The case of Andrei Braguta, the young man who died in penitentiary in unclear conditions, describes the state of human rights in Moldova in 2017 the best, stated National Coordinator at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Veaceslav Balan, IPN reports.
In an interview for Radio Free Europe, Veaceaslav Balan said this case revealed a number of problems in the field of human rights, especially of the persons with mental disabilities. The existing prejudice and stereotypes made many of those who interacted with Andrei Braguta not to take measures or not to act to prevent his death.
Asked if the way in which this case was managed can prevent similar situations in the future, Veaceslav Balan said he hopes so. Such cases reveal systemic, structural problems and are not accidental, but are the result of the dysfunctional state machinery. Policies, laws, departmental regulations should be changed and penalties and punishment systems should be introduced for those who do not comply.
In another development, speaking about the areas in which the international recommendations weren’t actively implemented in 2017, Veaceslav Balan mentioned the rights of the ethnic-linguistic and religious minorities. “The Republic of Moldova received recommendations from the UN special rapporteur on minorities, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in 2017. In this regard, besides adopting the two policy documents – strategy for consolidating interethnic relations and the action plan for supporting the Roma ethnicity – no other measures were planned and no financing was earmarked for implementing these two documents. Therefore, there are big chances for these recommendations to remain on paper,” he stated.
Asked about the priority measures in the field of human rights in 2018, Veaceslav Balan said Moldova should take all the required measures to fight corruption and inhuman treatment and to thus implement the common order on the identification and reporting of cases of torture. The Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality should be consolidated. A new composition of the Council is to be chosen this year and the expectation is that this will not be worse than the current one and will not be politicized.
The National Coordinator at the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also said that Moldova should complete the reforms initiated in the field of rights of persons with disabilities, should deinstitutionalize the persons with disabilities, should finish the modification of the disability determination system and should ensure the employment of persons with disabilities.
