Civil society for and against antidiscrimination law

Representatives of nongovernmental organizations could not reach a consensus as regards the antidiscrimination bill. The draft law was discussed in a roundtable meeting organized by the parliamentary commission on human rights and interethnic relations for the purpose of identifying the advantages and disadvantages of such a law, Info-Prim Neo reports. The representatives of the NGOs that are against the adoption of the bill said this law profanes the values and morality. Vitalie Marian, executive director of the Moldova Alliance for Protecting Families, said the bill is imperfect. The authorities say that the adoption of such a law is a condition imposed by the EU on Moldova in order to obtain a liberalized visa regime. But Vitalie Marian says that the antidiscrimination law has nothing in common with the liberalization of the visa regime. “In fact, the bill was drafted neither by the Ministry of Justice nor the Antidiscrimination Coalition, but by the organization Gender-Doc. In all the European countries that passed such laws, the initiative was put forward by sexual minorities,” said Viatlie Marian. According to him, 95 countries classify homosexuality as disease. Cristina Pereteatcu, executive director of Amnesty International Moldova, said Amnesty International considers that discrimination in the civilized states is unacceptable. As Moldova joined a number of international conventions in the field, the state must ensure the observance of the rights of all the persons who are on this territory. “Besides the responsibilities we have at foreign level, we have responsibilities towards the Moldovan people,” she said. Secretary general of the NGO Council of Moldova Antonita Fonari said the EU wants the people in Moldova to be non-discriminated so that when they are able to travel freely they do not seek political asylum en masse. “The European Union will not accept that a group of people that is discriminated in Moldova be omitted from this document as this category will immediately seek asylum and they will do right. I will say that I’m Romany, Baptist and homosexual and will be the first to seek political asylum. I promise you,” said Antonita Fonari. Vasile Filat, head of the Association “For Family”, said that this law is immoral as it generates pedophilia. “We are now all witnesses to cases of pedophilia that are homosexual in nature. All the homosexuals say they saw such lifestyle when they were young,” he stated. The antidiscrimination bill was approved by the Government on February 17 and is to be examined in Parliament.