Between 3-4 August 2010, The Promo-LEX Association, in partnership with the Equal Rights Trust, organised a training with the title “Maltreatment Resulting from Discrimination”. The aim of the training was to help form and consolidate the participants’ capacities to monitor the situation regarding the application of torture, and regarding all forms of maltreatment resulting from discrimination. The training was moderated by Dimitrina Petrova, Executive Director of the ‘Equal Rights Trust’, and Krassimir Kanev, President of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee.

23 people participated in the training. The participants were, variously, either lawyers in the field of human rights, human rights defenders, or members of NGOs that promote and defend the rights of women, people with disabilities, or ethnic and sexual minorities.

The agenda of the training featured subjects such as the following: Torture, and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; maltreatment resulting from discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity; the correlation between the right not to be tortured and the right to non-discrimination; and monitoring the situation regarding maltreatment resulting from discrimination. Trainers used numerous case studies and examples in these respective areas taken from international practice, including from the case history of the ECHR.

It should be mentioned that this field is a relatively new one for the Republic of Moldova, in so much as human rights lawyers and defenders in Moldova do not yet have enough expertise and experience in this area. The participants at the training were thus greatly appreciative of the chance to benefit from the instruction offered.

The event was held as part of the project “Consolidating Legal Protection and Raising the Level of Knowledge Regarding Maltreatment Resulting from Discrimination in Moldova, including the Transnistrian Region”, a project implemented by the Promo-LEX Association in partnership with the Equal Rights Trust, with financial support from the European Union and the United Nations Development Programme, Moldova.