Successful year in human rights area, but with missed chances

[Info-Prim Neo article from the series “2011: the way it was and was not”] 2011 was a successful year for the human rights situation. Stella Jantuan, the deputy head of the parliamentary commission for human rights and interethnic relations, told Info-Prim Neo that this year the commission and NGOs managed to do more than in 2010. “A great achievement was the public debate on the National Plan for Human Rights, during which priorities were set. Another one was the adoption of the national framework regulating the activity of all ministries concerning the observance of foreign citizens’ rights according to categories, with refugees and asylum seekers having priority”, said Stella Jantuan. The MP recalled about the Law on religious organizations. It proclaims that everyone has freedom of conscience, belief and expression. “A national plan and two adopted laws are a very good result in this area”, stressed Stella Jantuan. Meanwhile, a failure is that a mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the National Plan for Human Rights wasn’t developed. “We didn’t agree on creating a group and mechanism of monitoring. Our colleagues from the Government will have to do it, it’s in their competences”, said the parliamentarian. Although praising the cooperation between the state and NGOs during the year, Stella Jantuan thinks that NGOs don’t focus on concrete cases of violation of human rights, but prefer to involve in policies, which is not good. Sergiu Ostaf, chairman of the National Council of NGOs in Moldova, thinks that both civil society and authorities made some considerable efforts to promote draft laws and approved strategies ailed to improve the human rights situation. “These documents aren’t policies yet, but they prove the authorities willingness to change things. They have intensely collaborated with civil society and we see some positive dynamics in the human rights area. The attitude is really different from 2006-2007 and before”, stressed Sergiu Ostaf. Some issues didn’t receive the attention they deserve. “I mean the need for a systemic approach to preventing and fighting torture. Despite discussions, there have been no legislative changes that would prevent some practices in case the government changes or the current one decides to resort to them”, said the head of NGO Council. Sergiu Ostaf also spoke about the Moldovan mass media, which he sees both as a means of violating and promoting human rights. He considers that the decline in pluralism, the monopolization and dependence on the political sphere of the mass media will have negative effects over the following 2-3 years. Among the missed chances, Sergiu Ostaf named the failure to adopt the Antidiscrimination Law which would have guaranteed fair chances for all citizens. “Besides, we aren’t always satisfied with the quality of the developed policies. Sometimes it’s not clear how they will function, but the tendency towards improvement is obvious and the practices are really better than previously”, said Sergiu Ostaf. According to the expert, it’s hard to say that a person can feel less discriminated after everything done this year. Effects will come over the following 2-3 years. Ostaf is optimistic about the evolution of policies in the domain of human rights in 2012. “As soon as we have political stability, there will be more safety and more chances of properly applying developed policies and getting better results.” [Mariana Galben, Info-Prim Neo]