A new campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence” was kicked off to sensitize the people to the phenomenon of violence against women and girls. At national level, the campaign is held for the 13th consecutive year under the slogan “We are for a life without domestic violence!”, IPN reports.
In the news conference held to launch the campaign, it was noted that 63% of the women in Moldova faced at least one form of violence during their lifetime, while 12% were subject to all forms of violence. 40% of the women were subject to violence by the partner at least once, while each tenth woman was subject to economic violence at least once during the lifetime. Each 17th woman subject to violence suffered a miscarriage, while 90% of the trafficked women were victims of domestic violence.
Acting deputy minister of labor, social protection and family Nighina Azizov reiterated that a key aspiration of Moldova is to ratify the Council of Europe Convention (Istanbul Convention). A bill for signing this Convention was drafted. This prerogative generated the necessity of amending and supplementing the current normative framework on violence.
In the same connection, UN WOMEN Country Representative to Moldova Ulziisuren Jamsran pointed to particular progress made in the legislative sector, noting the importance of communicating with the victims of violence. According to her, the violence must be condemned, social stigmatization must be eliminated, while the victims of victims must be supported and protected.
For the first time in Moldova, the HIV-infected women, overcoming the fears and stereotypes, mobilized to fight violence against women and girls. As a result of this partnership, an awareness-raising campaign entitled “Violence has no Justification!” was launched as part of the campaign “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence”. The leader of the informal group of HIV-infected women in Moldova Irina Belevtsova said the women who live with HIV are subject to institutional violence, forced sterilization and abortion and are refused medical services.
Member of the National Coalition “Life without Domestic Violence!” Daniela Misail-Nichitin said that even if Moldova made significant progress at legislative and institutional levels, the institutional framework is not consolidated. The emergency ordinance is sometimes inefficient, while the restraining ordinance is issued with delay in some cases.
