Any case of conviction of Moldova at the European Court of Human Rights could have been prevented if the state had acted to defend the human rights, said programs director of Promo-LEX Association, lawyer Vadim Vieru. In an interview with IPN News Agency, the lawyer noted there are problems in the justice system and the faults were solved there where measures were taken.
“For example, as regards convictions for detention conditions, for no convictions to exist at the European Court of Human Rights, we need to improve the detention conditions and medical assistance in the penitentiary system. There is money that needs to be invested by the state and the amount is not small. Even in such circumstances, the state does not do much to improve the conditions somehow even if the governments, the politicians are replaced and these politicians manage to get to Penitentiary No. 13. It is regrettable as there are people there,” stated the lawyer.
About 600 complaints to the ECHR were submitted from Moldova in 2021. The figure is lower than in 2019-2020, when the number of applications rose to 1,000. The expert said this decline is due to a number of factors and the appearance of more remedies at national level is one of them.
The people in Moldova consider the cases in the national courts are examined slowly and there are specific cases the examination speed for which should be higher. But the speed is higher than in the case of Italy, for example. “The people should realize that a case can be examined slower but the court decision is not passed in a hurry. The judges should examine the case in detail and should enable the sides to administer all the proofs and should then pass a decision without having particular regrets or remorse,” explained the lawyer.
As to the ECHR, a case there is examined during 6-10 years and this is a lot for the plaintiffs as these can die meanwhile. But the situation is different. This is an international institution that cannot be reproached for not examining particular cases in reasonable timeframes. Many name the European Court “the victim of the own success” as its solutions have an impact on particular cases and an increasing number of people go to the Court. “At this moment, the Court is very loaded. Even if the European Court of Human Rights stops accepting cases now, it will yet have workload for two-three or more years,” stated Vadim Vieru.
The interview “Respect for the human rights in the Republic of Moldova – between perception and reality” was conducted as part of IPN Agency’s project “Support for the justice sector reform by covering high-profile cases of alleged injustice in multimedia format”.
