Special witness areas for minors to appear in seven towns

Based on best international practices, special areas for hearing minor victims or witnesses will be arranged in the towns of Singerei, Donduseni, Soroca, Leova, Glodeni, Stefan Voda and Ungheni, Info-Prim Neo reports. Mariana Gornea, deputy department head at the General Prosecutor's Office, said at the meeting of the National Council for Children's Rights Protection (CNPC) on Thursday that negotiations are ongoing with the National Center for Child Abuse Prevention to obtain financing from foreign donors for this purpose. Three such areas already exist: one was created at a court and two others are accommodated by NGOs. Mariana Gornea said meeting the requirement of finding a pedagogue or psychologist to assist with criminal proceedings involving minors, including hearings, is often a challenge, and this delays more than a third of such cases. She suggested that a solution could be to create a subdivision within district education or social assistance divisions to prepare such specialists. In 2011, the government pledged to install special witness areas for minors in every court, building of the prosecutorial system, and police commissariat.