Назад Fighting Discrimination and Providing Justice for Ethnic Minorities in the Republic of Moldova

Fighting Discrimination and Providing Justice for Ethnic Minorities in the Republic of Moldova

The NGO Roma National Center from the Republic of Moldova is implementing until April 2022 a project intending to change the negative attitude towards Roma and other ethnic minority groups in the country, as well as to raise awareness of society about the discriminatory practices that lead to social and economic degradation of the country. The organisation implementing the project also aims to increase access to justice for the respective groups and equal rights among the society. This project is carried out with the support of the European Union/Council of Europe joint programme Partnership for Good Governance, and its regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Eastern Partnership.

The Roma National Center will:

  1. Improve access to justice for Roma/ethno-minority victims of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes through free-legal assistance, consultancy and litigation as well as monitoring of cases on discrimination patterns, hate speech and hate crimes that exists in the Republic of Moldova for Roma and other ethnic minorities;
  2. Build necessary skills and raising awareness of the Roma community mediators, Roma leaders, other ethnic minorities about international and local standards on human rights as well on how to submit complaints to the Equality Council in order to address the discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes;
  3. Raise awareness of the society by elaborating a guideline on how to combat discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes.

Roma remains the most widespread discriminated group affected by the negative societal prejudice. The inequalities affect their active role in public life, employment, as well as their contribution to developing democratic institutions, rule of law, combating corruption, etc.  The activities in the framework of this project aim at addressing issues of discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes that exist towards Roma and other minority groups considered also to be a vulnerable group in the Moldavian society.

This project is one of the six civil society supported by the European Union/Council of Europe regional anti-discrimination project, in Armenia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine aimed at increasing access to justice for groups that experience discrimination, hate speech and hate crime.

This activity is implemented in the framework of the regional project “Strengthening access to justice for victims of discrimination, hate crime and hate speech in the Eastern Partnership,” funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe in their Partnership for Good Governance II 2019-2022.

Republic of Moldova 16 December 2021
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Strasbourg, France Strasbourg, 1-2 July 2024
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Addressing hate speech and hate crime: regional gathering of the network of Equality Bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region

A two-day workshop on addressing hate speech and hate crime took place at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, involving Equality bodies from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership regions.  The event supported by the EU and Council of Europe, gathered 50 representatives from both regions who discussed and exchanged on the best practices, measures and common challenges when addressing hate speech and hate crime. Through monitoring and reporting, policy advocacy, raising awareness and supporting victims equality bodies play a fundamental role in protecting human rights and ensuring that all individuals are treated equally.

In her opening remarks, Angela Longo, Head of Anti-discrimination Co-operation Unit, Council of Europe, underlined the significant progress in engaging with Equality Bodies through this network, regularly exchanging best practices and addressing the challenges of hatred and intolerance in societies. She highlighted that this new chapter of discussion delves into the grey area between hate speech and hate crime, addressing issues of incitement and biases,

Representatives from Equality Bodies had the opportunity to discuss and enhance their knowledge on the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers Recommendation to member States on combating hate crime, adopted on 7th May 2024, as well as gain a clearer understanding of EU standards in the field of hate crime. Moreover, participants engaged in exchanges with peers from the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), who shared insights on addressing hate speech in the public discourse. The National Office Against Racial Discrimination (UNAR) in Italy provided practical examples for developing counter-narratives and raising awareness initiatives.

They also explored opportunities to advocate for legislative reform, foster multisectoral co-operation, enhance data collection, and overall improve national mechanisms to counter hate crimes.

This seminar was organised within the action “Promoting equality and combating racism and intolerance in the Western Balkans” and the project “Promoting equality and non-discrimination: towards more resilient and inclusive societies” – co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe, and implemented by the Council of Europe  under the joint Programmes “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye” and “Partnership for Good Governance”.

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