The Republic of Moldova will have a new National Human Rights Plan

This commitment was assumed by the authorities, civil society and development partners during an international conference held in Chisinau on 22 - 23 November 2016.

For two days, around 100 national and international experts have analyzed the best practices and models of UPR recommendations implementation from Serbia, Georgia, Mexico and Norway.

"We are confident that after hearing the experiences of other countries we will have a better implementation of the UPR recommendations in Moldova. The government has already initiated such actions and a Working Group for drafting a new National Human Rights Plan was established, involving the central public authorities, local public authorities represented by the delegate from the Congress of Local Authorities, civil society and international organizations, to whom we exend our gratitude for the support offered” said Eduard Serbenco, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Moldova.

Hulan Tsedev, Head of the Europe and Central Asia Section of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), reiterated the UN support for continuing this process. „The UN stands by the Government of the Republic of Moldova, national human rights institutions and civil society to esablish an effective framework for protection of  human rights, which could become a model for other countries in the region and globally” she said.

The Republic of Moldova will also develop a national mechanism for monitoring the implementation of UPR recommendations. Especially, developing an Advisory Board for independent monitoring of the NHRP, formed by members of the representatives from the People’s Advocate Office and civil society.

"We are open to provide the necessary expertise in the field of human rights to ensure proper implementation and monitoring of the UPR recommendations in Moldova, together with the civil society and state authorities” said Dumitru Roman, Deputy Head of the Department for Reforms, Policies and Reporting, People’s Advocate Office.

In turn, Ian Feldman, President of the Council on the prevention and elimination of discrimination and ensuring equality, reiterated the institution’s position on ensuring equal opportunities for everyone.

„The Council pleads for the ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, a recommendation that was not accepted by the Republic of Moldova. However, the legal framework should be improved, especially Law no. 121 on Ensuring equality, in order to ensure the legal possibility of sanctioning the acts of discrimination, as well as the Law on the inclusion of people with disabilities to create the infrastructure adapted for them” said Ian Feldman.

As part of the UPR 2016 process held in Geneva on 4 November 2016, the Republic of Moldova received 209 recommendations to improve the situation related to human rights, out of which 175 were accepted, 31 are still under examination (until March 2017) and 3 were not accepted.

Most recommendations relate to combating discrimination, including hate crimes and prejudice (29); protection of women's rights (26); protection of minority rights (14), torture and ill-treatment (11), combating trafficking in human beings (10), the rights of people with disabilities (10), strengthening national institutions for human rights (9), protection of children rights (9).

The conference was organized under the project „Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations”, financed by the Ministry of External Affairs of Norway, co-financed and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Moldova and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with the Office of the People’s Advocate (Ombudsman) and the  Council  on the prevention and elimination of discrimination and ensuring equality.”