In its first report evaluating the implementation of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention by the Republic of Moldova, experts of the Council of Europe welcome the significant commitment demonstrated by the national authorities to combat violence against women and to implement the treaty, while it identifies a number of issues that require urgent action, IPN reports, with reference to a press release of the CoE.
The Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (GREVIO) said the 2007 Law on Preventing and Combating Family Violence, and recent amendments to the legislation have improved the protection of women victims of violence and the prosecution of perpetrators.
However, the report highlights that, so far, policies and laws have primarily focused on domestic violence and, to a certain extent, on sexual violence, failing to tackle other forms of violence against women, such as forced marriage, female genital mutilation, forced abortion and forced sterilization.
GREVIO has also identified an urgent need to increase the funding of women’s rights organizations which currently rely on donor funding, to a large extent, since they play a vital role in delivering specialist support services to women victims of violence.
As regards protection measures, the report stresses the need to provide support to women victims in rural areas since these services are currently only available in urban areas and primarily cover domestic violence.
Although amendments to the Criminal Code have better aligned the legislation with the convention’s requirements, GREVIO points out that difficulties persist in applying its provisions in practice, partly because of the lack of understanding of the gendered nature of certain acts of violence against women by relevant professionals. It, therefore, recommends providing training to the professionals in law enforcement and in the justice system who are first respondents to support victims.
While the criminal offence of rape was amended to include a reference to consent, the current definition of non-consensual sexual acts in the Moldovan legislation requires the use of physical or mental coercion by the perpetrator, which leaves out a broad range of circumstances in which force or coercion may not have been present while the victim was unable to give consent freely. GREVIO also found that there is an urgent need to ensure that sterilization and abortion procedures performed on women with disabilities are not conducted without their informed consent.
In conclusion, GREVIO formulated a series of measures that will enable the Moldovan authorities to fully comply with the convention.
