Promo-LEX Association said that the eight Romanian language schools situated in the Transnistrian region during three decades have faced increased pressure and intimidation on the part of the de facto administration of the region. A new school year started, but the problems remained the same, such as the lack of own buildings and non-adjustment of the current buildings to the education process, the risk of being conscripted into the so-called Transnistrian army or challenges related to the ensuring of the free movement of persons and goods.

At the secondary schools in Roghi and Corjova, the school year start festivities are supervised by local militia. In 2020-2021, something like this didn’t happen because such festivities weren’t staged. The students and teachers are banned from singing the anthem of the Republic of Moldova and from hoisting the state flag. The Theoretical Lyceum “Stephan the Great” does not have an own head office and the students have to daily cover tens of km to get to school. The longest distance is 54 km.

Contacted by IPN for details, Pavel Cazacu, lawyer for Promo-Lex, said the problems experienced by the schools will disappear if the Russian Federation implements the ECHR decisions in the cases of Catan and others, Bobeico and others, Iovcev and others, concerning the violation of the right to education in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.

The Court awarded pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages to individuals whose right to education was violated, but this is not the most important aspect. The ordered general measures are more important as Russia was also obliged to take action to remove the pressure, intimidation, restrictions and abuses faced by the schools since 2004 at least.

The newest relevant incident is the risk of “Lucian Blaga” Lyceum not being registered at the end of this August. The problem was for now remedied owing to the intervention of the Reintegration Policies Bureau of the Republic of Moldova.

According to Pavel Cazacu, even if the obligations deriving from those decisions refer to Russia only, the Republic of Moldova anyway remains tied to these schools and has obligations towards them as they are located on its juridical territory. In time, Chisinau supported these schools, but increased effort is needed as regards the execution of the ECHR decisions by Russia. Besides these decisions concerning the schools, there are another over 50 decisions passed by the High Court in Transnistrian cases that refer to over 2,000 persons who became victims of human rights violations.