Seminar for representatives of civil society from both banks of Dniester held in Moldovan capital

Chisinau, 3 November /MOLDPRES/ - The centre for the protection and promotion of young woman’s rights has recently organized a seminar titled, Human Rights in Moldova and Ukraine, in Chisinau.   

This seminar was financed by the European Union and the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives.

The seminar was organized for persons who have a significant impact on the protection of human rights: civil society’s representatives (staff of NGOs, teachers, leaders of groups of students willing to make exchanges in the society) from both banks of Dniester.  

In the beginning of the workshop, the executive director of the centre for the protection and promotion of young woman’s rights, Ecaterina Grosu, gave a greeting speech to the participants. She highlighted the importance for the modern society to know the human rights, pointing to the opportuneness of the exchange of relevant knowledge with Moldova’s neighbours, so that we, here, in the country, be able to benefit from their experience.   

The coordinator of Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives in Moldova (CFLI Moldova), Silvia Bicenco, was the honorary guest of the seminar. In her welcome speech to the participants, Bicenco said that the Fund had received more than 100 applications and chose to back namely this project, as such events with the participation of beneficiaries from both banks of Dniester are very important.     

Silvia Bicenco emphasized that she was quite delighted to see an increased interest on behalf of the participants in the seminar and wished everybody success in continuation. “I would like to see such an interest and an active participation on behalf of not only local, but also international teachers. This would ensure a flow of ideas and solutions to present problems and the sharing of good practices from diverse sectors.”  

The seminar’s expert and moderator was a Ukrainian expert, director of the Institute for Democratic Development Open Society from Ukraine, Svetlana Khodakova.  

The participants in the seminar took knowledge of the provisions of the legislation of Moldova and Ukraine in the human rights field, discussed forms of discrimination and the importance to prevent them. Also, the participants staged a string of games of role, some of which took place in open air.  

The Ukrainian expert informed about the basic concepts and terminology in the sector of human rights and democratic citizens’ rights; she unveiled a general picture of human rights laws, including national and international documents, described the forms of discrimination and its manifestations, presented statistic data characterizing the situation in terms of human rights. Along with the working group, Khodakova discussed the Frau Muller Dilemma, spoke about the gender equality and gave examples of stereotypes of gender in mass media (discourse, pictures and content).      

The fact that, during the seminar, practical examples and exercises were widely used was much appreciated by the participants. The practical exercises Ice Breaker, Blue Eyes, One Step Forward, Everybody Different – Everybody Equal, other presentations, video fragments from a lecture on human rights of activist Marek Navitskogo, the group work, analysis of the written press content, discussion about the “risk of stereotypes” and interactive discussions – all this brought a great echo among the participants, who assessed these active forms of holding the seminar, highlighting the practical use for them.

The participants highly appreciated the workshop. They thanked the organizers, moderators for organization and the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives for the support provided to such an important and useful event.   

To sum up, the participants noted that they had learned a lot of new, useful things and now they would be able to successfully apply their knowledge in Moldova and the Transnistrian region.