Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova

The Programme ”Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” is in line with the strategic priorities for cooperation as formulated in the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova for 2017-2020, and is funded by the Norwegian government.

It is aimed to ensure a higher respect for human rights and the rule of law by assisting the national authorities in building up an efficiently functioning criminal justice system, in line with European human rights standards, and based on the principles of humanisation, resocialisation and restorative justice.

Main intervention areas will cover policy/legal framework, institutional and practical implementation levels, with the focus on:

Consolidation of criminal justice policy, legislation and judiciary practice in line with international standards with respect to the liberalization of criminal proceedings, including strengthening the application of non-custodial pre-trial preventive measures and sanctions, alternative sanctions in criminal cases, improvement of probation services and release on parole mechanisms
Better treatment and resocialisation of inmates by improving the regulatory and policy framework as well as prison staff capacities relevant to regime arrangements and management of prisons, implementation of treatment programmes and provision of health care services for inmates;
Support towards the development of the capacities of criminal justice stakeholders in the light of the implementation of the on-going reforms, including judiciary, prosecution service, as well as Ombudsperson’s institution and National Prevention Mechanism (NPM).

The Programme is expected to be implemented in 36 months (as of 1 March 2018).

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PROJECT NEWS

Back Second Meeting of the Working Group for the development of Policies and Standard Operational Procedures for the prison system of the Republic of Moldova

Second Meeting of the Working Group for the development of Policies and Standard Operational Procedures for the prison system of the Republic of Moldova

The second meeting of the working group (WG) for the development of policies and standard operational procedures (SOPs) focused on four thematic areas - dynamic security, treatment of vulnerable groups of detainees, preventing and combating inter-prisoner violence (for prison frontline staff), and combating the expansion of the criminal subculture phenomenon in juvenile detention centres.

The sub-groups formed withing this WG presented the draft versions of policies and the pertinent SOPs developed so far - the SOPs on adaptation to custody, on communications, on multidisciplinary teams, on staff wellbeing, on responsibility for managing inter-prisoner violence, on dealing with bullying, on core prison day and on prisoner peer support. The progress reached in developing the policies and SOPs was broadly discussed and substantive consultations were provided on each document. At the operational level, the modus operandi for the next stages of the content development process were defined and the agenda for the next intermediary consultation session was discussed with WG members.

The working group meeting was facilitated by the Council of Europe consultants and was attended online by the management of the National Administration of Penitentiaries of Moldova (NAP) management, representatives of NAP specialised departments (security and penitentiary regime, social reintegration, human resources, institutional management, analytical and planning), directors from individual penitentiaries no.1 Taraclia, no.5 Cahul, no.7 Rusca, no. 10 Goian, no.11 Balti and no. 13 Chisinau, and heads of specialised units from these prisons (social reintegration, human resources, security and penitentiary regime).

The activity was organised online on 20-21 January 2022, under the auspices of the Project “Strengthening the prison and probation reforms, provision of health care and the treatment of patients in closed institutions in the Republic of Moldova”, financed through the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova (2021-2024) and implemented by the Council of Europe.

Moldova 25 January