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Writer's pictureThrive
Jun 21, 20214 min read

Moldova

Population size: 

2,657,637[1]

Number of people experiencing domestic abuse each year:

Women who have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime:34% Physical and/or Sexual Intimate Partner Violence in the last 12 months against women: 94% [2]

A national study in 2011 found that 63.4% of women in Moldova aged 15 or older had experienced physical, psychological, or sexual violence from an intimate partner over their lifetimes. The number of protection orders is steadily increasing; in 2014 there were 920 protection orders compared to 448 in 2013 and only 23 in 2011.In 2014 2374 domestic cases were investigated as criminal offenses, compared to 471 in 2011.20 Official statistics of MIA also point to the fact that in 2014 there were 2374 victims registered, of which 2088 were women, 78 were children and 285 were men. About 30 women were killed as a result of domestic violence. [3]

No research on male victims or other gender identities.

Cost of domestic abuse to the economy each year:

No research.


Estimated % change due to COVID-19:

In Moldova, in the first three months of 2020 police registered 267 offences related to domestic violence compared to 231 over the same period of last year. Police protection orders were applied in 173 cases in the first three months of 2020, up from 157 in the first quarter of 2019, Dorel Nistor, head of the Community Interaction Section of Moldova’s General Police Inspectorate, told BIRN.[4]


Current law and policy:

Legal protection against domestic violence is provided under the Law on Preventing and Combating Family Violence  2007.

Legal protection against domestic violence is provided under the Law on Preventing and Combating Family Violence 2007. This law outlaws domestic violence including martial rape, requires care of the victim and specifies protection orders. However, the UN special rapporteur in 2009 questioned whether it is being implemented effectively due to lack of budget provisions and infrastructure. Moldova has signed but has not ratified the Istanbul convention. Doina German, who is the chair of the committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations in parliament, said “The Istanbul Convention is a priority for us”. The President has adomestic violenceised members to vote against its ratification. 


The Moldovian Government has been criticised for failing to effectively implement the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on domestic violence. The group of cases Eremia and other v. the Republic of Moldova includes four cases: Eremia and others v. the Republic of Moldova[3], B. v. the Republic of Moldova[4], Mudric v. the Republic of Moldova[5], and T.M. and C.M. v. the Republic of Moldova[6]. The ECtHR found violations in these cases of Articles 3, 8, and 14 in conjunction with Article 3 of the Convention. As a result the Moldovan government introduced the following measures: new wording of Article 201/1 of the Criminal Code (Domestic violence) was introduced, which, besides more serious punishment, established criminal liability for other forms of violence, including psychological and economic violence; a new tool to protect victims of domestic violence was introduced – the emergency barring order – a temporary measure applied by police to protect victims of domestic violence by removing the aggressor from the house and setting certain prohibitions established by law; the definition of family member was extended to also include intimate partners and divorced couples living separately; and the Contravention Code (which defines actions or inactions with a degree of social danger lower than of a crime) was supplemented with a new Article 78/1 (Domestic violence).


However, the amendment to the Contravention Code has been heavily criticised. The contravention rule (Article 78/1) sanctioning domestic violence differs from the criminal rule (Article 201/1) by the degree of bodily injury caused. A perpetrator who causes a victim an insignificant bodily injury is subject to contravention liability. If a light, medium or serious bodily injury is caused, the perpetrator may be subject to criminal liability. Therefore, perpetrators now escape the criminal law. As a result, the number of criminal cases brought halved in the year after this new law was introduced. [5]


Public spending - The costs for DOMESTIC VIOLENCE were defined based on unit cost (one case) of each stage of interaction with state institutions multiplied by the number of cases of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE at each particular stage during the reference year (2014). The total government spending in the reference year was about 36,030 thousand lei: the total social protection spending was 5,195.1 thousand lei, total spending on the health sector was 15,845 thousand lei, and the total legal sector spending was 14,990 thousand lei.[6]


Frontline Services:

 

Sources


[1] The World Bank, (1).

[2] UN Women, “Global Database on Violence Against Women – Moldova”, (evaw-global-database.unwomen.org)






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