Promo-LEX, as the association that represented the 170 plaintiffs in the case of Catan and others versus Moldova and Russia, called upon the President of Moldova Igor Dodon to contribute to guaranteeing the right to education in the Transnistrian region. The association says this problem can and must be addressed in the discussions that the Head of State will have during his first official visit to Russia on January 16, IPN reports.
Promo-LEX reminds that the Grand Chamber of the ECHR, in its decision of October 19, 2012, ruled that the right to education of 170 plaintiffs was violated and the Russian Federation was to blame for this.
Promo-LEX notes several aspects that it considers very important and that were ascertained by the European Court and are yet to be implemented in order to equally ensure and guarantee the rights of all the Transnistrians. Thus, the Court held that the Lyceums “Evrica” of Rybnitsa, “Alexandru cel Bun” of Bender and “Stefan cel Mare” of Grigoriopol were relocated illegally and awarded the 170 plaintiffs €1.070 million in respect of non-pecuniary damage and court costs. The decision was to be implemented by January 19, 2013.
The ECHR also held that the legislation of Transnistria contains discriminatory provisions and provisions that cannot guarantee the right to education of all the people living in this region of Moldova. “These abusive provisions restrain the use of the Latin script for teaching of the Romanian language in this area. Regrettably, during three years, the Russian authorities (governmental agent and Ministry of Justice of Russia) ignored the requests of the representatives of the plaintiffs to implement the Court’s decision, while the rights of the persons who want to study based on the education program of the Ministry of Education of Moldova continue to be violated,” says the appeal to the Head of State.
Promo-LEX remains firmly convinced that the implementation of the ECHR decision for the benefit of the 170 citizens of Moldova can contribute to ensuring the right to education and, in general, the human rights in the Transnistrian region.
