The Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities expresses its concern about the fact that the authorities use in their work an unofficial translation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which contains inaccuracies. In this connection, the NGO requests to publish the official translation of the Convention in the official language in the Official Gazette, IPN reports.
In an article published on advocacy.md, the Center’s executive director Vitalie Mester says that President Nicolae Timofti, using the unofficial translation of the Convention, misinterpreted the commitments assumed by Moldova as regards the addressing of the legal capacities of the persons with disabilities. This led to the non-promulgation of a law to amend and supplement a number of legal acts, including the Law on Public Associations, the Election Code and the Penal Procedure Code.
“In the text of the letter addressed to Parliament, concerning the non-promulgation of the mentioned law, the President, making reference to the unofficial translation of the Convention, erroneously invoked that the text of the Convention recognizes the right of the persons with disabilities to legal assistance and the right to recognition of the legal capacity. Consequently, guided by these conclusions, the President considered that the introduction of changes to the legislation, by which the persons with disabilities are recognized the legal capacity in some spheres of life, including the right to choose and to right to free access to justice, is not opportune,” said the author of the article.
Vitalie Mester noted that recently, in their application to the Constitutional Court, a group of MPs challenged the authenticity of the translation of an article of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, where “legal capacity” is again translated incorrectly, namely as “legal assistance”. “We thus ascertain with regret that the unofficial translation of the Convention is used by more state authorities and this fact can seriously affect the quality of legislation that is adopted in order to adjust the national legislation to the provisions of the Convention,” he stated.
In order to ensure the observance of the Law on International Treaties of Moldova, the Center for Legal Assistance for Persons with Disabilities will submit a petition to Parliament by which it will ask to publish the official translation of the Convention in the official language in the Official Gazette. The Center will continue to monitor the implementation of the Convention’s provisions so as to ensure the fundamental rights of the persons with disabilities, such as accessibility, equality before the law, independent life and right to be included in the community, education and work, are respected all over Moldova.
Moldova ratified by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on July 9, 2010.
