With good and bad moments, the year 2017 is coming to an end and the time is now inopportune to sum up. On this occasion, IPN gathered good thoughts, this time only good ones, from those who take decisions and from those for whom decisions are taken. What good things did 2007 bring? This is the question that we put to those who accepted to be near us in our wish to find what’s good in the things around us and in the events that mark us. Even if many times things do not go as we want, it is the man and society that stand to gain as they can see an additional opportunity to become involved and change things to be better even in problems and worse things. For each of the raised subjects, we provide a number of rankings that show the position of those that compiled them. Below you can see the accomplishments of 2017 in the Transnistrian settlement process.
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Rankings of Reintegration Office:
1. Viable solutions were agreed to five historical issues that are of major interest for the population from both sides of the Nistru River as a result of negotiations. A number of relevant protocol decisions were signed on November 3 and 25, 2017.
“On November 3, there was signed the protocol on the opening of the bridge over the Nistru near the villages Gura Bicului and Bychok. On November 25, there were signed a number of protocol decisions, including concerning the ensuring of the functioning of Moldovan-administered, Romanian-language schools, apostilling of university diplomas issued in the Transnistrian region, measures to regulate problems related to the cultivation of the farmland located in Dubasari district, beyond the Tiraspol-Camenca road, based on the mechanisms agreed in 2006, and measures to organize the interaction in the telecommunications sector.”
2. A new official meeting of the Permanent Conference for Political Questions in the Framework of the Negotiating Process on the Transnistrian Settlement in the 5+2 Format was held.
“After a hiatus of almost a year and a half in the talks in the 5+2 format, owing to the efforts made by the Moldovan authorities, re-opening of the dialogue and stimulation of the process between leaders and of substantial accomplishments achieved by the sides by signing five sector protocol decisions on issues of major interest, on November 3 and 25, and to the productive involvement of representatives of the mediators and observers, a new official meeting of the Permanent Conference for Political Questions in the Framework of the Negotiating Process on the Transnistrian Settlement in the 5+2 Format was held in Vienna, Austria, during November 27-28, 2017. The meeting’s results were formalized in a Protocol (so-called Vienna Protocol)”.
3. A new meeting was held between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip and the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselski.
“The dialogue between leaders was resumed and three meetings were held in this regard. After a pause of over two years and a half, there was held a new meeting between the Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova Pavel Filip and the Transnistrian leader Vadim Krasnoselski. On November 18, these took part in the official ceremony held to open the Gura Bicului - Bychok Bridge.”
4. Productive activity was witnessed in the dialog platforms centering on the Transnistrian settlement process.
“The interaction between the dialogue platforms for the Transnistrian settlement process was marked by a productive and more intense activity compared with 2016 and 2015. There were held nine meetings of the chief negotiators, 34 meetings of the sector working groups for promoting the confidence building measures and 44 meetings of the Joint Control Commission.”
5. There was adopted the Declaration on the Transnistrian settlement process in the 5+2 format.
“In the 24th meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council that was held in Vienna, Austria, on December 7-8, there was adopted the Declaration on the Transnistrian settlement process in the 5+2 format that reaffirms the firm position of the OSCE participating states to identity a comprehensive, peaceful and sustainable solution to the Transnistrian conflict, based on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, within its internationally recognized borders and by determining a special status for the Transnistrian region, which could guarantee the observance of the basic rights of the inhabitants of the region.”
Rankings of Promo-LEX Association:
1. Recommendations of United Nations Organization
“In 2017, the UN member states formulated recommendations on the situation of human rights in the Republic of Moldova. Of the 209 recommendations, Chisinau pledged to promote the human rights in the Transnistrian region, as a component part of the Republic of Moldova: the victims of human rights violations should receive assistance; human rights should be monitored by establishing a mechanism devoted to this goal, by involving civil society from both banks of the Nistru River; the promotion of human rights in the Transnistrian region should continue; the human rights defenders should not be intimidated.”
2. Six judgments passed by the European Court of Human Rights on the Transnistrian region.
“The European Court of Human Rights passed another six judgments on cases of human rights violations in the Transnistrian region. The same number of cases of human rights violations were examined until 2016. These judgments are a guarantee for the victims that their rights will be protected. They also make the authorities take positive measures to prevent the commission of violations.”
3. National Human Rights Action Plan
“The approval by the Government of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2018-2022 is a decisive step for promoting the rights on the left side of the Nistru. This is the most relevant public policy document on human rights so far. This contains a separate subchapter on the Transnistrians region. Among the important provisions are the prevention and fighting of torture and inhuman treatment, ensuring of the rights to education in the region and issuing of documents to the Transnistrians.”
4. Protocol decisions
“2017 witnessed a number of achievements in the negotiation process, such as the signing of particular protocol decisions. These contain the commitment to guarantee the rights of particular groups of people. Consequently, there was reopened the bridge on the Nistru, which connects the villages Gura Bicului and Bychok.”
5. Moldovan-Ukrainian customs post Cuciurgan-Pervomaisc
“Representatives of the border police and customs officers of Ukraine and Moldova, as of May 31, 2017 this year, have ensured common checks at the Moldovan-Ukrainian customs post Cuciurgan-Pervomaisc. The goal is to ensure control over the whole perimeter of the Moldovan-Ukrainian state border.”
Rankings of Theoretical Lyceum “Lucian Blaga” of Tiraspol:
1. A contingent of 150 students was kept.
“Despite the pressure exerted by the separatist Transnistrian region, we could keep a contingent of 150 students of the lyceum who live in a town where there is no kindergarten in the Romanian language and Romanian is practically not spoken there.”
2. The Theoretical Lyceum “Lucian Blaga” is among the top ten lyceums of Moldova by the results in the Baccalaureate exams.
“In 2017 too, the graduates of the Theoretical Lyceum “Lucian Blaga” successfully passed the Baccalaureate exams, with the lyceum ranking seventh among the top ten lyceums of Moldova by the results in the Baccalaureate exams.
3. The number of first graders rose compared with the previous years.
4. Ion Iovchev has managed the lyceum for 25 years.
Ion Iovchev: “On May 27 this year, it had been 25 years or a quarter of century in my position of director of this Romanian teaching education institution of Tiraspol, which is called the Theoretical Lyceum “Lucian Blaga”.
5. There was signed a protocol on the Romanian-language schools working on the left side.
“This year, we got hope that we will be able to work easier, without being pressed and humiliated by the local authorities after the signing of the protocol on the Romanian-language schools working in the eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova and Bender town”.
