OSCE supports discussion on strengthening action against hate crimes in Moldova

CHISINAU, 11 June 2012 - Moldovan politicians, representatives of the judiciary and international experts met today at an OSCE-supported roundtable discussion in Chisinau to discuss hate crimes and how to address them.  

The event, which brought together some 25 members of the administration, international legal experts, as well as civil society representatives, was organized jointly by the OSCE Mission to Moldova, the European Union High Level Policy Advice Mission to the Republic of Moldova and the United Nations Office in Moldova

Carolyn Bys, Hate Crime Officer with the OSCE Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights  (ODIHR), which provided international expertise for the conference, said: “Hate crimes not only target individuals or property, but what that person or property represents, such as their ethnicity or their religion and affect entire communities. An effective response by the criminal justice authorities sends a message to perpetrators that such conduct is unacceptable and tells affected communities that they are equally protected under the law.”

“Moldovan criminal law currently only explicitly covers hate crimes on four grounds: social, national, racial, or religious hatred.  In practice, these provisions are rarely if ever applied. Hate acts are generally punished – where at all – by conventional law, with very mild sanctions. There is widespread denial that hate crime even exists in Moldova. As a result, Moldova sits now outside general trends in international and European approaches to the problem of hate crime,” said Claude Cahn, the UN Human Rights Advisor in Moldova. “We hope that today’s event will help improve effective prosecution of hate crimes and the legal and policy reform in the Republic of Moldova.”

Participants made a number of recommendations, both to the judiciary and to legislators, on how to make the fight against hate crimes more effective.