In the Republic of Moldova the people continue not to have free access to justice. Their rights to personal safety and dignity, social protection and assistance are violated, says the second Report on the observance of the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms for 2016 that was presented by the Office of the People’s Ombudsman on April 11, IPN reports.

In 2016, the Office of the People’s Ombudsman received about 300 petitions, a higher number than a year before. The petitioners invoked such problems as non-implementation of court decisions, delays in examining cases by courts of law, violation of the presumption of innocence. More than half of the petitioners consider the state does not ensure equal access to high-quality medical assistance.

Svetlana Rusu, division head at the Office of the People’s Ombudsman, said the right to health protection of some categories of people, especially those with low incomes, is often violated. The persons complain about the non-respectful attitude of the medical personnel to patients, non-provision of medical assistance on time, insufficiency of skilled personnel or the acute shortage of personnel.

The detainees complain about poor detention conditions. The report says only three of the 17 penitentiaries were renovated and meet the minimum detention standards. The prisons are by over 40% overpopulated.

Some 57% of the respondents of the study “Perceptions of the human rights in the Republic of Moldova”, carried out by the Office of the People’s Ombudsman, said children’s rights are well or very well respected in Moldova. However, the ombudsman draws attention to such related problems as issuing of documents for children, especially for newborns in Transnistria, prevention of juvenile delinquency, respect for the right to education.

The report includes a separate chapter on Gagauzia and Transnistria, which highlights problems related to the issuing of identity cards, children’s documents and levying of differentiated taxes in schools and kindergartens.

People’s Ombudsman Mihail Cotorobai formulated a number of recommendations for the authorities on each separate chapter, with the observance of the legislation being the general recommendation.