The Nondiscrimination Coalition calls on the Ministry of Justice to adopt the bill on the prevention and combating of discrimination in Moldova submitted by the civil society. The call was made at a news conference held at Info-Prim Neo on Thursday, December 10, on the International Human Rights Day. Nicolae Radita, the head of the National Roma Center of Moldova, said the bill was filed to the Ministry of Justice in 2007. Besides the bill, the civil society and international human rights organizations submitted a number of recommendations. “The Ministry was to discuss the bill and submit it to the Government so that it could be ultimately adopted by the Parliament. We were informed that the bill was sent back to the Ministry for discussions. We are concerned that the Ministry of Justice gave no sign during 2008-2009,” Nicolae Radita said. The bill contains a minimum standard set – defining the notion of discrimination and the criteria typical of it and naming the institutions that will examine the petitions about cases of discrimination and be able to impose penalties on discriminators and suggest remedies for the victims of discrimination. “We need a functional law to support the victims of discrimination. The bill suggests exempting the victims from paying court costs when they participate in trials,” Radita said. Vera Turcanu, adviser with the National Youth Council of Moldova, said such a law could help the state coherently address the problem of discrimination existing in Moldova. “The victims must go directly to court, but many do not want to because they know how many obstacles they will encounter,” she said. Lilia Snegureac, the head of the Information Office of the Council of Europe in Moldova, reiterated the position formulated by European organizations in a country report on Moldova. “The report points to the necessity of a law against discrimination and says special attention should be paid to the Roma, who do not enjoy the same rights in the social sphere, healthcare and public services sector,” she said. The necessity of adopting such a law is also confirmed by the large number of calls to the Coalition’s hotline 08003-8003, made from all over the country. Most of the complaints concern discrimination on grounds of age, sex, sexual orientation, ethnicity, language, employment criteria, dismissal, etc. The Nondiscrimination Coalition started to collect signatures from people in support of the antidiscrimination bill. During last week alone, it collected more than 600 signatures. At the end of the news conference, the Information Office of the Council of Europe and the Nondiscrimination Coalition awarded the winners of the contest of the best essay on discrimination.