Last month, Millennium Partners’ Addressing Hate-based Crimes in Moldova Project (AHC) organized a training on monitoring and reporting hate-based crimes.
This event marked the fourth installment of AHC’s Training of Trainers (TOT) series. The goal of these trainings is to bolster the capacity of AHC’s civil society partners to combat hate crimes and strengthen legal protections for victims. By training trainers, AHC ensures the sustainability of this 19-month project.
In its first training, AHC provided human rights defenders instruction on Moldova’s laws and international human rights standards to improve their capacity to defend the rights of hate crime victims. Subsequent trainings delved into the psychological aspects of victims and the application of the Do-No-Harm approach. Legal and policy gaps in Moldova’s system were also studied to better target and inform advocacy efforts. By the end of the training, attendees had significantly improved their overall knowledge of TOT techniques and learned how to organize capacity building sessions for other human rights defenders.
“During today’s training we had the opportunity to learn about several vulnerabilities and opportunities that criminal procedural law offers us for the effective reporting of hate crimes and offenses,” said Igor Arseni, a lawyer from Comrat in central Moldova. “Participants shared their own experiences, which allowed us to build knowledge about different perspectives on how to deal with hate crimes.”
Ion Dănoi, a lawyer from Balti in the north of Moldova, emphasized the significance of lawyers’ efforts in fostering professionalism among other legal professions. “The procedural aspects that we discussed during today’s training, in particular those related to the referral of cases to the prosecutors’ office and the subsequent follow-up of its actions, were very valuable for our professional work,” he said. “By interacting with prosecutors, we, the lawyers, are able to contribute to their awareness and professional training. Therefore, I believe it is necessary to train all lawyers on the subject, especially government lawyers.”
Svetlana Mironova, a representative of the Office of the Ombudsman from Comrat, noted a significant increase recently in acts of violence and hatred against specific groups, fueled by prejudice and stereotypes.
“There is a need for more consistent training of criminal justice professionals to combat this phenomenon more effectively,” she said. “During today’s training, many practical issues were discussed, many questions were clarified, and new approaches were discussed. I appreciate the usefulness of this training and recommend its duplication throughout the country.” Through capacity building trainings such as these, the AHC project empowers civil society groups to combat hate crimes, advocate for legal protections for vulnerable groups, and improve public understanding about the rights of all citizens and the corrosive impact of hate crimes on society.