Law students and paralegals raise awareness of legal aid following training event supported by OSCE Mission to Moldova

Sixteen representatives of various local institutions working with children attended an OSCE-supported public lecture on the observance of children’s rights held on 16 December 2015 in the village of Gaidar in Gagauzia. The lecture followed a training event organized by the OSCE Mission to Moldova to prepare law students and paralegals to organize public lectures on accessing legal aid.

The event was led by a team of two law students, one paralegal and one co-ordinator of the Comrat Territorial Office of the National Council for State Guaranteed Legal Aid. During the lecture, participants learned how to access Moldova’s system of free legal aid and combat domestic violence, with an emphasis on situations involving children.

“Participants actively engaged in the discussions and posed many relevant questions, clearly demonstrating the need for information on accessing free legal aid in Moldova,” said Iulia Maslicova, a law student who participated in organizing the event. 

This event is part of a series of 32 public lectures, including two in the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, organized under a joint project by the OSCE Mission to Moldova and the Chisinau-based NGO Institute for Penal Reform. The project aims to develop and implement a replicable model of delivering primary legal aid through the involvement of law students and NGOs in order to strengthen access to legal information among the local population.