Jurists seek amendment of law on mandatory vaccination of children

The Law on the Supervision of Public Health, under which the children who are not vaccinated are not admitted to education institutions, must be amended, consider jurists Elena Batca, Gheorghe Avornic, and Teo Carnat. According to them, the non-admission of unvaccinated children to education institutions is a violation of human rights, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on January 21, Elena Batca said that there are cases when the children do not attend school because they are not immunized and when the parents forge the documents in order to be able to take their children to kindergarten or other education institutions. The jurist also said that in July 2012, ombudsman Anatolie Munteanu filed an application to the Constitutional Court, asking examining the constitutionality of the legal provisions that make the immunization of children mandatory. Teo Carnar said the ombudsman appealed to the Constitutional Court after dozens of parents complained as their children were unable to go to kindergartens, schools, camps. “The law must be declared unconstitutional because the parents are those who must decide on their children’s health,” he stated. “There are no cases of unvaccinated children posing a threat to the vaccinated ones. It is a stereotype that leads to discrimination. If the application is not accepted, some of the persons may appeal to the ECHR and then Moldova will have to modify the legislation. We cannot adopt laws that limit the rights and freedoms provided in the Constitution. The Law on the Supervision of Public Health limits the right to education and the right to health protection,” said Teo Carnat. Gheorghe Avornic, the dean of the Bar Association of Chisinau municipality, drew a parallel with Romania, Russia and Ukraine, where the law does not impose restrictions on the parents who do not want their children to be immunized. According to the jurist, Moldova should follow the example of these states.