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Ion Bucur is an ethnic Roma and citizen of Moldova, and is from Drochia. In October 2014, he met with the management of a venue in town to discuss the details of organizing a family event.

According to the petitioner, there were no problems during the discussions with the management of the restaurant by phone, however, when he showed at a meeting as agreed, the venue management’s attitude changed radically. He was advised to go to another, allegedly more prestigious restaurant, and was told that prices for events involving Roma are double those for other events.

Although the petitioner agreed to pay double for the restaurant’s services, he was asked to pay an additional fee of 2,000 euros, as, according to the restaurant’s management, Roma people are heavy smokers and could damage the venue’s expensive carpets. Ion Bucur agreed to all conditions, however, after many discussions, the restaurant’s owner said he changed his mind and will not allow organizing the event.

In December 2014, Ion Bucur registered a complaint with the Council for the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality (CPEDEE), alleging discrimination in accessing publicly available services on grounds of ethnic origin. The petitioner claims that he was treated less favorably (differently) without objective and reasonable justification.

On 13 February, the CPEDEE established that Ion Bucur was discriminated based on his ethnicity, as defined by Arts. 1 and 2 corroborated with Art. 8 letters g) and h) of the Law no. 121 on Ensuring Equality.

The full text of the decision on this case is available here.

The petitioner was represented before the CPEDEE by a lawyer from the Promo-LEX Association.

The legal aid was granted under the project “Building the Capacity of the Civil Society in Moldova, including Transnistria, in Fighting Discrimination Through Advocacy”, implemented by The Equal Rights Trust and Promo-LEX and funded by the European Union.

For more details, contact: Carolina Bondarciuc, Promo-LEX Press Officer: GSM 069-637-849, Tel/Fax (+373 22) 450-024, email: [email protected]