in early 2021.