On 25-26 October 2017 two one-day seminars on “Preventing and Combating Torture and Ill-treatment: International and National Legal Aspects and Practices” were organised for more than 40 prison guards of three Penitentiary institutions from the south of Moldova in Cahul.

The cascade seminars covered subjects related to the prevention and documentation of torture and ill-treatment, limits of use of physical force, use of special means and firearms in penitentiary institutions, quenching the crisis situations and prevention of ill-treatment in the process of escorting the prisoners.
The added value of these seminars was that they were focused specially on warrant officers (sub officers) from the Penitentiary institutions, who do not enjoy many training opportunities. The participants had the opportunity to learn best practices in the above mentioned fields, as well as to share with and discuss problems that they face in their daily activity.

The seminars were delivered by the trainers from the Department of Penitentiary Institutions, who had participated in the special Training of the Trainers course to further train their peers. Furthermore, more than 80 staff representatives of the Penitentiary Institutions of Moldova had been already trained in 4 similar seminars organised in the central and northern regions of Moldova.  
These series of  training activities were organised in the framework of the CoE project “Support to Criminal Justice Reforms in the Republic of Moldova”, funded by the Danish Government. The activities fall within one of the objectives of the project: Developing Institutional capacity for adopting regulatory guarantees, implementing strategies and action plans as well as monitoring functions aimed at preventing and ensuring remedial action in cases of ill-treatment.