The process of implementing the strategy for strengthening the interethnic relations in the Republic of Moldova for 2017-2027, approved by the Government last yearend, will be launched in a national conference on February 16. The event is staged by the Interethnic Relations Bureau in cooperation with the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, IPN reports.
“This important step (approval of the strategy – e.n.) shows the Government’s determination to take appropriate measures to ensure the observance of the rights of minorities in an integrated and multilingual society, based on the respect for diversity,” the Interethnic Relations Bureau says in a press release.
The strategy sets long-term objectives, for 11 years, and defines the national methods and mechanisms for ensuring effective participation by national minorities in public life and conditions for studying and using the official language by other-language speakers, including adults, and for promoting the languages of national minorities, strengthening interethnic concord, facilitating intercultural dialogue, etc.
The document covers four key areas – participation in public life, language as an integration means (policies on official language and minority languages), intercultural dialogue and civic engagement, the mass media.
The conference will involve Prime Minister Pavel Filip, head of the Parliament’s commission for human rights and interethnic relations Vladimir Turcan, ambassadors and heads of diplomatic missions working in Moldova, representatives of the central and local public authorities, human rights NGOs and national minorities, leaders of ethnic-cultural organizations as well as international experts who will raise issues related to the implementation of policies on the integration of diverse societies.
