During less than a year, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found Moldova guilty of domestic violence in four cases. The Court held that the competent authorities issued protection orders for the victims, but they weren’t implemented.

In a news conference at IPN, Pavel Grecu, law consultant of the Legal Resources Center of Moldova, said that Moldova was convicted because of the defective mechanism implemented at national level. The courts can order protection measures for at most three months. For the term to be extended, one of two situations should be invoked: the assailant violates the restraining order, or uses violence repeatedly.

“In other words, the victims must be repeatedly abused for the term of the protection order to be extended. The second problem is the fact that the national authorities simply do not take the non-implementation of restraining orders seriously. This is a mentality problem and we should not wait for the ECHR’s findings in this respect. It is the responsibility of society to prevent cases of domestic violence,” stated Pavel Grecu.

In the four cases, the ECHR obliged Moldova to pay overall more than 1 million lei damages to the victims of domestic violence, by €15,000 in every case. The money is allocated from the state budget. The ECHR warned the Moldovan authorities that the situation is alarming and determined steps should be taken to prevent domestic violence.

In 2013, the ECHR passed 19 decisions against Moldova, ascertaining 32 violations of the European Convention on Human Rights. Half of these violations refer to the breach of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and to domestic violence.