Republic of Moldova

The National Human Rights Council is a consultative body of the Government, established for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the state policy in the field of human rights, as well as of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party. The current activity of the Council is ensured by the Human Rights and Cooperation with Civil Society Department of State Chancellery, which performs the functions of the Permanent Secretariat for Human Rights (hereinafter – Permanent Secretariat).

INSTITUTIONAL SETUP

The National Council's functioning is regulated by Governmental Decision nr. 65 on the activity of the National Human Rights Council.

Composition

The national mechanism is composed of the following:

• Prime Minister – chair of the Council;
• Deputy Prime-Ministers
• Ministers, as follows: Deputy Prime-Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration; Minister of Justice; Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development and Digitalization; Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration; Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry; Minister of Infrastructure and Regional Development; Minister of Finance; Minister of Internal Affairs; Minister of Defense; Minister of Education and Research; Minister of Culture; Minister of Health; Minister of Labor and Social Protection; Minister of Environment; Minister of Energy; Secretary General of the Government;
• State Agencies: General Director of the Agency for Interethnic Relations; General Director of the National Bureau of Statistics; Director of the State Labor Inspectorate; Chairman of the Human Rights and Interethnic Relations Committee of the Parliament; Members/representatives of the Parliament: Chairman of the Parliamentarian Committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations; Chairman of the Legal, Appointments and Immunities Committee of the Parliament; Head of the General Legal Directorate of the Secretariat of the Parliament; Chairman of the Superior Council of Magistracy; Chairman of the Superior Council of Prosecutors; Deputy Prosecutor General; Governor (Başkan) of the autonomous territorial unit of Gagauzia; Head of the Secretariat of the Constitutional Court; National Human Rights Institutions: People's Advocate; People's Advocate for Children's Rights; President of the Council for Equality – membership with consultative vote;
• Representatives of non-governmental sector: President of the Congress of Local Authorities of Moldova;
• President of the National Confederation of Trade Unions of Moldova; President of the Union of Lawyers of the Republic of Moldova; Representatives of Civil Society Organizations (5 members, selected through a public competition organized by the National Platform of the Forum of Civil society from Eastern Partnership) - membership with consultative vote.

Focal points under article 33 of the CRPD

One of the Specialized Commission under the National Human Rights Council created by the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has the role to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The membership of the National Human Rights Council is presented in the Annex 1 of the Governmental Decision nr. 65 on the activity of the National Human Rights Council.

Secretariat

The functions of the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat are exercised by one of the Departments of the State Chancellery, namely the Human Rights and Cooperation with Civil Society Department. The Permanent Human Rights Secretariat has the following functions: • to ensure the activity of the National Human Rights Council; • to coordinate the process of developing the national action plan in the field of human rights and other policy documents in the field of human rights; • to monitor and evaluate the implementation of policy documents in the field of human rights based on information submitted by public authorities and other interested persons; • to coordinate the activity of public authorities in developing reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party; • to coordinate the process of implementing at the national level the recommendations provided by the international human rights mechanisms and reporting on their implementation; • to ensure the creation of specialized commissions and expert groups in certain areas and coordinate their activity; • to develop and strengthen relations with development partners and representatives of civil society in the development and monitoring of the implementation of state policies in the field of human rights; • to develop the professional capacities of the staff of public authorities and institutions involved in the development, monitoring and implementation of policy documents in the field of human rights, as well as in the development of reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party; • to coordinate the activity of public authorities in the development of the Government's observations on individual and interstate communications directed against the Republic of Moldova, submitted to international human rights protection mechanisms; • to monitor the activities of local structures of the Council in the implementation of national policies in the field of human rights; • to inform the public about the progress in achieving the objectives included in the policy documents in the field of human rights; • to collaborate with international organizations, non-profit organizations and the media.

More details about functions and roles of the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat are described in the chapter IV of Governmental Decision nr. 65 on the activity of the National Human Rights Council.

Institutional memory and training

The are no induction trainings on human rights or on engagement with human rights mechanisms for the new members of the NMIRFs as part of the compulsory training. Still, at the stage of initiating the development of the national/state report on the implementation of a specific treaty, with the support of the development partners (Unoted Nations Human Rights), there are organized trainings for the members of the Specialized Commission/working groups established for the development of the report.

