Approximately 50 nongovernmental organizations and civic activists addressed to the political class a manifesto for gender equality with the priorities for 2019-2020 in a number of areas. In a news conference at IPN, Alina Andronache, public relations and advocacy specialist at the Partnership for Development Center, said the manifesto was launched because the reforms done during the past few years to ensure gender equality were implemented as half-measures and didn’t have a significant impact.
According to Alina Andronache, the impact of the laws adopted in 2016, concerning the women’s participation quota in elections, was reduced by replacing the electoral system, the current one being disadvantageous to women. The reform concerning the childcare leave didn’t significantly change the situation of women. These continue to face problems that prevent them from combining professional life and personal life.
Olga Bîtcă, president of the Gender Equality Platform, said the women in politics are underrepresented. The female MPs now represent about 20% and the figure could be even lower after elections. At the parliamentary elections of February 24, he women’s participation quota on the national list of candidates is respected, but female candidates’ chances of entering the legislature are slim as they are placed at the end of the list. A solution is to modify the lists by placing women on eligible places. In uninominal constituencies, the gender quota is respected and only 20% of the candidates there are women.
Olga Bîtcă said another measure needed to ensure gender equality is to make sure one of the senior state posts, that of Prime Minister or that of Parliament Speaker, is compulsorily held by a woman. The posts of minister on the Cabinet should be distributed equitably and women should be named to manage institutions that are mainly led by men, such as the Ministry of Defense, the Security and Intelligence Service or the National Anticorruption Center. Among the required measures is also the diminution of the party funding ceiling at least 50 times. This will ensure a more active participation of women and young people in the political life.
Veronica Braghiș, of the public association against violence “Casa Mărioarei”, spoke about the problem of dome sic violence against women, saying the authorities and society do not realize the gravity and the costs entailed by the rehabilitation of victims. The Republic of Moldova should ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The state should finance a part of the activities of NGOs that provide assistance and rehabilitation to women and children victims of domestic violence.
Alexandra Ermolenko, of the Partnership for Development Center, said measures to ensure transparency and to exclude the gender pay gap that is of about 13.5% in the favor of men are needed. Measures are also necessary in the pension sector. Currently, when setting the pension, the childcare leave is considered as a contribution equal to the minimum official salary, but this directly influences the size of pension. As the women are those who mainly go on childcare leave, they are discriminated by such provisions. Greater flexibility is needed in the way in which money is allocated for the leave and as regards its period so that each parent could decide the period of leave. The parents can now choose only between two or three years.
Civic activist Rodion Gavriloi said tobacco smoking is also a challenge as this reduces life expectancy by about eight years, mainly among men. The state, besides the measures to raise the prices of tobacco products, should also increase the excise duties on these according to a plan of action. Another measure is to give the same status as that given to ordinary cigarettes to heated tobacco products and to introduce them in the law on tobacco control. Such measures would have a direct impact on the health of those who smoke and the high prices of tobacco products would reduce smoking.
