Representatives of EIN member Promo-LEX visit Strasbourg to raise awareness of important cases

Photo: EIN

On 5 and 6 March, a delegation of one of EIN’s newest members, the Moldovan organisation Promo-LEX, paid a visit to EIN in Strasbourg, where they held a number of meetings with Council of Europe interlocutors. The delegation was headed by Promo-LEX’s Executive Director, Ion Manole, and its Director of the Human Rights Program, Alexandru Postica, who were accompanied by Maria Roibu, Director of Alexandru cel Bun Lyceum, a school in the Transdniestrian region.

Promo-LEX, which was established as an association in 2002, is a non-governmental organisation that aims to advance democracy in the Republic of Moldova, including in the Transdniestrian region, by promoting and defending human rights, monitoring the democratic processes, and strengthening civil society.

The purpose of Promo-LEX’s working visit to Strasbourg was to raise awareness, ahead of this week’s 1340th DH meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies, of several important judgments of the European Court of Human Rights which are still awaiting full implementation: the Catan and others v Russia case, on access to education in Transdniestria, the Mozer v Russia case on inhuman conditions of detention in Transdniestria  and the PROMO LEX and Others v the Republic of Moldova case on freedom of assembly.

The EIN Secretariat facilitated a series of meetings for the Promo-LEX delegation with lawyers from the Council of Europe’s Department for Execution of Judgments (DEJ) dealing with their cases. Ms Roibu and Messrs Manole and Postica also had the opportunity to exchange views with staff from the Human Rights Commissioner’s Office, the secretariat of the Committee for Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly, and the EU representation to the Council of Europe.

Photo: EIN

On the second day of their visit, Promo-LEX briefed representatives of 18 delegations from Council of Europe member States about the continued failure of the Russian government to implement the judgment in the Catan case against the Russian Federation. 6.5 years after the ruling was handed down, the victims have still not received compensation, and no general reforms have been adopted. As a result, hundreds of schoolchildren in Transdniestria are still denied proper education in Latin-script schools. Ion Manole explains the situation in the video below. You can find further details here. Promo-LEX’s latest Rule 9.2 submission on the Catan case is available here.