INTERVENTION Victoria Apostol, Promo-LEX Association Republic of Moldova AGENDA ITEM 5: Challenges and problems encountered in the practical implementation of the Declaration Thank you Madame Chair, My name is Victoria Apostol and I will make my intervention on the behalf of Promo-LEX Association which is human rights NGO from the Republic of Moldova. The history of minority groups in the Republic of Moldova becomes visible only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The disappearance of the Soviet Union led to the recognition of Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Gagauzian minorities within Moldova's territory. These minority groups represent the main visible linguistic minorities in Moldova. In practice, only Russian and Gagauzian minorities benefit from an education system which allows them to study in their mother tongue while the Ukrainians, Bulgarians and other minorities are forced to study in the Russian language. In our country Ukrainians represents 8, 4%, while Russians represents 5, 9%. Based on these data we can observe that Ukrainians are more numerous than Russians, but they do not enjoy the same opportunities to study in their language. This aspect contributes to diminishing the relevance of their own language and to the loss of their specific characteristics as a minority. In this context, it is also important to emphasize the situation in Transnistrian region, which is even more complicated regarding linguistic minorities. In the Transnistria region the Romanian community