Only a police station situated in Buiucani district of the capital city, of 60 subject to an audit, is accessible to persons with disabilities. Another 33 stations are partially accessible, 24 are inaccessible, while two are under construction or repair, says a study presented by Infonet Alliance in a news conference at IPN.
According to Infonet Alliance executive director Victor Koroli, only 16 access roads of 60 assessed ensure accessibility to the budding of the police station. Also, only nine entrances to buildings and only four sanitary facilities are accessible to persons with special needs. These data are better than those of the last two years, which centered on the inside of polling stations.
With the assistance of the EU, 27 police stations have been renovated during the past three years. Twenty-two of them ensure partial accessibility conditions. Three more police stations, which are also partially accessible, are to be put into operation in the course of December.
Infonet Alliance recommends the responsible authorities, especially the General Police Inspectorate, to include a separate chapter on the social inclusion of persons with disabilities in the next police development strategy. All the police stations should be subject to an audit and a consultative council should be created at the General Police Inspectorate and the Ministry of the Interior to ensure accessibility for people with disabilities.
“We consider accessibility is a very important subject because this is a precondition for realizing other rights. As long as the building is inaccessible, we cannot speak about the realization of other basic rights inside a building,” stated Victor Koroli.
The project “Analysis of physical and informational accessibility of police stations from the perspective of the community of persons with disabilities” has lasted for four months. In Moldova there are 176,100 persons with disabilities and 165,500 of them are grownups, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
Of the 173 police stations, about 90 were recently repaired or are to be repaired.
