One in three children in Moldova experiences extreme poverty

Over one third (34.5%) of children in Moldova is exposed to extreme poverty and as a result of the migration en masse. 35 thousand school children were left by both parents, 75 thousand are taken care about by a single parent, and 12,200 children are institutionalised. These data are included in the report of the Parliamentary Committee for Human Rights on the implementation of the National Action Plan in the field of human rights for 2004-2008. According to the cited source, the level of violence against children in Moldova is very concerning: of the total number of children abuse, 23% are cases of harsh physical abuse and 8% - of sexual abuse. At the same time, 31% of women aged 30-39 are the victims of physical domestic violence. Also, the report ascertains an increase in the number of children infected with HIV/AIDS: 10% of the total infected persons are teenagers and 56% – have 20-29. Noting that the majority of activities included in Chapter 10 of the Plan were not implemented or had been partially carried out and that the rest of the unsolved problems are due to the formal attitude of the decision-making authorities of the local and central public administrations, the parliamentary committee draw up a series of recommendations for the Government and specialised ministries. The proposals include instituting “The Lawyer of the Child”, offering socially useful paid workplaces to the parents taking care of invalid children under 18, creating alternative institutionalisation in order to reintegrate children in risk situations, drawing up and implementing protection programmes for the children against harmful information, developing local structures that would be responsible of children and family protection, improving the Regulation of the guardianship bodies, as well as adopting general and vocational education programmes for children in the judicial system.