The Government of the Republic of Moldova for the first time set up a government structure that will monitor the Lanzarote Convention, the Council of Europe Convention on Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. Secretary of state at the Ministry of Home Affairs Daniella Misail-Nikitin, in a workshop held as part of WeProtect Global Alliance Summit 2022 in Brussels, said that this is a necessary entity as the abuses against children are more often than usual owing to the fragile and unstable social environment and increased crossborder crime caused by the war in Ukraine, IPN reports.
Moldova develops initiatives in cooperation with the state authorities, law enforcement agencies, international organizations and local NGOs for accelerating the country’s efforts to create an accessible instrument for finding facts about child sexual abuse, in accordance with the commitments assumed in 2011, when the Republic of Moldova became a member of WeProtect Global Alliance, it is said in a press release of the Ministry.
Daniella Misail-Nikitin underlined the necessity of improving the police’s digital documentation skills and of creating multinational specialized investigation units. “The Ministry of Home Affairs undertakes to implement the plan defined by the governmental program, namely to adjust the national legislation that obliges the online service providers to assume responsibility for cooperating to prevent child sexual abuse on their platforms. Also, there will be strengthened the capacities to apply the law and a judicial system for responding to online child abuse. We will also work to create a national reporting mechanism according to international standards, the INHOPE mechanism,’ stated the official.
The Republic of Moldova is exposed to multiple risks concerning online child abuse due to labor migration of the population outside the country (about 37% of children live with one parent or without their biological parents), poverty (28% of children live beyond poverty line in Moldova) and the new challenges generated by the war in Ukraine and the large inflow of Ukrainian refugees, of whom over 40,000 are children.
