Government requested to present observations to ECHR on a domestic violence case

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has communicated to the Moldovan Government a case in which a mother and a daughter are complaining of the authorities' failure to offer them protection against domestic violence, and has invited it to provide its observations on the application, Info-Prim Neo learned from the human rights organization Promo-Lex. The applicant married her husband in 2001. Later the husband developed a gambling addiction and started losing big amounts of money. Without a permanent job and amassing large debts, he became aggressive towards his wife and child. The situation in the family grew tenser when some people coerced the woman into signing an IOU, this being the moment when she learned about the debts of her husband. In 2010, the woman asked for a divorce, which made the man even more aggressive. In April 2011 the applicant requested a protection order. Even if the order was issued, the proceedings were unjustifiably protracted and the application of norms concerning the issuance of the protection order was inadequate, which caused the victims to suffer further abuses, said Promo-LEX. The ECHR is requesting the Moldovan Government to answer questions as to how the authorities fulfilled their positive obligations to protect the applicant against domestic violence and punish the perpetrator. This is already the third domestic violence case that is communicated by the ECHR to the Moldovan Government.