On 6 December 2021, the Council of Europe project “Strengthening the human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” held its 2nd Project Steering Committee (SC) meeting to discuss the project progress under the reporting period (March – December 2021) and to endorse the Project Annual Work Plan for 2022.
The event gathered representatives of the Project’s beneficiaries and partner institutions, namely Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Police Inspectorate, Police Academy “Stefan cel Mare”, Superior Council of Magistracy, Supreme Court of Justice, General Prosecutor’s Office, People’s Advocate Office, National Council for the Prevention of Torture, National Institute of Justice, Lawyers’ Union, Superior Council of Prosecutors, who resumed on the results of the preliminary period of the Project and discussed further activities for the next implementation period.
An update on the results achieved so far was presented to SC, highlighting the major achievements, among which:
- the development of a needs assessment in the field of investigations into ill-treatment and torture in police custody;
- the capacities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Moldova strengthened to deliver training on fundamental safeguards against ill-treatment for the staff in the places of detention;
- the launch of the HELP course on Alternative Measures to Detention in cooperation with the Lawyers’ Union to strengthen the lawyers’ awareness on standards in the area;
- the professional capacities of 310 judges, lawyers, prosecutors and police staff strengthened to facilitate the effective national application of the European Convention on Human Rights standards;
- the finalisation of a research report on the application of criminal sanctions in Moldova;
- the capacities of the NPM members and the People’s Advocate staff strengthened in drafting reports following preventive and monitoring visits to different places of detention;
- the presentation of the good practices by the members of the Council for the Prevention of Torture achieved during the implementation of their mandate.
During the SC meeting the partner institutions expressed their commitment to the Project in further co-operation and support. The SC meeting concluded with the endorsement of the Project Annual Work Plan for 2022.
The project “Strengthening the human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” aims at further strengthening the criminal justice system of the Republic of Moldova in the areas of combatting ill-treatment and establishing a basis for a more approach towards sentencing in criminal cases. The Project has a duration of 30 months and is financed through the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova (2021-2024).