Nearly 50 investigative and public order officers enhanced their knowledge and professional skills in combating hate crime, promoting equality and non-discrimination during the first cascade sessions organized in cooperation with the General Police Inspectorate. The peer-to-peer sessions followed specific modules on the prejudice indicators, stereotypes, vulnerability and understanding the impact of discrimination on the victims or target communities as well as relevant procedures enacted by the Police to recognize abuse cases.

With the support of the Project “Supporting the implementation of the Istanbul Convention in the Republic of Moldova”, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection convened the Working Groups on the implementation of the „Prevention” and „Protection” Pillars of the Council of Europe Convention for preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istanbul Convention). The members of the Working Group analysed the state of play on the progress in the implementation of the Convention, including on the gaps and challenges existing under these pillars in the field of violence against women and domestic violence.

The third and the final workshop on “Addressing hate speech through improving data collection” for equality bodies from Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership region tackled antidiscrimination and equality standards, related good practices and important tools for data collection for combating hate speech but also hate crime. The event focused on establishing a clear link between collection of relevant data, assessment of collected data and development of adequate policies. Special attention was also devoted to the issue of underreporting and the efforts undertaken by civil society organisations across Europe in this respect, to collect data and support vulnerable groups and victims of hate speech and hate crime.

The pace of development of information technologies, the increasing number of cases of grooming of minors for sexual purposes and the lack of mechanisms for reporting child sexual abuse material are the challenges faced by authorities investigating cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse. In this regard, the Council of Europe project "Preventing and protecting children from violence including in the digital environment in the Republic of Moldova" organised a workshop to address the challenges of preventing and combating online sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children jointly with the key national stakeholders in the field. 

Representatives of central institutions and authorities of the Republic of Moldova, representatives of the relevant parliamentary committees and civil society organisations as observers met at the second Steering Committee of the Council of Europe project ”Preventing and protecting children from violence including in the digital environment in the Republic of Moldova”. They discussed the project achievements and new activities planned to support the Republic of Moldova in promoting children rights and specifically the rights of migrant and refugee children in the context of the war in Ukraine.

14 education professionals from the Republic of Moldova studied the cross-curricular approach to the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture and its implications for teaching and learning in Swiss schools, during a study visit to Switzerland, organised by the Council of Europe Project “Education for Democracy in the Republic of Moldova”. The participants examined the Swiss model of integrated culture of democracy in schools and shared the experience of the Republic of Moldova in implementing the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture.

19 specialists from 5 prisons and from the specialised departments of the National Administration of Penitentiaries (NAP) gained extensive knowledge and enhanced their capabilities in carrying out mentoring and educational activities and learned new modalities and techniques to resolve conflicts. By enhancing the communication and interpersonal skills of the prison staff, as well as their mentoring and crisis management abilities, NAP staff can now promote a more effective rehabilitation of juveniles and young adults in detention.

23 young people, from Sălcuța village, Causeni district, Ialpujeni commune, Cimislia district, and Braniște village, Riscani district, actively participated in an Electoral School outside of Chisinau, targeting first-time voters. Guided by the Council of Europe experts, the participants exchanged experiences and learnt how to use social media platforms to gather information about candidates, on the impact of fake news and ways to get proper information, as well as on hate speech and discrimination in electoral campaigns.

25 judges and prosecutors from the Republic of Moldova participated in a training on the application and extension of constraint procedural measures, in particular the use of the risk of public disorder as a ground for applying pre-trial detention and house arrest. The seminar provided an opportunity for participants to exchange views and ideas on the procedure for examining the application of constraint procedural measures, the principle of proportionality in line with the ECtHR standards and the principle of equality of arms regarding the access of the defence to the materials used by prosecutors to substantiate the application of the constraint procedural measure.

14 journalists from the print and online media, from TV and Radio stations in the Republic of Moldova and employees of the Department of Communication, Public Relations and Media of the Central Electoral Commission of the Republic of Moldova took part at the Electoral School for Journalists.  During the two-day workshop, the journalists studied in detail the electoral reform, the digitization of the electoral processes, avoiding the communication traps in relations between the political parties and the mass media in the electoral campaigns.