People's Advocate: Cases of violence against women and girls cannot be tolerated
The tragic cases of violence against women and girls as well as the many unreported cases, cannot be tolerated and must be considered with increased attention from the public authorities, including the national institution for the protection of human rights, but also the whole community. This was mentioned by the People's Advocate, who took act of the case from Rădeni, in which a 30-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped.
According to the People's Advocate, Ceslav Panico, "although the Republic of Moldova has made progress in the development of a system to prevent and to combat violence against women and family violence, especially at the level of strategies and public policies, and these advances are recognized at the international level (through GREVIO report of 2023), recent cases proove that gender-based violence remains a widespread phenomenon in society".
The People's Advocate proposes to draw up a special report on the causes and circumstances that led to the escalation of gender-based violence in the Republic of Moldova, as well as the conduct of criminal prosecution and the trial of cases. The report will include solutions and recommendations for urgent and long-term measures to help prevent and to combat this phenomenon, ensuring that such tragic situations do not happen again.
The Ombudsman calls on public institutions and NGOs to contribute to this initiative, so that the report reflects a complete and pertinent assessment of the existing problems.
On Thursday, September 26, the Ombudsman sent an official request to Prime Minister Dorin Recean, through which he proposed convening the meeting of the National Council for Human Rights. The objective of the meeting is to discuss systemic issues related to cases of violence against women and girls and to hear reports on the implementation of international recommendations and the level of implementation of sectoral strategies and policies.
The case of rape in the village of Rădeni, Străseni district, was made public recently. The victim, a 30-year-old woman, and mother of two children, was allegedly kidnapped from the yard of her own house and gang-raped in the house of one of the suspects. Then the woman was allegedly taken to the shore of a pond, where she was again sexually assaulted. In the end, the victim was left three houses away from her home. The case has also come to the attention of organizations fighting for women's rights. Three suspects were caught by the law enforcement officers. Regarding them, preventive measures have already been applied, announced the Minister of Justice, Veronica Mihailov-Moraru.
