The Council for Preventing and Eliminating Discrimination and Ensuring Equality, the Ombudsman’s office and the Agency for Interethnic Relations, in a joint statement signed on 20 September 2019, draw the attention of key players involved in the electoral process to the negative impact of the use of discriminatory, offensive and hate speech.

These methods are increasingly used in electoral campaigns in the Republic of Moldova, as the ways that lead to disunity and hatred among the electorate.

According to a hate speech analysis report conducted by Promo-Lex in 2019, among the 319 cases analyzed, 89 hate speech cases had place during the election campaign. This means that the hate speech was delivered by key players within the election campaigns – whether by political parties, electoral competitors or their supporters.

The criteria of persons suffered from hate speech concerned gender, political views, sexual orientation, religion, ethnic origin, social status, disability, age, etc.

In contexts of the election campaign of October 2019 signatory authorities invoke politicians, election candidates, journalists, influentials , etc. and call upon to comply with democratic values, to promote the principle of equality and non-discrimination, to avoid hate speeches and to respect human dignity.

In order to ensure an electoral spirit, an atmosphere where non-discrimination and human rights are respected, all participants of the electoral campaign are obliged to take advantage of the recommendations worded by the authorities that signed the joint Declaration.