Moldova
MDAC started working in Moldova in December 2010, responding to an invitation from the United Nations Development Program to become involved in the country.
Current situation
There are currently more than 170,000 persons certified as “invalid” in Moldova, the current term in Moldovan law for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities face discrimination, social exclusion, poverty, unemployment, life in segregated institutions, low quality education, and inaccessibility to the general system of social protection.
As a State Party to the CRPD Moldova has on paper committed to implementation of the right of persons with disabilities to live in the community, and the right to legal capacity. In ratifying OPCAT, Moldova has pledged to monitor the human rights of those who remain deprived of their liberty in psychiatric and social care institutions. Although the government has started to decrease the number of beds in some of its large institutions for persons with disabilities, tens of thousands still reside in psychiatric and social care institutions where they are at risk of inhuman conditions, exploitation and abuse, and abuse of physical and chemical restraint.
The Moldovan Parliament is currently in the process of introducing new equality instruments in an effort to bring Moldovan laws in line with regional and international human rights standards. The content of the recently-adopted draft law on Preventing and Combating Discrimination attempts to ensure that Moldovan equality law conforms with European Union equality law. While MDAC welcomes these steps, we have concerns that the draft law does not go far enough in order to meet EU and United Nations standards by not, for example, including provisions on reasonable accommodation.
MDAC activities
Capacity-building:In December 2010 MDAC co-organised a capacity-building event with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Moldova on monitoring methodology for mental health and social care institutions in order to prevent ill-treatment. In December 2010 MDAC also put on an advocacy event for government representatives and directors of mental health institutions on legal capacity law reform’.
In early 2011 MDAC submitted recommendations to the Moldovan Parliament urging parliamentarians to make changes to the discrimination bill so that it fully complies with European and United Nations standards.
