It is one year since the ECHR found Russia guilty in the case of the Moldovan-administered Latin-script schools from Moldova’s Transnistrian region, but the schools haven’t yet received the awarded damages, the principal of the Grigoriopol Lyceum “Stefan cel Mare” Eleonora Cherkavski has told IPN. Last year, on October 19, Russia was convicted of violation of the right to education and was to pay by €6,000 damages to all the 170,000 plaintiffs and €50,000 court costs within three months.
“Russia didn’t honor its obligations and we are still waiting not for the money, but rather for a solution. We want the buildings of the lyceum “Stefan cel Mare” and of the lyceum “Evrica” in Rybnitsa to be retuned to us and we want normal work conditions to be created for these lyceums and secondary schools,” said the principal.
The lawyer in this case Alexandru Postica, of “Promo-LEX” Association, said that the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which monitors the implementation of the ECHR decisions by the states, will come together for a meeting on December 3-5. “By this date, we will prepare detailed information about the actions taken by the plaintiffs to obtain the implementation of the decision and about Russia’s inaction. We will ask the Committee of Ministers to consider this case as a priority and to monitor the implementation of the relevant decision,” he stated.
According to him, the Committee of Ministers may adopt a resolution on the necessity of executing the decision and the steps that must be taken by the convicted state to implement the ECHR decision. If Russia does not fulfill its obligations after a long period of time, the Committee may propose penalties, up to Russia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe.
On October 19, 2012, the ECHR passed judgment in this case, eight years after its submission. The Court held that Russia violated the right to education. The cases were filed in 2004 and 2006 by parents, students and teachers from Rybnitsa, Bender and Grigoriopol. They complained about the violation of the rights to education, private life and non-discrimination.
The ECHR found Russia guilty also in other cases of human rights violation in the Transnistrian region given that Moldova cannot control this part of its territory, while Russia continues to maintain own military contingents in the area, without the consent of the country’s constitutional authorities.
