Moldova’s legislation in the area of nondiscrimination mainly meets the European standards, but there are many shortcomings that slow down the efficient eradication of discrimination, said experts of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova who analyzed the national legislation on equality and nondiscrimination.

In a news conference at IPN, Nadejda Hriptievschi, programs director at the Center, said one of the main legislative shortcomings concerning nondiscrimination is the fact that the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality has limited powers. The Council is unable to penalize by itself an act of discrimination and to directly inform the Constitutional Court, while its recommendations remain unimplemented in most of the cases.

“What the Council can do is to make recommendations or to go to court with proceedings for obtaining the imposition of a fine. We fear that if the legislation is not amended in the nearest future to give more powers to the Council, the victims could lose confidence in the Council as in an effective mechanism,” stated Nadeja Hriptievschi.

The Council’s legal consultant Pavel Grecu said that the way in which the persons with intellectual disabilities are represented in court by lawyers who provide state guaranteed legal aid is another shortcoming. “The lawyers didn’t even meet with their clients beforehand to discuss with them before the hearings where the judge decided that the person should be forcedly hospitalized,” he stated.

The study authors consider the fact that the courts in many cases reject lawsuits that are filed in Russian, not in the official language, is also discriminatory. The same study shows that when the courts are directly informed about an act of discrimination, these face problems in correctly setting the probation period, typical of cases of discrimination, while many of the proceedings issued by the Council are annulled in court for formal reasons.

To eliminate these faults, the study authors recommend reviewing the legislation and empowering the Council to impose penalties for acts of discrimination and to inform the Constitutional Court when it considers that some of the legal provisions are discriminatory.

The study “Analysis of compatibility of Moldova’s legislation with the European standards on equality and nondiscrimination” was carried out within the project “Promotion of equality – unification of agents of change” that was implemented in February 2014 – January 2016 and was financed by the European Union.