How is your complaint examined?
After the Equality Council receives your complaint, it will first check the admissibility of your complaint. Your complained may be returned to you or declared as inadmissible, the Council will explain the reasons for such decisions.
Return of your complaint
The Council will return your complaint to you if:
- the complaint does not contain the identification details of the person who lodged it
- it has been lodged in the interest of another person without that person's consent
- it does not permit the identification of the person who is alleged to have committed the discrimination
- it is a repeated complaint which has the same parties, the same subject matter and the same grounds and does not contain new information and evidence.
The return of the complaint does not exclude the possibility of filing a new complaint after the omissions have been removed.
Inadmissible complaint
The Council will declare your complaint inadmissible if:
- it does not contain facts from which it may be presumed that discrimination has occurred
- it is lodged in breach of the time limit period
- it does not fall within the Council's competence
- it has an unfounded object in relation to the scope of the Law on ensuring equality
You may also withdraw your complaint at any time, and you have a right of appeal to the court against the decisions to return your complaint or to declare it inadmissible.
Additional information & hearings
To examine your complaint the Council may request more explanations, information or evidence from you and the institution/s or person/s you complained about. If needed, the Council may also request information from other institutions or experts. If needed, the Council may also take documentation visits.
After the collection of information, the Council may call you and your eventual offender to hearings. Hearings may take place in person at the office of the Council or online. The Council may organise hearings in other locations in the exceptional situations. At the reasoned request of one of the parties, the Council may postpone the hearing, but only once.
As a rule, hearings are organised in Romanian language. If you don’t know Romanian language or know it insufficiently, you must inform the Council that you need an interpreter 7 days before the hearings. The interpretation services are provided free of charge for you and are paid by the Council.
During the hearings you may bring more details, evidence and explanations to the Council, you can question your eventual offender, and you can also invite your witnesses. Amicable resolution of your complaint can also be discussed and agreed on during the hearings.
Decision of the Council
After the hearings the Council will debate and adopt a decision on your complaint without the parties in a closed meeting. The Council may adopt one of the following decisions:
- to decide that you were not discriminated against
- to decide that you were discrimination against and to adopt prescriptions to restore you in your rights and recommendations to prevent similar discrimination cases in the future.
The decision of the Council is binding and can be appealed to the court.
Read more about the effect of the decision and the amicable resolution on the complaint.
How long will it take?
The Council shall examine complaints within 90 days. If complaint concerns a complex volume of information or additional consultations are necessary, the examination may be extended by a maximum of 60 days. The adopted decision shall be sent to you within 15 days of its adoption in Romanian language. The Council can translate the decision into Russian or another language, if necessary.
note The filing of a complaint with the Equality Council or the opening of an examination does not interfere with any other time limits you may have in the Moldovan courts or government agencies.