The Archbishop of Eparhia de Bălți și Fălești of the Orthodox Church of Moldova, Markell (Mihăescu), became a member of the Coordination Council of the international human rights alliance ‘Church against Xenophobia and Discrimination’.

At the same time, an agreement was reached between the Eparhia de Bălți și Fălești and the ‘Public Advocacy’, a human rights organisation with consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council, to organise monitoring of the observance of religious freedom in the Republic of Moldova. Among other things, the international lawyers will analyse the complaints of believers of the Orthodox Church of Moldova and, if there are grounds, will present them in the structures of the international human rights mechanism: UN special procedures, the UN Human Rights Council, the OSCE, the US Commission on Religious Freedom, the UN Human Rights Committee, the European Parliament, the relevant commissions of the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights and other organisations.

Oleh Denysov, head of Public Advocacy, commented on these developments as follows: "we are very pleased that one more well-known Orthodox hierarch has joined our Alliance. We are confident that this will be of significant benefit to the defence of the rights of believers and will provide Moldovan Christians with additional opportunities to defend their rights at the international level and to build relations with the state on the basis of respect for human rights and religious freedom. We will actively engage in the near future with representatives of the Orthodox Church of Moldova to clarify the specific legal issues facing Orthodox Christians in Moldova and to develop an optimal strategy for their defence."

The International Human Rights Alliance ‘Church against Xenophobia and Discrimination’ was established on 19 December 2023 by hierarchs of Orthodox churches from around the world (Germany, Israel, Ukraine, Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, Palestine, USA, Bulgaria) - to defend the rights of Orthodox Christians at the international level. Representatives of the Alliance are accredited to the UN headquarters in Geneva, Vienna, New York, are included in the European Union's Transparency Register of lobbyists, and are members of the world's leading press clubs.