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The Promo-LEX Association, as the Association representing some 170 plaintiffs in the case Catan and Others v. Moldova and Russia (applications no. 43370/04, 8252/05 and 18454/06) requests that the President of the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Igor Dodon, contribute to protecting the right to education in the Transnistrian region.

We believe that this problem can and should be addressed in the course of the discussions that the President will have during his first official visit to Moscow on 16.01.2017.

We note the Decision of the High Chamber of the ECtHR on 19.10.2017 recognized the violation of 170 plaintiffs’ right to education, and the party found responsible for this infraction was the state the Russian Federation.

We emphasize some particularly important aspects of the European Court’s findings that have yet to be fulfilled relating to implementing and guaranteeing the rights of all residents of the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova in equal measure.

The Court found that the 2002 evictions of the “Evrica” Lyceum on Gagarin St., city of Râbniţa; of the “Alexandru cel Bun” Lyceum from its school building on Kosmodemianskaia St., city of Bender; and of the “Ştefan cel Mare” Lyceum in the city of Grigoriopol were unjust.

In addition, the Court ordered the payment of 1 million 70 thousand Euros in non-material damages to the 170 victims and to cover the costs of representation in the Court. That decision should have been implemented before 19.01.2013.

The European Court also found that the local legislation (“RMN”) contains discriminatory provisions incompatible with the guarantee of the right to education for all residents of that region of the Republic of Moldova. The unjust provisions restrict the use of the Latin script for working and teaching in Romanian in that area (art. 6 of the “Law on the Use of Languages”, art. 12 of the “Constitution of the RMN”, art. 200/3 of the “Contraventional Administrative Code of the RMN”, the decision from 18.08.1994 on the prohibition of the use of the Latin script in educational institutions).

Unfortunately, for the past 3 years, the authorities of the Russian Federation (the Government Agency and the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation) have ignored requests to implement the Court’s decision by representatives and by the plaintiffs, and the rights of people who wish to study using the Educational Program (Curriculum) of the Ministry of Education in Chișinău continue to be violated.

We remain firmly convinced that the implementation of the ECtHR decision in favor of the 170 citizens of the Republic of Moldova would contribute to respect for the right to education and human rights more generally in the Transnistrian region.

We make an appeal to the President of the Republic of Moldova to address the problem of human rights in the Transnistrian region in his discussions with his Russian counterpart and to request that the Decision of the European Court from 19 October 2012 be implemented, in order to contribute to the defense of human rights and the constitutional interests of the citizens of the Republic of Moldova in the Transnistrian region.

For more details, please contact: Alexandru POSTICA, Program Director, GSM:0691 04 851,  Tel: (22) 450024, e-mail: [email protected]

The Promo-LEX Association
Human Rights Program