Police officers in Edineț district learned the Istanbul Convention

In October 2021 Moldova ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).

The seminar on the combating of domestic violence was staged by the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”. 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.

Due to the seminar, the police officers familiarized themselves with the real content of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), improved their perception of the document and in the future will better implement the provisions of this document of the Council of Europe.

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.