Government adds four recommendations to UPR report

The Government of Moldova accepted to include four more recommendations proposed by the Human Rights Council in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) report. The recommendations were formulated at the suggestion of civil society that is represented by the Resource Group for Human Rights. The Group’s secretary Sergiu Rusanovshi has told Info-Prim Neo that the Government is yet to pronounce on another 15 recommendations during additional consultations. Under the final document sent by the Government to the UN Human Rights Council, four recommendations were fully accepted, six were partially accepted, while five are under implementation. One of the four accepted recommendations suggests guaranteeing the share of women representation on the elective and administrative state bodies. Another recommendation concerns the resolution of the problem of church land that is to be distributed to the Catholic Church or other religious communities. Allocating funds for improving the work of the ombudspersons for children’s rights is another recommendation accepted by the Government. The last recommendation envisions the acceleration of the internal procedure for bringing into force the bilateral agreement between Moldova and Ukraine on the rights of the minorities. The executive pledged to implement the six partially accepted recommendations at legislative level by submitting relevant bills to Parliament. The Universal Periodic Review report was presented and approved in October 2011. The Government accepted 107 of the 122 formulated recommendations. It will pronounce on the other 15 recommendations this month, within the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council held in Geneva on March 16. Several representatives of the Resource Group for Human Rights took part in the session and presented a statement on behalf of civil society in support of the 15 recommendations. The UPR report is adopted once in four years by the Human Rights Council that includes 192 countries. Under the report approved in October 2011, the measures are to be implemented in 2011-2014.