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A group of Roma people were denied access to a swimming pool, in Drochia town, which was found by the Council on Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality to be an act of discrimination.

In the summer of 2015, Ion Bucur, Romeo Bucur, Roman Cebotari and some other friends decided to go to a swimming pool. Being aware of the previous cases when Roma people were denied access to the swimming pool, allegedly because of lack of available places, Ion Bucur made beforehand a reservation by phone. In spite of this, when they arrived to the swimming pool the management did not allow them to enter the pool, pointing to a poster with the following text: “We reserve the right to choose our clients”. When asking for an explanation, they were informed by the management that Roma people make “mess and disorder” and that “you (the Roma) are all alike”. The petitioners claim that Roma people are discriminated systematically by representatives of the swimming pool.

In November 2015, the petitioners submitted a complaint to the Council on Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality (CPEDEE), invoking ethnicity-based discrimination in the access to publicly available services.

On 9 February 2016, CPEDEE found ethnicity-based discrimination in the case of petitioners Ion Bucur, Romeo Bucur and Roman Cebotari, according to Article 1, 2 corroborated with Article 8(f) of Law No 121 on Equality.

Thus, according to the decision issued by the Equality Council, the Party complained against shall take all the necessary measures to avoid similar situations in the future and develop a set of clear and well defined rules on the access to the swimming pool, making sure that the potential clients are informed about them.

The Promo-LEX layer, Vadim Vieru, declared the following: “Roma people continue to be discriminated systematically, due to many preconceived ideas that still persist in the society. This is confirmed by the most recent opinion poll, carried out in 2015 by the Council for Equality in cooperation with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. As revealed by the opinion poll, the Roma are one of the most discriminated social groups, along with persons with disabilities, HIV/AIDS infected persons and LGBT persons. The Council Decision on the case of Bucur and others proves that they were discriminated on the basis of some preconceived ideas and stereotypes. These stereotypes must not be admitted in any form in the relations between business operators and their clients, regardless of the social category they belong to”.

Legal aid was provided by Promo-LEX Association under the “Strengthening civil society organizations from Moldova, including the Transnistrian region, to combat discrimination through advocacy actions” Project, implemented by The Equal Rights Trust and Promo-LEX Association, financed by the European Union and co-financed by Soros Foundation Moldova.

For more details, please contact: Carolina Bondarciuc, Promo-LEX Press Officer: GSM 069637849, Tel/Fax (+373 22) 450024, e-mail: [email protected]