29 April 2022 - The online course on the „Protection of the victims of bias-motivated crimes” was attended by 27 representatives of the judiciary and the General Prosecutor’s Office working in different regions of the Republic of Moldova. Through this workshop they gained knowledge and skills on the protection mechanism in this field, based on the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

During the event, the participants discussed the importance of identification of the impact of bias and stereotypes on victims; consolidated their knowledge on how to recognize the protected grounds in the case of bias-motivated crimes and identify the specific relating elements in line with the national legal framework and international standards.

The training was interactive and included analysis of the ECtHR case-law on hate crimes, understanding of the positive obligation of states under the ECHR to effectively investigate and, if necessary, impose sanctions for such crimes in proportion to their gravity, considering facts relating to the hate crimes and bias-motivated actions. All sessions were aimed at understanding of the mechanisms established in the ECHR and developed by the Court, to counteract the “justifications” of the facts that represent bias-motivated crimes and accordingly to develop skills to distinguish and, in case of need, to counter abuse of law in the process of investigating this type of the offences.

This activity was organized in cooperation with the National Institute of Justice within the framework of Council of Europe project “Enhancing diversity and equality in the Republic of Moldova”, which is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova 2021 - 2024 and is financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.