The right to health in Moldova was seriously violated in 2020 owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures taken to cope with the virus led to the reduction in the volume of other medical services and in the suspension of non-urgent services. Owing to the reduced number of places, there were reported cases when patients weren’t admitted to hospitals if only in really serious situations, the doctors being forces to refuse new hospitalizations, shows a report that was made public by the nongovernmental organizations Amnesty International Moldova, IPN reports.
Amnesty International Moldova program coordinator Constanța Botnar said that at the start of the pandemic, the substantial shortage of personal protective equipment led to a rise in the number of infections and put great pressure on the health workers who were already especially vulnerable. Nevertheless, few of the medical employees agreed to speak about these problems officially or unofficially for fear of repression. Over 1,000 health workers contracted the novel coronavirus in 2020 and 83 of them died after developing complications.
Owing to the pandemic, the freedom of movement was also affected. Last March, the citizens who returned from abroad were obliged to buy health insurance policies within 72 hours of the return, until the end of the state of emergency, even if the Council for Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality noted that this measure was discriminatory, being applied differently to those who returned by air and by land.
“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the de facto authorities of Transnistria introduced bans on trips from the territory controlled by the Government of Moldova for persons without local “passports”,” stated Constanța Botnar, noting the measure affected primary the resident health workers employed over the Nistru, who had to choose where to live and work, and this fact, combined with the general shortage of medical staff, led to a reduction in the volume of medical services for the local population.
Amnesty International Moldova executive director Veaceslav Tofan said that street protests were mounted regularly in 2020 and the right to freedom of assembly was generally respected. “Nevertheless, on July 16, the police in Chisinau used teargas to disperse a peaceful assembly of several tens of people. The police arrested and later released nine persons without charging them. In August, the mayor of Chisinau banned the bringing of agricultural machines to the place of the protest after some of the protesters used these vehicles to travel to the protest. The organizers of the protest challenged the decision in court and a decision hasn’t been yet passed,” stated Veaceslav Tofan.
The report also shows that the problems related to equitable processes persist. In February, the prosecutor general announced that 38 political cases will be reviewed. Until December, the conviction in none of these cases was annulled. The case against Veaceslav Platon, who was convicted to 18 years in jail for fraud in 2017, was the most important one. In May, the prosecutor general said the evidence against him was fabricated and Veaceslav Platon was released the next month, waiting for subsequent retrial. Nevertheless, the revision of the 38 cases generated concerns about selective justice, including the lack of clear criteria for choosing the cases.
The report reminds that the criminal case started against the officials accused of illegally detaining and expelling by force seven Turkish citizens to Turkey in 2018 was dropped. “Howsver, in September, as a result of public pressure, the prosecutor general revealed that one of the officials was convicted and fined in July. The court decision wasn’t published officially, but was disclosed to the press,” runs Amnesty International Moldova’s report.
