Prosecutors will be friendlier towards minors committing offenses

The Institute for Penal Reform, the UNICEF Representative Office in Moldova and the Prosecutor General's Office launched a guide for prosecutors that will be useful in dealing with criminal cases that involve children as defendants, victims or witnesses, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The multitude of available instruments for protecting human rights and the theories about the communication between professionals and children made such a guide indispensable. The Prosecutor General's Office hopes that this book will become a simple collection of regulations and will provide the prosecutors with useful, modern instruments for treating the children in the legal system in a friendly way,” said Prosecutor General Valeriu Zubko. The guide was devised in a participatory manner. The prosecutors shared their opinions and experiences at two roundtable meetings. This helped the authors to better understand the problems that appear while dealing with cases involving minors According to UNICEF Representative in Moldova Alexandra Yuster, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international documents ratified by Moldova recommend adopting a specific attitude towards the children in the legal system. “The launch of the guide about child-friendly procedures represents another important step towards reforming the justice system in Moldova,” said Alexandra Yuster. The guide forms part of the Institute for Penal Reform's strategy for promoting the juvenile justice reform in Moldova, said the Institute's director Igor Dolea, who is the co-author of the book. The guide for prosecutors was printed and is distributed within the Promotion of New Elements of Justice for Children in the Justice System in Moldova Project that is implemented by the Institute for Penal Reform, with financial support from UNICEF Moldova and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. The juvenile justice system in Moldova made significant progress during the last few years, with the UNICEF's support. The maximum prison sentence for children was reduced to ten years, while the detention period at police stations – from 72 to 24 hours. Currently, 59 children serve time in Moldova's prisons.