The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) identified 637 violations in cases that refer to the Republic of Moldova in 1997-2020. Most of them concern the right to a fair trial (32%), prohibition of torture (25%), right to liberty and security (14%) and right to an effective remedy (10%), said the Legal Resources Center from Moldova (LRCM). “There are also many violations of articles – freedom of assembly and of association, tight to respect for private and family life, freedom of expression and protection of property,” the president of LRCM Vladislav Gribincea stated in a news conference at IPN.
According to an analytical note of the LRCM, among the most often violations ascertained by the 473 judgments in cases involving the Republic of Moldova are the non-execution of national court decisions and inappropriate investigation of cases of ill-treatment and death. “It is a very large group of cases and this shows that the phenomenon of torture is in the hands of the security bodies. It’s true that the number of such applications has declined the past few years, but these didn’t fully disappear. Several recent convictions in this regard refer to the events of April 2009,” said Vladislav Gribincea.
Other types of violations refer to detention in poor conditions, arbitrary detention and illegal quashing of final court judgments. In the 32 decisions passed in 2020, the ECHR ascertained 50 violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. Most of these refer to the activity of judges, while 15 violations concern the right to a fair trial.
Vladislav Gribincea noted that based on all the judgments pronounced until December 31, 2020, the Republic of Moldova was obliged to pay over €19 million, €2 million of which in 2020 alone. “We should note here the judgment in the case of Ojog and others (deprivation of applicants of a part of the Complex “Gemeni”) by which the Republic of Moldova was obliged to pay €1.5 million just satisfaction and to restore the taken buildings or to pay another €2.1 million. The judgment was to be executed until May 18, 2020, but it hasn’t been yet implemented. During over nine months, the Supreme Court of Justice has examined the application for review submitted by the Government and a number of persons, delaying the examination of this for over 10 times,” said the authors of the note.
The analytical note “Republic of Moldova at the European Court of Human Rights in 2020” was compiled in the framework of a project that is implemented by the Legal Resources Center from Moldova with financial support from the Embassy of the Netherlands.
