The Government will soon approve the national strategy for deinstitutionalizing persons with disabilities, following consultations with nongovernmental organizations that represent these persons. Such a recommendation was formulated by the Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities in connection with the presentation of the results of the monitoring of the way in which the authorities fulfilled the disability-related commitments assumed through the Association Agreement with the EU.
In a news conference at IPN, Ion Cibotarica, the Center’s advocacy and public policy programs director, said that in order to increase the level of implementing the relevant measures, the Government and Parliament should continue to adjust the national legislation to the international standards. Training seminars should be staged for decision makers that interact with persons with disabilities. The number of police officers, prosecutors, judges and guardians in penitentiaries, who know how to act in relation to persons with mental and psychosocial disabilities in state custody, should be increased.
A priority is to approve the human rights action plan for 2018-2021 by consulting civil society, including organizations that defend the interests of persons with disabilities. It is also necessary to improve the mechanisms for documenting, investigating and penalizing cases of torture and ill-treatment against persons with disabilities.
The representative of the Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities said the labor legislation should include the supported employment of persons with disabilities and subsidization of jobs for these. Another recommendation is to include the persons with disabilities in the implementation of entrepreneurship support, vocational education and sports programs and programs for the young people.
The roads should be built by ensuring the disabled persons’ access. The Broadcasting Coordination Council is requested to ensure the implementation of the decision concerning the access of persons with hearing and visual impairments to audiovisual programs by regularly monitoring and punishing the TV channels that do not obey the law.
The monitoring showed the commitments assumed by Moldova in the field of disability for 2014-2017 were partially fulfilled. 32% of the measures were completed, 20% are being implemented, while 48% are overdue. It is expected that the unfulfilled and partially fulfilled measures will be put into practice by the end of this year.
