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Human Rights Day is marked annually on 10 December[1]. On 10 December 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which along with other two Covenants [2] form “the International Bill of Human Rights”.

The Republic of Moldova has joined most of the international human rights treaties and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights without any reserves[3]. Moldova ratified in 2007 the Optional Protocol, which empowers the Committee to examine individual requests regarding the violation of human rights.

This document was ratified with a territorial reserve – the Transnistrian region,[4] respectively, the Protocol is effective only on the territory effectively controlled by the authorities of the Republic of Moldova.

With the international commitments assumed when ratifying these important documents, the Republic of Moldova must safeguard the rights of each person who is under its jurisdiction, on the entire territory of the country. Even though the constitutional authorities of Moldova have limited ability to influence the process of remedying the situation, the Tiraspol administration has no legal status in the international law, while other states, except for Moldova, have not declared their jurisdictional competence over the situation from the Transnistrian region.

Practically, the territorial reserve made by Moldova upon ratification of the Optional Protocol, pleads for recognising the existence of a “legal vacuum” in the Transnistrian region. Which is inadmissible, because this territory does not fall under the term terra nullius from the international law, and the international community regards it as an integral part of the Republic of Moldova.

In this context, withdraw of the reserves would be a clear advantage for the persons whose rights have been violated in the Transnistrian region.

Promo-LEX Association