The Council of Europe carried out a round table on 6 December to discuss the findings and recommendations of the experts opinion on the Moldovan non-discrimination laws (the Law 121 on ensuring equality and the Law 298 on the activity of the Council for Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality).

The purpose of the legislative review was to offer to the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova an expert opinion, in view of ensuring that the national legislation in the field of anti-discrimination is aligned with European standards, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights, the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights and the standards and recommendations of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), as contained in its latest report on the Republic of Moldova.

On this occasion, following a fruitful discussion, the Ministry of Justice expressed their satisfaction of the level of quality of the offered recommendation and confirmed that the opinion will be taken into consideration before the finalisation of the amendments. The Ministry also stated that more public consultation on the draft amendments will be held in the upcoming period.

This event is a follow up to the expert opinions offered by the Council of Europe on the two Laws in February 2016 and July 2016 respectively.

The review was provided through the regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crime in the Eastern Partnership countries” and the national project "Strengthening the capacities of the justice sector actors to deliver justice in line with European standards, in particular to fight discrimination" in the framework of the Joint European Union/Council of Europe Partnership for Good Governance.