Human Rights Center has dealt with over 1800 complaints in first half of year

Most of the persons that appeal to ombudspersons complain that their right to a fair trial is violated. The Human Rights Center of Moldova (CpDOM) in the first half of this year has received 322 applications whereby the authors express their disagreement with court decisions, especially in legal cases, or with the results of the investigations. The people also complain about the quality of the legal consultancy services provided by the lawyers and about the non-fulfillment of court decisions, which continues to be a major obstacle in ensuring the observance of the human rights and a reason for complaining to the ECHR, the CpDOM director Anatolie Munteanu told a news conference on July 20, Info-Prim Neo reports. The people also complain of the violation of the right to property, the social rights, including the right to work and to pension, and the right to personal security and dignity, the ombudsman said. Anatolie Munteanu said that 36% of the complaints concerning the right to personal security and dignity came from detainees. Twenty-two legal case over excess of authority, 18 cases over misuse of power, 13 cases over torture and three cases over constraint to make statements were opened on the basis of these complaints during January-June this year. In the first half of this year, the CpDOM has dealt with 1,827 complaints. Out of these, 870 came in the form of applications, while 957 persons came to the head office or the Center’s local offices in Comrat, Cahul and Balti to tell about their problems themselves. At the same news conference, ombudsman Oleg Efrim said that the institutions became more receptive to the ombudspersons’ appeals and the cooperation has improved. Yet, many of the decisions are not implemented. The ombudsmen said that the people become more aware of their rights and look for efficient methods to defend them. The large number of appeals to the CpDOM and the ECHR is a proof of this. The ombudspersons’ institution appeared in Moldova as a non-judiciary human rights defense mechanism 10 years ago. The Center is an independent public authority that ensures the observance of the human rights by government and public authorities and institutions and organizations, regardless of their form of ownership. Four ombudspersons work in Moldova at present. The CpDOM employs 38 persons.