Society

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN AND CHILDREN IS STILL VERY WIDESPREAD IN MOLDOVA

03 december, 2019

Violence against women and children, including the sexual abuse, remains one of the main problems in the Moldova’s society – this was the opinion, expressed at the Monday’s meeting “Strong Partnership for Better Protection of Sexual Abuse Victims”, dedicated to the counteraction to this phenomenon.

At the meeting, organized by the international public organization “La Strada” in partnership with the US Embassy in Moldova, its participants concurred that violence should be counteracted together, with the attracting the public and state structures.

Journalist Natalia Morari said that the statistics on this phenomenon is shocking.

“530 cases of sexual abuse were registered in Moldova in 2019, but only in 214 of them criminal investigations were started. Almost one-half of victims are under 8 years old. In Moldova there is no law enforcement service that would be dealing with such offenses, neither there are special courts. Often, victims remain by themselves feeling shock after the rape or stress after assaults. Mostly, the victims are from vulnerable, low-income families”, she said, adding that victims do not know what to do after the aggression act.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the USA to Moldova Dereck J. Hogan thanked representatives of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection, the Ministry of Justice and the Parliament for coming to the meeting, because its topic is very relevant.

“The combating of family violence, when women and children are suffering, must be resolved radically. Here, help is necessary not only from the state, but also family members – victims’ elderly relatives, who must not keep silence. In general, the very problem must be discussed in society”, the ambassador stated.

Parliament representative Elena Bacalu said that only the consolidation of efforts of all the branches of power on counteracting the aggression and violence in family and in everyday life is able to resolve the problem.

“The Government must seek financing for implementing a greater number of programs for working both with victims and aggressors. We need more active work of psychologists and doctors”, she maintains.

Minister of Justice Fadei Nagacevschi supposed that there are stereotypes in the Moldovan society that it is impossible to combat the phenomenon.

“This attitude exists among police officers and prosecutors. These stereotypes must be changed, raising the awareness of society in general and its separate representatives about the fact that violence is a crime. Soon, a draft law on counteracting sexual abuses against women and girls will be prepared and transmitted to the Parliament”, the minister said.

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