Members of the Coalition for Inclusion and Non-discrimination urge Moldovan authorities to improve the legislation on equality and non-discrimination

Don’t let the disability, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, race, political choice, and other similar criteria create a wall between you and others. This is the message of the Coalition for Inclusion and Non-discrimination, which conducted on 19 October 2021 an online workshop with decision makers. During the workshop, the legislative deficiencies and the commitments of the Republic of Moldova to amend the legislation on equality and non-discrimination were analysed.

The event was carried out by the East Europe Foundation in the framework of the project “Advocacy for better protection against discrimination,” implemented in partnership with the Centre “Partnership for Development”, funded by the European Union and co-financed by Sweden.

The members of the Coalition for Inclusion and Non-discrimination presented a series of recommendations for improving the legal framework. In this regard, the need for the urgent approval of the legal framework on combating crimes motivated by prejudice, hatred and contempt was emphasized; improving legislation concerning the activity of the Council on the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality, adoption a package of laws to ensure the gender equality and prevent discrimination against women at the workplace, adoption of a document of policies that will establish the mechanism for transposing the legal provisions on ensuring the conditions of accessibility of the physical, informational environment, etc., implementation of pro-active integration measures on the labour market addressed to young people with disabilities, including those returning from detention, etc.

The civil society organisations reiterate the importance of finalizing the draft law no. 301/2016 and the acceptance of the amendments formulated by civil society organizations, as well as the recommendations of international organisations, which will lead to increasing the responsibility of actors involved in the use of hate speech.

The authorities have shown their openness to promote the equality in our country through concrete actions, so that disadvantaged groups from the society can be actively involved in the economic and social life of the country. “We are open to take concrete steps to promote the equality and one proof of this is the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, which was recently ratified by our country,” said Angela Munteanu-Pojoga, Deputy, member of the Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations.