Seminars on advocacy by promoters of disabled persons’ interests held in Moldova

The Initiative for the Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities organizes a series of training seminars on advocacy practices and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The seminars are taking place in Balti, Chisinau and Cahul during March 10 – April 4, 2009 and aim to develop the lobbying capacity of the organizations that promote the interests of the persons with disabilities in Moldova, a communiqué from the Initiative says, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. According to Doinita Guci, support teacher for children with disabilities at the Chisinau day center “Speranta”, the seminars of this kind are an occasion for the organizations to make their good practices known. “Eventually, these practices can be taken over and implemented by the partner organizations. It is noticed that most of the organizations working in the area usually develop individual projects. They came together for the seminars, thus gathering at the same working table. Consequently, they fulfilled a preliminary plan of the Initiative,” Guci said. Two years ago, on March 30, the Republic of Moldova signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, expressing thus its strong wish to adhere to its principles and implement them. For this legal document to be ratified, 14 NGOs that promote the rights of the disabled launched the Initiative for the Ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on December 2, 2008. A number of 48 NGOs joined the Initiative so far, while 4,879 Moldovan people have signed the petition in support of the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities