The Republic of Moldova should ratify the Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence as soon as possible so as to directly benefit from the experience of the states that already ratified it, the Head of the Council of European Office in Chisinau William Massolin was quoted by IPN as saying in a discussion held as part of the campaign “16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence”.
William Massolin said an essential provision of the Istanbul Convention defines the notion of “absence of consent”. “Not the victim should prove that they put up resistance or tried to oppose the rape or sexual assaults, but the aggressor should prove that the victim consented.”
Minister of Justice Fadei Nagachevski said Moldova could ratify the given convention as there were identified no inconsistencies with the national constitution. The bill to amend the Penal Code and the Penal Procedure Code is to be finished. The proposed amendments exclude the shortcomings concerning sexual assaults and provide the competent prosecution bodies with the instruments needed to identify and hold accountable persons to blame for sexual abuse. The bill will also cover sexual violence against men. It will be presented to Parliament for consideration in about two months.
Elena Bacalu, chairwoman of the Parliament’s commission on social protection, health and family, said there are yet stereotypes in Moldova that the woman should endure and should not report acts of violence. There is also the indifference of society to this phenomenon. The children should be educated not to accept gender-based violence since school.
Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbrăveanu considers not the victim should go to the competent bodies, but the system should be built around the victim. The mechanism for the prevention of violence can be strengthened only together with officials working in education, justice.
Attending the discussions, U.S. Ambassador to Moldova Dereck Hogan said sexual violence can affect any section of society. The unpunished phenomenon is a threat to justice as the absence of justice for a person represents absence of justice for all.
Sweden’s Ambassador in Chisinau Anna Lyberg noted violence has long-term consequences, including from psychological viewpoint. The children exposed to violence can become abusers when they grow up. In Sweden, the costs associated with domestic violence amount to about €30 million a year. In the EU, the costs can reach €230 million a year.
Pascal le Deunff, Ambassador of France to Moldova, stated the use of violence is spread in his country too. The number of raped women can rise to 94,000 a year. Another 220,000 women are subject to physical violence. Nine in ten women know the abusers. The minors represent half of the victims of sexual abuses. Three in four women report the repeated use of violence. In 2019, 139 women were killed by their partners in France. The phenomenon highlights fundamental inequalities between men and women. These statistics should motivate the authorities to step up action.
The confidential hotline for women and girls of the International Center “La Strada” in 11 months of 2019 recorded 77 calls by which there were reported 33 cases of sexual violence.
