Human Rights Programme in Transnistria II

The project operated in a complex, sensible and sometime unpredictable context, but proved flexibility during the implementation and encouraged three scale partnerships among state and non-state actors at the: local level, national (cross-river) and international. Altogether, the project managed to reach majority of its targets, if judging through existing set of indicators. In majority of the cases the project significantly contributed to: 1) Augmentation of the local, national and international partnerships between the key actors; 2) Strengthening the competencies of existing duty bearers and rights holders; 3) Institutionalisation of the new services and entities and 4) Increasing the visibility of the tackled human rights aspects. The project succeeded to address these difficult issues from several perspectives: improved the dialogue and collaboration of responsible authorities from different sectors (health, LEA (law enforcement authorities), social, prison and civil sector), as well as nongovernmental entities on both banks and promoted an integrated service approach in the region; improved knowledge of decision-makers and health professional to use human rights principles and commitments and international standards. It addressed stigma and discrimination towards most HIV-affected and vulnerable populations, covering thousands of people and built knowledge and competencies of  health, prison, civil society personnel on integrated HIV/TB/drug addiction through trainings, site visits and through providing access to international standards and best practices. The implemented activities enhanced the collaboration between the both banks of the river Nistru, allowed the specialists from both regions to know each other, to work together and to improve their knowledge and capacities. The normative framework was fully assessed from the lens of human rights and gender and alignment to international standards proposed. The project for the first time allowed to have the health situation in prisons assessed and measures proposed, as well as to involve militia (police) in the prevention work, as well as broader communitarian police approaches. Some of the initiatives did not generated expected results, despite the efforts of the partners, which delivered all planned activities (e.g. review and adjustment of the de facto policy and normative framework), while one initiative (work in TN prisons) was blocked, although at the initial stage it was promising in terms of effectiveness. The project was and remained mostly cost-efficient during the delivery, but was affected bythe so called elections in TN region, which represented a serious bottleneck, which caused substantive delays, especially in the initiatives based on the involvement of de facto authorities.

Based on the recommendations formulated by Thomas Hammarberg in the Report on Human Rights in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova (2013), the contribution aims to strengthen human rights in the Transnistrian region of the Republic of Moldova and is 4 concrete areas: 1) non-discrimination and social inclusion of children and adults with disabilities 2) enhancing gender equality and combating violence against women 3) support to improve prevention, treatment and care services for PLHIV, PWIDs and people in prison and 4) consolidation of a coordination and monitoring platform for Human Rights in TN. The main outcomes per each domain of intervention are the following: 1. to achieve an increased number of women and men, as well as children with disabilities, enjoying the range of community-based services for ensuring the effective exercise of their rights on an equal basis with others; 2. to enhanced protection to victims and potential victims of domestic violence and empowerment of individuals to prevent and address the problems at their roots in the Transnistrian region; 3. to scaled up access to quality and integrated prevention, treatment and care services for people living with HIV, TB and people who inject drugs in the civilian and prison sectors of the Transnistrian region; 4. the establishment of coordination and monitoring platform for human rights interventions in TN.