In the Republic of Moldova, and not only, discrimination and prejudice-motivated crime are sensitive subjects. Together with the development of information technology, including in the period of the pandemic, they acquired new forms, being more consistent in the public sphere. In a roundtable meeting centering on the strengthening of equality and nondiscrimination by training seminars for police officers, prosecutors and judges, it was underlined the necessity of finding solutions for addressing hate speech from the perspective of the protection of the dignity of victims and encouraging them to report hate speech and hate crime against them, IPN reports.
The event forms part of a project financed by the EU and the Council of Europe and implemented within the Partnership for Good Governance.
William Massolin, Head of the Council of Europe Office in Chisinau, said it is important to have feedback from institutions and NGOs concerning the efficient ensuring of equality and nondiscrimination. The European Convention on Human Rights is the key standard in the field, but there are also other instruments that ban all forms of discrimination and policy recommendations for fighting hate speech (ECRI recommendations). These standards oblige the member states to become involved in the observance of human rights. In a report on Moldova, the European Commission recommended stepping up the training activities for law enforcement and judicial bodies on different types of hate-motivated crime, including hate speech.
The official noted there are promising practices as regards training of police offices, for example, in nondiscrimination areas, instructing of trainers on hate speech and hate crime among prosecutors and judges. But the set objectives cannot be achieved if the national authorities do not include these standards in the daily practice, in a committed way. The Council of Europe is ready to support these efforts in the long run. The recently launched new action plan for the Republic of Moldova stipulates the fighting of discrimination, hate speech and bias-motivated crime as a priority.
Maria Marouda, Chair of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, said punishment for those to blame should be introduced. The victims of hate crime do not report such actions as they do not trust the law enforcement agencies. Also, the persons who belong to other races are more susceptible to abuse on the part of the law enforcement agencies in the absence of reasonable suspicions, but these actions are discriminatory.
Alexandru Pleșca, secretary of state at the Ministry of Justice, said it is regrettable that despite the assumption of responsibilities for counteracting hate speech and discrimination, all the initially planned actions haven’t been yet taken. The Ministry of Joyce, following the ECRI’s recommendations, formulated proposals for amending the Penal Code, the Contravention Code and normative documents. These are waiting for being adopted. The standardization of the practices of states in fighting hate crime can generate a mechanism for democratizing processes that now continue to be treated superficially or not at all.
Mariana Grama, secretary of state at the Ministry of Home Affairs, noted that discrimination and prejudice-motivated crime are rather sensitive issues not only for the Republic of Moldova. Together with the development of information technology, including in the period of the pandemic, they acquired new forms. The Ministry of Home Affairs is one of the institutions that ensures the observance of the human rights and freedoms and supports the idea of instituting criminal liability for hate speech.
Iurie Perevoznic, deputy prosecutor general, said the PGO staged a number of training seminars for prosecutors and consultants to prosecutors on nondiscrimination and equality in 2018-2020. There were designed guidebooks. The prosecutors are looking for solutions to institute a mechanism for monitoring complaints about hate speech by unifying the methods of collecting disaggregated data concerning criminal cases.
