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On 20 October 2015, the European Court of Human Rights informed the responded governments on the case Ion Iovcev and other 13 v. Republic of Moldova and Russia (Case file no. 40942/14).

The applicants are teachers, employees, pupils, and parents from four schools with teaching in Latin alphabet from the Transnistrian region: “Lucian Blaga” Theoretical Lyceum from Tiraspol; “Mihai Eminescu” Theoretical Lyceum from Dubasari; “Stefan cel Mare” Theoretical Lyceum from Grigoriopol; and secondary school from Corjova village, Dubasari district.

After ECtHR pronounced a Judgment on the case Catan and others, in October 2012, the situation of Latin alphabet teaching schools in the Transnistrian region has not improved. Moreover, the local administration kept putting administrative and financial pressure on the institutions and harassed psychologically the teachers and pupils.

Three of the applicants believe that their right to freedom and safety was violated when they were apprehended in February 2014 – the headmaster, accountant, and driver of “Lucian Blaga” Theoretical Lyceum were accused of smuggling money.

The applicants also alleged that their right to respect for private and family life was also violated as a result of the interdictions to use Romanian language, based on the Latin alphabet. Thus, in applicants’ view, Article 8 of the Convention includes the right to recognizing the language as a part of ethnic and cultural identity. The language is an essential means of social interaction and development of personal identity and imposing a foreign alphabet aims, in this case, at forcing the adoption of a different linguistic and cultural identity.

Another aspect, invoked by the applicants who hold managerial positions, is the violation of Article 8 in terms of having the correspondence checked and the telephone conversations tapped.

The applicants are represented by the lawyers and attorneys of Promo-LEX Association.

As well, ECtHR provided information about the case Gheorghe Bobeico and others v. Republic of Moldova and Russia (Case file no. 30003/04), where the applicants are teachers and pupils of the boarding school from Tighina.

For more details, please contact: Alexandru Postica, Human Rights Program Director of Promo-LEX Association, Attorney. tel: (22) 450024, GSM: 069104851, e-mail: [email protected]