On 6 July 2018, the Council of Europe organised a round table within the framework of the Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova” funded by the Norwegian Government. The meeting brought together over 40 participants from different central public authorities representing national partners and beneficiaries.

During the event, two comprehensive draft reports on criminal justice related aspects were presented and discussed:

• Report on the assessment of needs with respect to the criminal justice legal framework in the light of the principles of humanisation and restorative justice;
• Report on the assessment of needs within the probation system of the Republic of Moldova.

The reports were developed by a team of Council of Europe international and national consultants, namely Mr Idlir Peci, Mr Eric Svanidze, Ms Iuliana Elena Carbunaru, Mr Martin Seddon, Mr Vladimir Grosu and Mr Victor Zaharia, following a needs assessment mission held in Chisinau, Republic of Moldova on 21-25 May 2018. The aim of the mission was to identify and provide a thorough analysis of the shortcomings of the criminal justice policy, legal framework and judiciary practice of the Republic of Moldova, including but not limited to the coverage of the following: liberalization of criminal proceedings, application of pre-trial detention as a preventive measure, application of non-custodial pre-trial detention measures and sanctions, alternative settlements in criminal cases, release on parole, offenders’ social reintegration mechanisms, as well as probation system.

The round table provided the space for the mission’s findings and recommendations to be discussed. Therefore, concrete actions to be taken were outlined in order to ensure a coherency of the criminal justice policy and legislation, improvement of the judicial practice towards the compliance with the Council’s standards and best practices, further strengthening of the regulations and policies that guide the implementation and organisation of probation tasks, improvement of existing probation methods and tools, etc.

The round table was opened by Ms Eva Gutjahr, Acting Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau and Mr Anatolie Munteanu, Secretary General of State of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Moldova.

In her welcoming speech, Ms Eva Gutjahr underlined that “Since mid-2000s the Council of Europe has successfully assisted the Republic of Moldova in a number of the reforms in the justice and human rights areas, inter alia through several cooperation programmes. The current Programme aims at ensuring 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. For an effective and efficient criminal justice system and observance of human rights in accordance with the Council of Europe and international standards, it is very important to have a clear concept and reforms strategy in the areas concerned. In this regard, the adoption of the National Human Rights Action Plan for 2018-2022 is welcomed”.

Moreover, Mr Anatolie Munteanu highly acknowledged the contributions of the Council of Europe international and national consultants and highlighted the following: “The reports provide for a comprehensive analysis of the shortcomings of the criminal justice system. They show that there are many issues that require broad debates within working groups. The number of legislative amendments in the related areas is huge. There should be less legislative interventions. The applicability of the legislation will be a priority for the Ministry of Justice.”

Both reports contain clear targeted findings and recommendations, which will be ‘starting point’ for the Programme’s future interventions, in the following areas: strategic planning and budget support, legislative interventions, research, capacity building and awareness raising, data collection and processing.

These activities were organised by the Council of Europe Programme “Promoting a human rights compliant criminal justice system in the Republic of Moldova”, funded by the Norwegian Government.