The date of 19 January 2015 marks the 2-year anniversary of the deadline by which the ECHR decision on the case of Latin script schools from Ribnita, Grigoriopol and Tighina (Bender) had to be enforced.

We recall that on 19 October 2012, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered its judgment in the case of Catan and others v. Moldova and Russia. In the judgment, the Court recognized the violation of the right to education and Russia’s responsibility for the situation of Latin script schools in Transnistria. At the same time, in the ECtHR decision, Moldova was not recognized responsible for violation of the right to education in the said case.

The cases were sent in 2004 and 2006 respectively by parents, teachers and students from the towns of Ribnita, Tighina (Bender) and Grigoriopol of the Transnistrian region of Moldova, and concern violations of their rights to education, privacy and non-discrimination.

According to the judgment of the High Court, the Russian Federation was to pay all damages to the applicants, and to take all measures to put an end to the violations of the right to education in these schools in the Transnistrian region.

Over the past two years, Promo-LEX lawyers who represented the 170 applicants before the Court, continued monitoring the situation of the Latin-script schools in the Transnistrian region, and the progress in implementing the decision of the European Court. In this context, Promo-LEX sent several appeals to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the institution responsible for monitoring the implementation of ECtHR decisions. For its part, the Committee of Ministers strongly insisted that each Member State had an unconditional obligation under Article 46 paragraph 1 of the Convention to enforce the final decisions of the Court, and ordered the Russian authorities to take all possible steps to end the violation of the applicants’ right to education.

Also, starting with 2 May 2014, Promo-LEX conducted a campaign  “Save Transnistrian Schools”, which aims, among other things, to show solidarity with the students, parents and teachers, show work and study at the Latin script schools located in the Security Zone, and to inform the public opinion about the problems faced by these schools on a daily basis.

The “Save Transnistrian Schools” campaign will be continued in 2015. You can follow the campaign on its official Facebook page here.

For more details, contact: Alexandru Postica, Human Rights Program Director, Promo-LEX Association, tel: (022) 450-024, GSM: 069-104-851, e-mail: [email protected].