The European Court of Human rights has found Moldova guilty of failing to effectively investigate a case where a 5-year-old was sexually abused by a 12-year-old, IPN reports.
The abused child told his mother about what happened only much later and the woman filed two complaints with the prosecutors. However, no case was started on grounds that there was no evidence to confirm the allegations. A few years had passed since the alleged crime was committed, Promo-LEX said in a press release.
The ECHR concluded that the authorities had a duty to carry out a sufficiently thorough criminal investigation to elucidate all the circumstances of the case, but also to avoid such failures in the future. The Court noted that the applicant had not been assisted by a social worker, a psychologist or any other type of specialist during the preliminary investigation.
The Court further found that the criminal probe conducted by the authorities was ineffective because it was not thorough and did not take into account the individual vulnerability of the applicant. It therefore found a violation of Article 3 of the Convention and ordered the Moldovan authorities to pay EUR 7,500 in respect of non-pecuniary damages and EUR 3,360 in costs and expenses to be paid directly to the applicant'’s representatives.
Nicoleta Hriplivîi, a lawyer with the human rights NGO Promo-LEX, says: “In 2010-2011, no specialized services for psychological assistance of child victims existed in Moldova. Today, things are different, although there is still a long way to go before effective protection of children’s rights becomes an indispensable element of all legal proceedings. The state should show more diligence in such cases.”
