By a decision of the Council for the Prevention of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality, politician Renato Usatyi is asked to make public apologies to the Roma community. In a news conference at IPN, Andrei Brighidin, who is a member of the Council, said the freedom of expression is a fundamental right, not yet an absolute right. This freedom can and should be restrained when the forms of expression acquire intolerance forms such as racism, homophobia, xenophobia and others.
Renato Usatyi must apologize publicly for naming an election runner “Gypsy” as his statements qualify as racism. The politician challenged the Council’s decision through his legal representative, who said that Renato Usatyi referred to the ethnicity of the given politician and didn’t intend to denigrate him. According to the members of the Council, if Renato Usatyi does not offer his apologies, a complaint will be filed to court and he may be amended.
The Council also requested the head of the Association “Pro-Ortodoxia” Ghenadie Valuta to apologize publicly to petitioner Angela Frolov, program coordinator at the Information Center “Genderdoc-M”. Valuta is accused of using expressions inciting hatred and discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and religious beliefs. Ghenadie Valuta challenged the Council’s decision in court.
In another case, the Council classed as denigrating an Internet article about the Equality March staged by the LGBT community. After the administrator of the online platform where the article was published was notified, the article was removed and the administrator assured that such materials will no longer be posted.
Another decision of the Council refers to discrimination on grounds of gender. A woman local councilor complained that one of the villagers insulted her in a village meeting. It was established that the man expressed his hatred towards women, who, according to him, must be physically abused because they are women. The man was obliged to apologize publicly.
The head of the Council for the Prevention of Discrimination and Ensuring of Equality Oxana Gumennaya said that one of the duties of the Council is to prevent discriminatory behavior by which a person exerts pressure or discriminates against a person on grounds protected by the law.
A number of 166 complaints have been submitted to the Council so far. In another 14 cases, the Council examined the situation by itself. Since its foundation, the Council has pronounced 58 decisions.
