The human rights situation in Transnistrian region didn’t improve in 2020. On the contrary, it worsened considerably. This points once again to the imperative necessity of identifying mechanisms for individually penalizing the persons to blame for serous human rights violations in the region, says the Report on Human Rights in the Transnistrian region for 2020 that was presented by Promo-LEX Association. According to the report, in at least seven cases the Transnistrian police force kidnapped persons invoking different reasons. The Association’s experts recommend the authorities to become actively involved in solving individual cases and to promote the necessity of ensuring unconditional access for the international human rights monitoring institutions to the Transnistrian region, IPN reports.
In a news conference, the lawyer for Promo-LEX Pavel Cazacu said that the Transnistrian region last year became even more isolated than the previous years. The previous reports pointed to the lack of access for human rights monitoring institutions or missions, while in 2020 the situation worsened as a result of the imposition of additional restrictions. The COVID-19 pandemic was used by the de facto administration of the region as a screen for a series of actions to limit the human rights and freedoms.
On the pretext of the epidemiological situation, at least 37 illegal checkpoints were abusively set up and the population’s and business entities’ access to the region was blocked. Even if the number of posts was reduced to 11, the situation concerning the freedom of movement hasn’t improved.
The kidnappings of persons by representatives of the Transnistrian police force continue. At least seven such cases were recorded in the Security Zone in August-October 2020. Three were invoked different reasons, primarily the cooperation with the law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Moldova. Two persons continue to be illegally held in Transnistria.
According to Promo-LEX, these actions were preceded by actions to limit the political freedoms, such as the adoption of a strategy for fighting extremism in Transnistria in 2020-2026. This document permitted actions to intimidate local activities and a number of cases of limitation of the freedom of expression and the freedom of assembly were reported in 2020.
In the context of these abusive actions by the de facto administration of the region, the authorities of the Republic of Moldova and the foreign partners involved in the Transnistrian settlement process could not solve at least partially the identified problems.
Pavel Cazacu said the state institutions should coordinate the strategic activities in the field of human rights in the Transnistrian region, while Moldova’s Parliament should adopt the bill on the mechanism for penalizing the persons responsible for human rights violations (Magnitsky Law).
