The Parliament's website became available in Russian as well. A press release of the institution mentions that this will ensure access to information for national minorities and eliminate inequalities with respect to certain groups of citizens of the Republic of Moldova. The project is part of the inclusive policy promoted by the leadership of the parliament with a view to ensuring equal opportunities for all inhabitants of the country, IPN reports.
"According to the Speaker of the Parliament, Zinaida Greceanii, the limited access to information maintains the existing inequalities, perpetuating obstacles in the effective exercising of human rights for citizens from different areas of social life," the statement said.
The translation of the website into Russian language has been carried out at no cost to the public budget. At the same time, the impact on the information level and access to information increased with launching the Russian version of the site, given that, according to 2014 census, about 400 thousand citizens of the Republic of Moldova declared that they spoke Russian.
The press release reiterates that, in 2016, the UN special rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye, called on the authorities to provide minority language versions for official websites. At the same time, by its 2018 decision, the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality categorized the absence of the Russian version on Parliament's website as language-based discrimination. The Council then recommended ensuring the accessibility for Russian speakers of information on official website.
"By launching the Russian version of the website, the parliament has complied with the law on the rights of persons belonging to national minorities, which stipulate that public authorities are obliged to ensure the access of all citizens to official information of public interest," the parliament states.
The Parliament's website is available in Romanian, as well as in English and French.
