Civil society is not powerful enough to impose public interest on political groups, CReDO

The functioning and strengthening of civil society should be one of the main subjects for discussion at the Forum of NGOs, the head of the Resource Center for Human Rights (CReDO) Sergiu Ostaf stated for Info-Prim Neo. A favorable environment is needed for facilitating and stimulating the strengthening and development of civil society. The civil society organizations need to be better organized, to be more responsible and transparent, Sergiu Ostaf said. According to him, another important issue is the expansion of the civil sector into the public sphere so as to show that besides perceptions of political behavior, there are also civil models of public responsibility that should be developed. “I think the NGO sector should assert itself and play a more important role by providing models of behavior,” Sergiu Ostaf said. The CReDO head stated that civil society in 2010 faced a number of challenges, including the ensuring of a democratic electoral process. “I consider some of the NGOs worked well before the constitutional referendum. They explained the advantages and disadvantages of the possible amendment of the Constitution and spoke about the importance of observing the law and not allowing deviations from the constitutional principles,” Sergiu Ostaf said. Civil society engaged actively in the electoral processes and facilitated the holding of free, correct and democratic elections, but did not manage to point to all the problems as regards the promotion by the political parties of group and economic interests, Ostaf said. He also said that civil society in Moldova achieved important results in 2010, but it is not yet powerful enough to impose the public interest on the political groups that control the power. The Forum of NGOs is set to take place at the start of March.