Police officers in Edineț district learned theory and acquired practical skills at an in-depth training seminar centering on provisions of the Istanbul Convention. The seminar on the combating of domestic violence was staged by the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”, IPN reports, with reference to the Institute’s director Elena Savina.
According to the director, in October 2021 Moldova ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).The press, primarily the Russian one, launched an influential campaign to discredit this Convention: many media outlets report that the Istanbul Convention supports the sexual minorities and legalizes the separation of children from parents of traditional orientation. And many people believe this as the people (including the police) are not familiarized with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention.
As a result of the seminar, the police officers from Edineț learned that the Istanbul Convention is the first mandatory legal document in the fight against violence, whose goal is to prevent domestic violence, to protect the victims and to prosecute the culprits, while the value of the Convention resides in the fact that for the first time in an international document that is mandatory in countries that ratified it, it goes not only to discrimination against women, but also to domestic violence. The Convention identifies much more offenses than the existent national legislation does and ensures mote consistent support for the victims.
The police found out that the victims earlier needed to file a complaint against the offenders themselves. Now it is easier as complaints can be also submitted by representatives of the social services, neighbors, etc. This way, violence stops being a domestic phenomenon and turns into a public issue as the police will be obliged to start a criminal case or administrative proceedings and to bring the offender to justice.
Due to the seminar, the police officers familiarized themselves with the real content of the Convention, improved their perception of the document and in the future will better implement the provisions of this document of the Council of Europe.
“Given that the police officers are often the first interlocutors to whom the victim of domestic violence talks after the incident, the state and future of the victim depend on the police officer’s position and knowledge. That’s why we attach great importance to the training of police officers, primarily given the alarming fact that three in four women on average were subject to violence by the partner (while one in three women experienced physical violence),” stated Elena Savina, director of the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”.
In the seminar, the participants noted that our society is practically indifferent to domestic violence and there are many stereotypes, like “beating means loving”, “we were also beaten, but forgave and the family was saved and the children were raised”, which affect the efficient fight against violence.
As a result of the seminar, the participants appreciated a lot the informal atmosphere of the event, the assimilation of new and useful information.
The seminar was organized by the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality” within the frameworks of a project to combat violence against women, which is financed with a grant provided by the Embassy of Finland in Bucharest.
