The seminar organized by the European Centre for Minority Issues with support of the Pridnestrovie's Foreign Ministry took place in the Pridnestrovie's Shevchenko State University today. The center, as its representative Alexander Osipov noted, had been established in the German city of Flensburg located at the border with Denmark in 1996.
The seminar was devoted to the problems of ethnic minorities in the European countries, i.e. the EU members and those countries aiming to enter the union.
The European experience, despite the legislative regulations aimed to prevent the discrimination in these countries, can't be embraced by the other countries in practice. Alexander Osipov gave an example of Estonia where, according to him, discrimination against ethnic minorities was comprehensive. It's important to remind that there is a discriminatory law concerning «the aliens» in this country, as well as in Latvia. They also issue the relevant passports. As a matter of fact, as Alexander Osipov noted, the Estonian Human Rights Information Center had considered only three complaints in six years of his existence. One of them was received from the parents living in the city of Paldiski where, as it turned out, there were two turns in kindergartens: one for Estonians and other for the representatives of other ethnic groups. What is more, the representative of the European Centre for Minority Issues emphasized that one fact of discrimination on the ground of national origin doesn't mean uniqueness of the case.
In turn, the administrative office members of the Georgian ombudsman Anna Kvarchadze and Isabella Osipova noted that it was hard to reveal the human rights abuse facts based on the ethnic origin due to their latent nature. As for the pleas received by the ombudsman's office, it is also true, according to Anna Kvarchadze. The Complaints concerning the facts of dismissal or refusal to hire were given as examples. The employer, as Anna Kvarchadze told, in such cases usually blames candidate for insufficient skills, violation of labor discipline and for other issues having no relation to nationality. Also, the employee of the Georgian ombudsman's office emphasized that it had been almost impossible to reveal whether dismissal had been based on ethnic grounds. In turn, her colleague Isabella Osipova noted that only one minister wasn't ethnic Georgian in the government of Georgia.
Also, Tbilisi City Council was introduced as an example due to the fact that there weren't any non-title citizens, although the population of the city consists of ethnic minorities by one third.
Representatives of many ethnic communities of Pridnestrovie participated in this seminar. All of them noted that issues about of the forum agenda have no relevance to the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.
Alexander Osipov emphasized summing up the forum results that Pridnestrovie is a unique country because it wasn't originally created as a one-nation state, but as a multinational one. He emphasized that the Pridnestrovie's seminar was very important for him because the local model of multicultural society was worth of comprehensive study.
