Moldova reported observance of rights of people with disabilities to the UN

The Government of the Republic of Moldova presented to the UN Committee its report on the implementation of the UN Convention on the rights of the persons with disabilities, which has been ratified seven years ago. According to the official report, the Republic of Moldova has registered significant progress especially in improving the legal framework and its alignment with the international standards. It includes the adoption of the Law on social inclusion of persons with disabilities, Law on ensuring equality, introduction of social services ‘Personal assistant’, creation of National Council for determining the disability and labor ability, and others.

The members of the UN Committee appreciated the progress, making at the same time a number of comments and raising questions regarding the report. They inquired about the involvement of the persons with disabilities in developing strategies and policies, about services and infrastructure accessibility, fight against discrimination and stereotypes, deinstitutionalization of children and persons with disabilities, as well as about the situation of girls and women with disabilities. Issues related to legal capacity of persons with disabilities were also discussed.

On the occasion of Moldova’s revision by the UN Committee on the rights of the persons with disabilities, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in partnership with SOIR Moldova have organized the direct broadcasting of the Geneva revision session in Chisinau. The event was attended by over 100 persons, including authorities, persons with disabilities, and professionals from different fields, representatives of civil society, who discussed sexual-reproductive rights, right to work, accessibility, discrimination and participatory barriers faced by persons with disabilities.

About 187,000 persons with disabilities live in the Republic of Moldova. According to the estimates, about 5,000 persons with disabilities are deprived of their legal capacity, while 600 of them were deprived of legal capacity in 2012-2017 after the ratification of the Convention. Only 186 of over 2,000 persons with disabilities in residential institutions were deinstitutionalized.