To ensure retention of institutional memory, the information with regards to the activity of the National Mechanism (regulation of activity, reports, minutes of the meetings) are published on the webpage of the State Chancellery, with a special directorate created for the NMIRF: https://gov.md/ro/consiliul-national-pentru-drepturile-omului

MANDATE

The NMIRF engages with all human rights mechanisms, as well as the Regional Human Rights Mechanisms.

National Human Rights Council - is an advisory body of the Government, established for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of the state policy in the field of human rights, as well as of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party. The Council exercises the following functions:

1. coordinating the implementation of a uniform state policy in the field of human rights;
2. supervising the process of developing, implementing and evaluating policy documents in the field of human rights;
3. examining and approving reports on the implementation of policy documents in the field of human rights;
4. submitting to the Government proposals aimed at ensuring respect for human rights, as well as the implementation of international recommendations in this field;
5. assessing the degree of respect for human rights;
6. facilitating interaction with international mechanisms for the protection of human rights;
7. monitoring the activity of competent public authorities and institutions in the areas of application of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party;
8. creating, if necessary, specialized commissions and expert groups in certain areas and supervising their activity;
9. approval of reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party and those presented within the framework of the universal periodic review procedure in the field of human rights;
10. approval of observations and responses of public authorities to reports drawn up as a result of evaluation visits carried out in the Republic of Moldova by international special rapporteurs, holders of special and thematic procedure mandates;
11. monitoring the implementation by the relevant public authorities of the recommendations of international human rights protection mechanisms formulated for the Republic of Moldova.

Specialized Commissions created under the National Human Rights Council - have the mission to ensure and monitor at the national level, according to their field of competence, the implementation of international and regional human rights treaties of the Council of Europe and the United Nations to which the Republic of Moldova is a party and of the recommendations of human rights monitoring mechanisms, as well as of the Human Rights Council, including the recommendations of special rapporteurs/special and thematic mandate holders.

In order to achieve the mission, the specialized commissions have the following objectives:

1. planning and monitoring the activities and measures necessary for the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party and the human rights recommendations received;
2. providing support to the National Human Rights Council in monitoring the implementation and evaluation of policy documents in areas related to the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party;
3. ensuring the functionality of discussion platforms with representatives of academia, human rights institutions, civil society, trade unions and employers' associations on the challenges faced by the authorities in the process of implementing international treaties and recommendations.

Engagement by the National Council is organized per UN human rights mechanism.

Five Ministries established 17 Specialized Commissions of the National Human Rights Council that have the mandate to coordinate, ensure, monitor the implementation at national level of the international and regional human rights treaties and of the human rights recommendations received by the Republic of Moldova, as well as development of the reports to the international and regional human rights mechanisms:

• The Ministry of Justice has established the Specialized Commissions on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Council of Europe Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents, CM Resolution on the adoption of the Statute of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance Res (2002)8 of 13 June 2002. The Regulation of activity is available online.
• The Ministry of Education and Research has established the Specialized Commission that coordinate, monitor and report on the level of implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The regulation of activity is available online.
• The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has established Specialized Commissions for coordinating, monitoring and reporting on the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the European Social Charter and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The Regulation of activity is available online.
• The Ministry of Interior has established the Specialized Commissions that have the mandate to coordinate, monitor and evaluate the level of implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on women, peace and security, the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse and the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as well as the recommendations received by the country. The Regulation of activity and composition are available online.
• The State Chancellery is coordinating two Specialized Commissions: (1) the Specialized Commission responsible for monitoring the implementation of the Universal Periodic Review recommendations; (2) the Specialized Commission of the National Human Rights Council by the State Chancellery, on the implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings. The regulation of activity and reports available online.

A special directorate of the web page of the State Chancellery is dedicated to the activity of the NMIRF, that includes also a subdirectory on the activities of the Specialized Commissions. Thus, all the Regulations of activity, reports and minutes of the meetings of the Specialized Commissions are available online.

