1 March 2018, CHISINAU – the International conference which marked 5 years of the implementation of the Law on ensuring equality was held.  The conference was organised by the Council for preventing and eliminating discrimination and ensuring equality from the Republic of Moldova (Equality Council) in cooperation with European Union/Council of Europe project on supporting national efforts for preventing and combating discrimination in Moldova, part of the Partnership for Good Governance.

Ambassador Peter MICHALKO, Head of European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova,
Ms Eva GUTJAHR, Acting-Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, Mr Csaba Ferenc ASZTALOS, President of the National Council for Combating Discrimination (Romania), Ms Valentina BULIGA, Chairman of the Parliamentary Comission "Committee for social protection, health and family", Ms. Rita COLUMBIA, UNFPA Representative, UN Resident Coordinator and Mr Ian FELDMAN, President of the Equality Council addressed and welcomed the participants during the opening.

The event served as a forum for discussing various important issues related to the prevention and combating discrimination and ensuring equality: in health and social protection; in the area of education; the workplace, etc. Special focus was put on the establishment of the Consultative Council of NGOs to the Equality Council and the presentation of the Code of Ethics for members of the Equality Council.

“The adoption of the Law on ensuring equality represented an important phase in the partnership between the Republic of Moldova and the European Union. After 5 years of implementation of the respective Law, it is necessary to amend the legislative framework, inclusively by recognising the importance of the role of the Council for prevention and elimination of discrimination and ensuring equality” Ambassador Peter MICHALKO said.

“Fighting discrimination and ensuring equality is vital for a democratic society. Non-discrimination is one of the key values of the Council of Europe. We applaud Moldova for including the fight against discrimination in its main policy documents and we hope to see these measures fully implemented at the practical level. Through our project we lend extensive support to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Equality Council” Ms Eva GUTJAHR said.

"In the Republic of Moldova, discrimination exists and it is spread out on all sphere of social life. This fact is confirmed by social polls and Equality Council’s casuistry and by the increased number of decisions that state discrimination. Since the foundation of the Equality Council and by 2017, Equality Council has examined 678 complaints and self-dismissals. Most of them have been related to the areas such as access to goods and services available to the public, workplace and humiliation of human dignity. More often, the most protected criteria invoked in the complaints and submitted to the Equality Council were: disability, sex/gender and age. The number of state decisions has increased by 15% in 2017 compared to 2016 but at the same time, the number of decisions of inadmissibility has declined from 55% to 35%. In these circumstances, all our efforts must be pooled together to combat discrimination and to ensure equality" mentioned Mr Ian FELDMAN.

The event was organised within the joint European Union-Council of Europe project “Supporting national efforts for prevention and combating discrimination in Moldova,” part of the Partnership for Good Governance.

The project is funded by the European Union (90%) and co-financed (10%) and implemented by the Council of Europe.

For more information contact:

Ms Diana CEALIC, Senior Project Officer, Supporting national efforts for prevention and combating discrimination in Moldova Project; [email protected]    

Ms Parascovia LEPADATU, Deputy Head of Equal Opportunities Promotion Section, Council for preventing and eliminating discrimination and ensuring equality from the Republic of Moldova; [email protected]