ABOUT THE PROJECT - STOP VIOLENCE

The residents of Moldova will better understand the Istanbul Convention and will learn that the negative attitude to this document that is disseminated in society is not appropriate. This will become possible owing to a project to inform about the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention), Elena Savina, head of the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”, which implements this project, has told IPN.

The Republic of Moldova is a patriarchal country; therefore, violence against women is widespread here. Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women has mentioned the increase in violence against women and in trafficking and the lack of measures for victims protection in Moldova. The U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on Moldova found that 40 percent of Moldovan women had experienced at least one violent act in their lifetime. Furthermore, 51.3 percent of women who had a sexual partner had been victims of psychological violence and 24.2 percent of women reported being victims of physical violence in their lifetime.

U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report on Moldova: “Almost 20 percent of the country’s men had had sex with a woman without her consent… Almost 25 percent had had sex with a woman who was too drunk to consent, and 18 percent admitted to marital rape.

Due to this precise reason of widespread violence, the Republic of Moldova, under pressure from the European countries, assumed an international obligation to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention).

In October 2021, Moldova ratified the above convention. The EU welcomed Moldova’s ratification of the Istanbul Convention.

However, a powerful campaign discrediting this convention started in the Moldovan press, and the information space in the country is filled with disinformation about it.

The convention has been recently adopted, and this is the reason why there is an urgent need for an awareness-raising campaign for the general public and a training campaign to inform the police officers about the fundamental provisions of the Istanbul Convention. It is also necessary to inform journalists, teachers, and community and youth leaders of the content of the convention.

Unless massive misinformation about the Istanbul Convention is countered, its anti-violence provisions will not be widely applied in Moldova; hence, our project is vitally important and relevant.

Combating misinformation about the Istanbul Convention will make it possible to implement its regulations in Moldova, developing intolerance for violence.

Overall objective: to contribute to gradual decrease in the level of violence.

Activities: Five TV broadcasts dedicated to the description of the provisions, importance, and role of the Istanbul Convention; Six radio broadcasts about the Istanbul Convention and its fundamental provisions; 8 seminars for police officers “Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence”; 10 seminars for youth leaders “Istanbul Convention” for young people for promoting intolerance to violence; Leaflets “Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence”; Communication campaign on Internet social media “Istanbul Convention” (information on Facebook and other online resources); Publishing brochures “Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence”; Essay contest for rural schoolchildren “Say No to Gender-Based Violence: Istanbul Convention” to attract young people’s attention to the problems of violence and Council of Europe Convention.

10 informal sessions for rural young ethnic minorities on the topic of counteracting violence; Leaflets “Stop Violence”.

Through the agency of leaflets, the information campaign through the media and seminars, the citizens of Moldova will find out what the Istanbul Convention contains and that domestic violence is prohibited. At seminars, police officers will learn the truth about the Istanbul Convention and in the future will be able to better implement its provisions, to counter misinformation about it. They now perceive this Convention in a better light. “Given that the police officers are often the first to whom the victims of domestic violence talk after the happenings, the state and future of the victim depend on their position and knowledge. Therefore, society tends to attach great importance to the training of police officers, primarily due to the worrisome fact that three in four women on average were subject to violence by their partners,” noted Elena Savina.

Among other goals of the campaign are to cultivate intolerance of violence among the young people of Gagauzia and to raise their awareness of the Istanbul Convention given the existing stereotypes. As a poll shows, 41.1% of men and 19.1% of women agree with the assertion that there are cases when the woman deserves to be beaten. “The existence of such stereotypes points to the necessity of actively developing intolerance of violence in the Republic of Moldova from an early age,” said Elena Savina.

The project is implemented by the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality” with support from the Embassy of Finland in Bucharest.

Example of a seminar: Police officers in Edineț district learned theory and acquired practical skills at an in-depth training seminar centering on provisions of the Istanbul Convention. The seminar on the combating of domestic violence was staged by the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”, IPN reports, with reference to the Institute’s director Elena Savina.

According to the director, in October 2021 Moldova ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention). The press, primarily the Russian one, launched an influential campaign to discredit this Convention: many media outlets report that the Istanbul Convention supports the sexual minorities and legalizes the separation of children from parents of traditional orientation. And many people believe this as the people (including the police) are not familiarized with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention.

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.

The police found out that the victims earlier needed to file a complaint against the offenders themselves. Now it is easier as complaints can be also submitted by representatives of the social services, neighbors, etc. This way, violence stops being a domestic phenomenon and turns into a public issue as the police will be obliged to start a criminal case or administrative proceedings and to bring the offender to justice.

Due to the seminar, the police officers familiarized themselves with the real content of the Convention, improved their perception of the document and in the future will better implement the provisions of this document of the Council of Europe.

“Given that the police officers are often the first interlocutors to whom the victim of domestic violence talks after the incident, the state and future of the victim depend on the police officer’s position and knowledge. That’s why we attach great importance to the training of police officers, primarily given the alarming fact that three in four women on average were subject to violence by the partner (while one in three women experienced physical violence),” stated Elena Savina, director of the National Institute for Women of Moldova “Equality”.

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.