Process for the preparation of state reports

The following process is followed by the Government/NMIRF to prepare reports:

1. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration (MoFAEI), based on the information received from the UN Permanent Mission, informs the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat and the Ministry responsible for the development of the report about the timeline for reporting and participation to the review/dialogue.
2. Based on the information received from the MoFAEI (point 1), the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat submits the official request to the relevant Ministries and provides relevant information to the Ministry/institution that is leading on the development of the report. According to the Governmental Decision nr. 65, with regards to the development of state reports, the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat has the following functions: a) to send to the responsible public authority or institution, 10 months before the submission of a report, a copy of the previous report and international recommendations, a note with questions and observations regarding the content of the report to be submitted, the requirement regarding the limit number of pages for the report and the explanation of how the treaty body operates, as well as a calendar with important dates and deadlines for drafting the report on the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party; b) to provides, if necessary, methodological assistance in drafting reports to the public authorities and institutions responsible for the implementation of international human rights treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party; c) to request from the responsible public authorities or institutions the draft reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties and to submits them to the National Council for Human Rights for examination and approval; d) to publish reports on the implementation of international treaties in the field of human rights for their approval by the National Human Rights Council;
3. After receiving information on the reporting, the Specialized Commissions for coordinating and monitoring specific international human rights treaties initiates the process of developing the reporting – by involving the members of the Commission, but also other relevant institutions. The Ministry/state entity that is leading the Specialized Commission requests information on the measures undertaken to implement the recommendations or the information necessary for developing the replies to the list of issues/list of issues prior to reporting.
4. The Ministry/state entity that is leading the Specialized Commission, after received the relevant information, is preparing the national report.
5. The draft report is consulted with civil society and NHRIs.
6. After finalizing the report, the Specialized Commission is organizing a meeting to validate the report.
7. Following the validationby the Specialized Commission, the report is proposed for approval by the National Human Rights Council.
8. As final stage, the approved report is provided to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for submission to the monitoring mechanism.

COORDINATION

Coordination is currently governed by GD 65 (Annex 3, Chapter 1) which provides for human rights coordinators that are established as a coordination unit to make the link between the central authorities and local authorities. The coordinator contributes to the promotion, observance and implementation of national and international standards in the field of human rights, related to the specific field of activity of each public authority.

Linkages with the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals

The National Mechanism has the role to coordinate and follow-up on the implementation of the National Human Rights Programme for the period 2024 - 2027, that aims at also increasing the degree of achievement of the objectives in all areas provided for in the National Development Strategy "European Moldova 2030", approved by Law No. 315/2022, as well as the Sustainable Development Goals. There are no joint meetings of the National Mechanism and SDG coordination mechanism.

Channel of communication with the National Statistics Office

The National Bureau of Statistics is a member of the National Human Rights Council. It is also a member of 5 specialized commissions, out of 17. The National Bureau of Statistics is contributing to the reporting on the implementation of specific recommendations relevant to their mandate of activity and are providing information on the request from the relevant state institution.

Channel of communication with the Parliament

According to the Governmental Decision nr. 65 on the activity of the National Human Rights Council:

• Representatives of Parliament are members of the National Human Rights Council and, mainly: the President of the Parliamentarian Committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations; the President of the Parliamentarian Committee on Legal Affairs, Appointments and Immunities and Head of the General Legal Directorate of the Secretariat of the Parliament (Annex 1 Composition of the National Human Rights Council).
• The Permanent Human Rights Secretariat has the role of submitting for information/comments the national report to UPR, as well as the human rights recommendations received by the country. This is explicitly mentions it the Chapter IV of the Governmental Decision nr. 65 the following assignments: (1) to submit to Parliament, six months before the presentation of the report on the universal periodic review of the Republic of Moldova in the field of human rights before the United Nations Human Rights Council, the draft report, developed with the support of public authorities, for comment; (2) submits, for information purposes, to the Parliament, the judicial authorities, the Constitutional Court, other authorities and public institutions the recommendations, findings and general comments received from international human rights protection mechanisms; (3) assists the Council in ensuring the connection between the Government or Parliament with international special rapporteurs, special and thematic procedure mandate holders, who are on evaluation visits. Thus, the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat acts as a communication channel between the NMIRF and the Parliament.

