Closing Conference of the Programme "Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova"

17 February 2021

 

 

Honorable Ministers, Dear Ambassador, 

Dear Guests, Colleagues and Participants,

 

It is a great pleasure and honour for me to welcome you on behalf of the Council of Europe to this Conference dedicated to the closing of the Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” funded by the Government of Norway and implemented by the Council of Europe. 

The Council of Europe monitoring statutory and treaty bodies, including the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, have produced numerous findings and recommendations which formed the basis for the criminal justice reforms targeted by this Programme. These reforms also focused on shortcomings in the functioning of the criminal justice system revealed by the European Court on Human Rights in its judgments with respect to the Republic of Moldova.

Fostering respect for human rights and the rule of law is a process that requires constant effort and a long-term approach. Although it is primarily the responsibility of national authorities to “bring human rights home”, the Council of Europe supports its member States in doing so through its standard-setting, monitoring and cooperation activities. The programme on “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” is a great example of such support through cooperation.  

Implemented during 2018-2021, the Programme was designed to support the Moldovan authorities in building an effectively functioning criminal justice system, which complies with European human rights standards and is based on the principles of humanism, resocialisation and restorative justice. 

The Programme consisted of two components: 

The first aimed to ensure a coherent criminal justice policy and to enhance the capacity of criminal justice actors. 

The second component focused on enhancing prison management, rehabilitation and health care services, as well as strengthening the probation system, and alternatives to detention.

The Programme provided legislative expertise and extensive support towards consolidating the professional, institutional and technical capacities of Moldovan partner institutions.

I will name some of the Programme’s achievements:

  • It supported the Ombudsperson’s Office in its successful bid to be re-accredited with an “A” status with the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institution.
  • The Programme reinforced the Ombudsperson’s Office to provide faster and efficient responses to complaints. 
  • It worked to enhance the capacity of the National Preventive Mechanism to perform visits to places of detention and to monitor the implementation of its recommendations.
  • It helped introduce the CoE’s flagship HELP distance learning courses in the curricula of the National Institute of Justice and the Moldovan Bar Association. 
  • The regulatory framework and prison management policies are more focused on the rehabilitation of offenders and closer to the European standards.
  • The Programme also strengthened the capacities of the Prison Training Centre.
  • The Programme contributed to the enhanced quality of healthcare in prisons through procurement of medical equipment (including to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic) and the training of staff.
  • Better re-socialisation and dynamic security were instituted in 3 pilot prisons as part of the Programme; and finally
  • The capacities of probation officers were strengthened in using various intervention techniques.

This is not a complete list of the results the Programme achieved. We have a cause to be proud of our cooperation with the Moldovan partners.

The success of this cooperation is apparent in its impact. We see a noteworthy trend in the decrease of the overall number of detainees in the country: on 1 January 2020 there were 6 716 persons held in prisons, which is 919 less than on 1 January 2018.  The same positive trend is to be noted regarding pre-trial detention, which gradually decreased over the last 5 years, from 3329 in 2016 to 1983 in 2019. 

Following its most recent visit in 2020, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has also confirmed the tangible progress achieved in several areas by the Republic of Moldova: fewer allegations of ill-treatment by prison staff; improvements to the material conditions in several prisons;  and no excessive recourse to “placement in the solitary confinement” by the prison authorities.

I am very pleased to see that today’s event has brought together representatives of the Programme beneficiaries, governmental institutions, international and national experts and representatives of the Council of Europe. It is an excellent opportunity to exchange experience, lessons learned, discuss the achievements and future plans for the Republic of Moldova in the field of human rights and the rule of law, and more specifically on the actual situation of criminal justice in the Republic of Moldova, its challenges and ways to address them.

To conclude, I would like to thank you all once again for joining this event and celebrating with us the achievements of the Programme. 

Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Government of Norway, which is present with us today, for financing the Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova”. 

I am now delighted to hand over the floor to Her Excellency Ambassador Walaas. Thank you for your attention.