Moldova pledges to ensure rights of children in legal system

The Republic of Moldova signed the Statement on the Respect for the Rights of Child Victims or Witnesses of Crime, committing itself to ensuring the rights of all the children in the legal system, Info-Prim Neo reports. The statement was signed by four institutions – the Supreme Council of Magistrates, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of the Interior. The institutions expressed thus their common opinion that the child must be questioned only by specialists trained to work with children and only in special, child-friendly places, adapted to the children’s development needs and outfitted with audio and video recording equipment. “The children are a very sensitive group of people. Our system must be improved so as not to infringe their rights,” Deputy Minister of the Interior Dumitru Ursachi said in a press briefing, adding steps will be taken to implement the provisions of the signed statement so that it does not remain only on paper. Deputy Prosecutor General Eugen Rusu said the number of questioning sessions involving children will be significantly reduced. “The statement demands that a child victim or witness be questioned only once. One more questioning session is allowed in exceptional cases. This way, they try to avoid causing psychological damage to the child. The statement refers only to child victim or witness, not yet to children who committed offenses,” he stated. The signatories of the statement consider the children should be informed about their involvement in legal procedures, in a friendly manner and in an accessible language. The statement says the abused child must receive professional psychological, medical or pedagogical assistance in order to reduce the negative effect of the abuse and minimize the negative consequences of his participation in court and investigation procedures. The event was organized in partnership with the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention, which pleads for court and investigation procedures adapted to the needs and age characteristics of the child victims or witnesses of violence or negligence.