Also, representatives of the relevant Parliamentarian Committee are members of 1 of 17 Specialized Commissions under the National Human Rights Council, specifically the Specialized Commission of the National Council for Human Rights coordinated by the Ministry of Justice, responsible for monitoring the implementation of the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official Documents.

Channel of communication with the Judiciary

According to the Governmental Decision nr. 65 on the activity of the National Human Rights Council, the Superior Council of Magistracy is a member of the National Human Rights Council. In case of recommendations relevant to their activity, they are providing information on the implementation of those specific recommendations. As an example, in the context of the 4th UPR cycle the Superior Council of Magistracy are part of the working group for the development of the national report.

CONSULTATION

The NMIRF has a positive practice of convening consultations and dialogue with key non-Governmental stakeholder that can be described as follows:

1. Permanent membership with consultative voting in the National Human Rights Council: People’s Advocate, People’s Advocate for Child Rights; Equality Council; Congress of Local Public Authorities, 5 representatives of Civil Society. The representatives of the NHRIs and Civil Society Organizations are also members of the Specialized Commissions created under the National Human Rights Council.
2. Organization of meaningful and inclusive consultations, with broad invitation and extensive participation of civil society organizations, including those representing most marginalized groups, of the in the development of national reports, replies to the list of issues/list of issues prior to reporting to international and regional human rights mechanisms, including in the process of development of set of measures for implementation of human rights recommendation received by the country. Additionally, national pre-sessions are organized by the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat and the Specialized Commissions, with the participation of Civil Society Organizations and NHRIs.
3. Meaningful consultations in the development of policy documents in the field of human rights – example in the process of development of National Human Rights Programme for the period 2024 – 2027, the Permanent Human Rights Secretariat, with the support of UN Human Rights Moldova conducted minim 10 inclusive thematic consultations with extensive participation of CSOs, NHRI for establishing the priorities of the new policy document.

To ensure an efficient information management, the following tools are used by the NMIRF in Moldova:

1. Spreadsheets with set of measures for implementation of recommendation – the Specialized Commission on UPR, coordinated by the State Chancellery, has developed and approved through Governmental Decision the set of measures for implementation of human rights recommendations received during the 3rd UPR cycle. To ensure an efficient monitoring, information gathering and tracking on the implementation of recommendations, an on-line spreadsheet that includes the recommendations, the set of measures to implement the recommendations, the responsible institutions and persons has been developed by the Human Rights and Cooperation with Civil Society Department of the State Chancellery (Permanent Human Rights Secretariat) and was uploaded in the on-line platform of the State Chancellery. The responsible institutions/persons are reporting on-line in the spreadsheet on an annual basis.

2. Official requests, e-mails, meetings organized by the state institutions responsible for the development of the reports on the implementation of international human rights treaties.

3. The Government of the Republic of Moldova is in the process of development of an integrated Information system “E-monitorizare” that will allow the planning, monitoring and reporting. Currently is in the process of development and it will provide the opportunity to integrate the plans for implementation of recommendations received from international human rights mechanisms.

The Government of Moldova has different practices of developing action plans in the areas of human rights/international human rights recommendations, such as:

• Development of National Human Rights Action Plan for the period 2018 – 2022, followed by the National Human Rights Programme for the period 2024 – 2027 – the basis for the development of the Programme and establishment of the priorities were the international human rights recommendations.
• Development and approval of set of measures/plan for implementation of recommendations – the set of measures are developed under the leadership of the specialized commission that has the role to coordinate, monitor and report on the implementation of recommendations received from human rights mechanisms. Set of measures for implementation of recommendation from Human Rights Council/UPR, CEDAW, Lanzarote Convention and CERD have been developed.
• Human rights recommendations received by the country from human rights mechanisms inform also the development of sectoral policy documents.
• A matrix of human rights recommendations received from international and regional human rights mechanisms is developed and the relevant state institutions are providing information on the implementation of recommendations, under the coordination of Permanent Human Rights Secretariat (with the support of UN Human Rights Moldova).