Representatives of a number of public associations said the order not to allow children who weren’t vaccinated against measles to attend school seriously encroaches on the child’s fundamental right to education. According to them, a Constitutional Court judgement passed in 2013 says that if the mandatory vaccination requirement is not fulfilled, other forms of education that do not imply the contact with communities should be instituted, such as education at home or individual studies, but the state does not ensure this.
In a news conference at IPN, Elena Bâtcă, a member of the Movement of Orthodox Jurists of Moldova, said that on August 21 the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research made an order concerning the organization of additional measures for improving the epidemiological situation following the spread of measles. “Under this order, the unvaccinated children are not accepted into communities. So, they are not admitted to school. Currently, about 3,000 children are out of school,” stated Elena Bâtcă, noting the authorities do not suggest legal solutions for ensuring the right to education of the unvaccinated children. “A logical question appears here: why doesn’t the Ministry of Education propose an alternative to ensure the right to education of these about 3,000 unvaccinated children who are out of school.”
Romanian judge Carmen Chirilă said the epidemic of measles hasn’t been proven scientifically and what is said to be an epidemic is only propaganda. In Romania, there was a bill by which an attempt was made to make vaccination mandatory and to penalize the parents who refused to have their children vaccinated, but the bill was rejected. “As long as an unvaccinated child is the only one who faces the risk of becoming infected in a community of vaccinated children, a question arises: how is the other child’s liberty affected by my decision not to vaccinate the child,” asked the judge.
Romanian publicist Mihai-Silviu Chirilă said the unimmunized children in Romania go to school, but there is a propaganda assumed by doctors and the mass media by which attempts are made to subject the parents to pressure. “No one in Romania, and I think in your country too, struggles against the vaccine itself. They struggle against these contemporary vaccines that are allegedly not safe, as some doctors said. We do not struggle against vaccination, but against the fact that we are obliged to have a vaccine that is not safe,” stated the publicist.
The head of the public association “Clean Planet” Alexandru Kovalskii, who is the father of two unvaccinated children, said he enrolled his children at school and the administration of the school asked for certificates showing that the children were immunize. He presented a statement were he formulated the reasons for which he refused the vaccination and sent a letter to the Ministry of Education, but hasn’t yet received an answer.
“As the representative of the parents from Florești, we demand to have a public and open discussion with the ministries in charge so as to address this problem,” stated Ala Sârcu, head of the public association “Areopagus”.
The representatives of the associations demand to ensure the right to alternative education. They said they will go to court to obtain the annulment of the order by which the admission of unvaccinated children to school is banned.
