O.S.C.E. Mission calls upon Transnistrian authorities to rescind decree that prohibits foreign financing of NGOs

The OSCE Mission to Moldova is deeply concerned by the recent decree of Igor Smirnov, the leader of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistrian region, which prohibits nongovernmental organisations from receiving any funding from abroad, including funding from international organisations like the OSCE, according to a communication of the OSCE Mission to Moldova. This action raises serious questions about the desire of Transnistrian authorities to cooperate with the international community and their intention to observe generally accepted international norms. The provisions of the decree, as we understand them, directly contradict the principles and the spirit of the Helsinki Final Act and the common values shared in the OSCE area. The decree will directly affect international support from all sources for civil society in the small and isolated Transnistrian region, including projects promoting democracy, human rights, freedom of the media and the struggle against trafficking in human beings. The decree would also prohibit a range of existing programmes offering assistance from abroad to Transnistrian educational, public welfare, and public health organisations and institutions. „We have already heard that certain social and anti-trafficking activities funded from abroad had to be suspended, and we are very concerned that other projects aimed at making the lives of ordinary people in the region safer and better will be placed in jeopardy by this decree,” reads the statement, and the OSCE calls upon Transnistrian authorities to reconsider and to rescind this decree unconditionally and without delay. Earlier, participants in the forum for democracy and human rights that took place in Tighina/Bender on March 11 said that this decree runs counter a number of international acts on human rights, Moldovan legislation and even normative documents of the unrecognised Transnistrian republic, which had pledged in 1992 to respect the international standards on human rights. The participants in forum have also asked the immediate cancellation of this decree and insurance of freedom of activity of these NGOs.