The Center for the Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC) considers the adoption by Parliament of the bill to amend the Law on the Police and the Status of Police Officer, submitted by the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia, is inopportune. The Center’s experts assessed the legislative initiative in terms of the observance of human rights and reached the conclusion that, from conceptual viewpoint, it runs counter to the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova.
In a news conference at IPN, CAPC expert Viorel Parvan said the goal of the bill is to make the police of Gagauzia independent from the Ministry of the Interior and the General Police Inspectorate and to create autonomous police bodies in the Autonomous Territorial Unit. The bill forms part of a set of legislative initiatives put forward by the People’s Assembly of Gagauzia. They are aimed at changing the financial-budgetary system of the country and the organizational and functioning system of the police and the prosecution service in Gagauzia by transferring them under the direct management of the region’s authorities.
Viorel Parvan said the amendments proposed to the national legislation concerning the police and the status of police officer have no legal justification, go against the police reformation strategy and promote regional and group interests to the detriment of the national interests. The promotion of regional interests to the detriment of the national ones can lead to the destabilization of the social, economic and political situation in the country and the disruption of the work of the central and local public authorities.
The expert noted that the region’s authorities want to increase local autonomy in Gagauzia and to create autonomous police bodies in the region with special status. This is beyond the limits of local autonomy and such acts can lead to the development of separatism in the region as the police are one of the constituents of an independent state and an element of its power. For these reasons and based on the case law of the Constitutional Court, the given bill cannot be accepted and passed by Parliament.
The content of the bill does not meet the legislative and juridical language requirements, while the implementation of the provisions of this law would have a negative impact on Moldova’s population and its territorial administrative units.
The bill was assessed within the project “Harmonization of the legislation with the international human rights standards” that is supported financially by the Civil Rights Defenders of Sweden.
