The Foreign Ministry hosted a meeting between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PMR Vitaly Ignatiev and the United Nations delegation led by the UN Human Rights Senior Expert Thomas Hammarberg.
Welcoming the guests, Vitaly Ignatiev highly appreciated the long-term cooperation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“This is your seventh visit to Pridnestrovie, which, in my opinion, confirms the serious attention of the UN to the situation in the republic. It is important that within the framework of your mission special emphasis is placed on human rights, and the visits are accompanied by serious substantive work that brings certain results and let us make plans for the future. The most important thing is that people feel the dynamics of changes for the better”, the PMR Foreign Minister said.
During the meeting, there was a detailed discussion of human rights issues in Pridnestrovie with an emphasis on the results of the implementation of the recommendations of Thomas Hammarberg outlined during his last visits to the republic. In this context, Vitaly Ignatiev noted that the human rights issues are of particular importance for the Pridnestrovian side in the context of existing pressure measures against the Pridnestrovians from the Republic of Moldova.
“We summed up the actual seven-year period of consistent interaction and discussed plans for the future, studying the most important areas of bilateral cooperation. Human rights are a priority for Pridnestrovie, since there are objective reasons for problems in this area related to the unsettled conflict with Moldova. We are convinced that all issues in this area must be resolved on the basis of human rights as the main priority”, said the Minister to the mass media after the meeting.
During the conversation, Vitaly Ignatiev expressed his gratitude to Thomas Hammarberg and his team for their efforts in fruitful interaction with Pridnestrovie in the field of human rights, and also voiced a number of specific proposals regarding the expansion of practical forms of bilateral cooperation and further active joint work.
In his turn, Thomas Hammarberg said that following his last visit in mid-2018, he prepared a new 40-page report, which will be presented to the public tomorrow. At the same time, the expert stressed that the previous recommendations contained in the 2013 report were seriously analyzed by the authorities of Pridnestrovie with the involvement of several ministries and departments.
“We have put forward several proposals designed to improve the situation in the field of human rights protection. We talked about people with disabilities, about women who face difficulties and problems in the family, HIV-infected. We noted the progress in the protection of human rights in Pridnestrovie, highlighting the positive steps that have been taken to improve the situation in this area”, said the UN expert.
Thomas Hammarberg also separately noted a noticeable progress in the field of protecting the rights of people with disabilities and those who are in detention.
At the end of the meeting, the interlocutors agreed to maintain working contacts on the whole range of topical issues.
