The year 2015 was the most difficult one for Moldova in terms of the observance of human rights. Even if the number of complaints about the use of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment decreased slightly compared with 2014, not many persons to blame for such offenses were punished. The hate crimes weren’t appropriately addressed by the law enforcement agencies. Such conclusions are contained in a report that was presented by Amnesty International Moldova on February 24, IPN reports.
Amnesty International Moldova executive director Cristina Pereteatcu said the human rights situation in Moldova last year degraded and continues to degrade this year. The violation of the freedom of expression by jamming the signal of Jurnal TV channel was a serious problem last year. This shows that the media pluralism diminished.
Cristina Pereteatcu noted that though the LGBT community could stage a march last year, the observance of the rights of these persons remains a problem. The police intervened to ensure the march was held peacefully given that a number of persons tried to hamper the event. The post of children’s ombudsperson has been vacant for over two years and this is another shortcoming in the area of human rights. The representatives of Amnesty consider the competent commissions and Parliament intentionally delayed taking such a decision.
Amnesty International Moldova president Veaceslav Tofan stated that over 600 complaints about use of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment were recorded in 2015, but the persons to blame were penalized in only 1% of these. This is due to the fact that the legal system is inefficient. In many cases of torture, the persons to blame got minor punishments or were even acquitted.
According to Veaceslav Tofan, the cases of inhuman treatment happen most often in penitentiaries. The problem of inhuman detention conditions was raised again after the arrest of ex-Premier Vlad Filat and of Gricore Petrenco and company. All the detainees in Moldova are held in inhuman detention conditions.
