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The President of the Republic of Moldova, Maia Sandu, pays an official visit to New York, USA, between September 21-22. There, she participates in the work of the United Nations General Assembly. According to a press release of the President’s Office, the official will deliver a speech at the tribune of the United Nations.

In this context, the Promo-LEX Association suggested the president to request the appointment of a special rapporteur in order to monitor the situation of human rights in the Transnistrian region. According to Promo-LEX, the responsibility for human rights violations in the Transnistrian region arises as a result of the Russian Federation’s military, economic and political control over the Tiraspol regime.

“We consider it imperative to insist on the observance of the international commitments assumed by the Russian Federation regarding the withdrawal of the armed forces and ammunition from the territory of the country,” the representatives of Promo-LEX stated. They consider the speech before the UN an opportunity “to demand the observance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the Russian Federation with reference to this territory which is in its full control.”

“It is important to remember about the numerous cases of murder, torture, ill-treatment, forced enlistment in illegal military structures, the application of pseudo-justice in the Transnistrian region, all carried out under the tacit agreement of the Russian Federation. These findings stem from dozens of rulings and decisions issued by the European Court of Human Rights, which found that Russia is responsible for human rights violations in the region.”

The association representatives expressed their hope that the president of the country would give priority to issues related to the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region and would call on relevant international actors to contribute to guaranteeing fundamental human rights and freedoms throughout Moldova.

They asked Maia Sandu to insist on the observance of the obligation to evacuate the ammunition and the military units of the Russian Federation from the territory of the Republic of Moldova, to publicly support the need for the Russian Federation to implement the ECtHR rulings on human rights violations in the Transnistrian region, and to request the appointment of an UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur  to monitor the human rights situation in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova.

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The Promo-LEX Association concluded that 14 out of 25 actions planned within the National Action Plan for the years 2018–2022 concerning respecting human rights in Transnistria were not carried out by the responsible authorities.

The association expressed its concern and mentioned that there are a large number of delays in the planned results. “There is a lack of communication and coordination between the designated institutions, which do not yet have a common vision of interaction for the implementation of the plan.”

Promo-LEX requested the Government of the Republic of Moldova to re-assess the reported activities and to take urgent measures, “which would exclude superficial implementation of future activities and increase the level of accountability of the authorities.”

Photo: peacekeeping.un.org

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Legislative elections are currently being held in Russia between September 17-19, as 450 new members in the State Duma need to be elected.

The Central Election Commission (CEC) of the Russian Federation decided to open a record number of polling stations in the Transnistrian region – 27 polling stations, in addition to only 3 polling station opened on the right bank of the Dniester in such big cities as Chisinau, Comrat and Balti.

That is the largest number of polling stations opened by the Russian CEC in a foreign country, and five polling stations more than in the 2016 elections. Two of the polling stations were established in Tiraspol, being open from Friday to Sunday. The rest of the Russian polling stations on the Transnistrian territory are opened on Sunday only. The most astonishing fact is that no state other than Russia has ever opened polling stations in the separatist region of the Republic of Moldova. Actually, no polling stations are being opened on the Transnistrian territory when it comes to national elections of the Republic of Moldova either.

Therefore, one could say that the stakes are high when it comes to Transnistrian voters, especially since, most likely, the hopes of Russian authorities are not necessarily based on a large turnout and their real support, rather on the real possibility of electoral fraud on a territory that is not controlled by the constitutional authorities in Chisinau.

Before the presidential elections in 2018, Russian authorities announced that there are 220 thousand Russian citizens living in the Transnistrian region. That time, 24 polling stations were opened in the separatist area. Despite the fact that the Tiraspol Electoral Commission announced that, in the last year and a half alone, the voter turnout has officially fallen in the region by more than 7 700 people, the Russian CEC still decided to establish a record number of polling stations this year, which strengthened the argument about the possibility of election fraud.

Both Tiraspol’s administration and the regional media campaigned for the ruling political party United Russia and called for a high turnout at polling stations. Transnistria’s leader, Vadim Krasnoselski, urged the people on the left bank of the Dniester to come to the polls “because despite all the difficulties, Russia does not forget Transnistria and helps it as much as possible.”

It seems that the campaigning, along with the Russian sponsorship in the region, show great results during every election ballot, as Russian citizens voting in Russian elections in Transnistria are a more active electorate than Moldovan citizens residing in Transnistria and voting in the Moldovan elections at the polling stations arranged on the other bank of the Dniester, especially for them. In the previous Russia’s legislative elections, 56 thousand people voted in Transnistria, while just under 29 thousand inhabitants of the Transnistrian region voted in the recent Moldova’s parliamentary elections.

Before every election ballot held in the Russian Federation, Moldovan authorities make statements, suggesting the Russian side to abstain from opening polling stations in Transnistria, whereas Russian authorities ignore them every time.

This year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Moldova also sent a note of protest against opening the polling stations in Transnistria. “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration regrets that, despite the position consistently expressed by the Moldovan authorities, the Russian side acted in a manner that does not correspond to the principle of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova and the bilateral legal framework.”

The Ministry representatives noted that Russian authorities were informed of the lack of impediments to open polling stations in localities under the control of Moldova’s constitutional authorities and requested the Russian side to refrain from opening the 27 polling stations in the localities of the breakaway region, given the impossibility of ensuring the necessary security conditions for the current elections.

Moscow’s Central Election Commission also opened nine polling stations in Abkhazia and ten in South Ossetia – two disputed territories that were internationally recognised by Russia and a few more countries, while considered under military occupation, according to the Georgian Government. These lands, that are under the exclusive control of Russia, offer good opportunities to ‘correct’ any uncomfortable results obtained in the country, where the ruling political party no longer enjoys as much support as it wants to appear.

Photo: wjct.org

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After the spike in daily COVID-19 cases in March-April 2021, a decreasing trend was recorded during this summer. Starting September, the number of confirmed cases went up again to 850 cases on September 7, 790 cases on September 8 and 731 cases on September 9. The average number of confirmed cases increased by 17.0% in the last 2 weeks.

As being mentioned on the national vaccination platform, 1 306 726 doses of vaccine have been administered since the start of the vaccination campaign. The national vaccination rate with one dose is 21.96%, while 20.61% of the population is fully vaccinated.

According to the official statistics provided by the Ministry of Health, 70-85% of people who got infected were not vaccinated. Epidemiologists believe this may be the beginning of a new wave, while Government insists on the imperative to vaccinate as many people as possible.

That is one of the main reasons the National Extraordinary Public Health Commission (NEPHC) declared a new public health state of emergency in the country starting September 10. The institution also established new rules for access to public events and public places.

Therefore, starting September 11, persons over the age of 18 can have access to outdoor events, festivals, cinemas performance halls, concerts, as well as nightclubs with one of the following documents: a vaccination certificate proving they are fully vaccinated, a negative result of a RT-PCR test performed no later than 72 hours in advance, a negative result of a rapid antigen test, which is not older than 48 hours, a confirmatory medical conclusion in the case of persons who have undergone COVID-19 in the last 6 months or a confirmatory act of the presence of anti-COVlD-19 antibodies.

As Minister of Health, Ala Nemerenco, claimed, the pandemic “has an ascending character with a tendency of continuous aggravation.” It is not clear though why the restrictive measures did not affect religious institutions and the food service industry yet, which are two strategic sectors when it comes to controlling the spread of the virus.

Photo: Vladimir Fedotov| Unsplash