The Council of Europe Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” is continuously coordinating its activities with the actors in the criminal justice field by participating in multilateral meetings. On 17 January 2019 the representatives of the Council of Europe took part in the Human Rights Experts’ Meeting alongside the representatives of the Republic of Moldova, the European Union, the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

During the meeting, the need to take the following actions the field of criminal justice was emphasized by the Council representatives:

• Undertake the necessary steps to improve material conditions of detention and health care in prisons and detention facilities, as well as guarantee the security and safety of persons deprived of liberty;
• Address overcrowding in prisons and detention facilities, inter alia, through wider and more targeted use of community sanctions and measures;
• Improve the quality of reasoning and justification as to the selection of a pre-trial detention preventive measure and its prolongation;
• Ensure more effective prevention of human rights violations through further support of the activities of the Ombudspersons and the National Preventive Mechanism.

The Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” is part of the Council of Europe Action Plan for the Republic of Moldova 2017-2020 and it is funded by the Government of Norway.