3 - 6 October, Comrat - the Council of Europe in partnership with the General Police Inspectorate of the Republic of Moldova organised a series of trainings for police officers from the Southern part of the country on Equality and Non-discrimination and the Specifics of Bias-motivated Offences. Trainings aimed at enhancing Police capacity to investigate hate crimes in line with European standards.

Thus, additional 47 law enforcement officers, following the groups trained for the North and Centre of the country, improved their knowledge regarding the identification and legal framework of bias-motivated offences, according to the latest amendments to the Penal and Misdemeanour Code, Law 111/2022.

During the discussions, emphasis was placed on working with vulnerable groups potentially at risk of hate crimes. The Director of Jewish Community of Moldova, Aliona Grossu, presented data and crimes committed against the Jewish community. The expert Angela Frolov from Genderdoc-M organization spoke about the vulnerabilities of LGBTI+ persons, especially of teenagers who are part of this group, and the challenges they face in the Republic of Moldova.

The discussions focused on how hate speech and incitement to violence and discrimination risk to escalate into further and more serious forms of violence. That is why a prompt and professional intervention of investigative agents and competent legal institutions is important for preventing and combating the phenomenon of hatred and its destructive impact on Moldovan society.

Still challenges are there, however the intake from the exchanges was that in the last 10 years, the GPI has had a positive evolution in the field of equality and non-discrimination, with stronger protection of victims.

The training sessions from 3-6 October were organised in cooperation of two projects implemented by the Council of Europe: EU/CoE project ”Combating discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes in the Republic of Moldova”, part of the joint European Union and Council of Europe programme Partnership for Good Governance, and the project ”Enhancing diversity and equality in the Republic of Moldova”,  implemented in the framework of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova for 2021-2024, and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.