Strengthening efficiency and access to justice in Moldova

Status:Active
Duration:2019 – 2024
Budget:US$2,823,711
Donor:Sweden
Coverage:National
Beneficiaries:Society at large, people living in the pilot regions, including women and men belonging to vulnerable groups, persons with disabilities, survivors of gender-based violence and the aggressors, and ethno-linguistic minorities, national forensic institutions, justice sector actors and stakeholders, NGOs from the pilot regions
Focus Area:Effective Governance, Justice & Human Rights
Partners:National Centre for Judicial Expertise, Police Forensic Centre, Centre for Legal Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Judiciary, Prosecution Offices, National Legal Aid Council, Police, Local Public Administration, Civil Society Organizations
Project Document:Strengthening efficiency and access to justice in Moldova
See more information about the project on the transparency portal.

 

Project Summary:

The overall objective of the project is to contribute to an increased efficiency of justice services and to improved access to justice of men and women in Moldova, in particular from vulnerable and marginalized groups, through enhanced capacities of forensic institutions to provide qualitative justice services, strengthened capacities of the justice sector actors in the selected pilot areas to provide coordinated response to men’s and women’s justice needs and strengthened civil society able to claim the respect of rights and engage in a constructive dialogue with the justice chain actors.

Objectives:

  • Forensic system strengthened with digitalized processes and sustainable technical and administrative capacities;
  • Enhanced capacities for coordinated justice delivery and improved access to justice for the vulnerable groups at the subnational level;

Expected results:

  • Coordination amongst forensic institutions, in line with the requirements of the national legislation and efficient management standards, built;
  • Regulatory and institutional framework of forensic expertise reviewed;
  • Professional and methodological sustainability of the forensic system strengthened;
  • National forensic institutions conduct investigations and examinations in line with ISO standards;
  • Forensic Case Management System (e-system), ensuring the interconnectivity of the FCMS with e-systems of other justice chain actors, developed;
  • Coordination, cooperation and capacitation of key justice sector actors in four (4) regions of the Republic of Moldova (North, South, Centre and ATU Gagauzia), to create dialogue platforms on issues related to the efficiency of and access to justice for local population, and with a particular focus on vulnerable groups, facilitated;
  • Capacity development, through tailored training programs for core justice chain actors, provided;
  • Innovative solutions for a more efficient administration of justice and improved access to justice for the vulnerable groups at the subnational level, developed and piloted;
  • Strengthened capacities of civil society in the pilot regions, to proactively oversee justice delivery and engage in improving access to justice;
  • Public awareness on access to justice increased amongst men and women from pilot regions;
  • Evidence-based sector-wide collaboration and decision making ensured by means of equipping stakeholders with targeted analytic and research products.

Accomplishments:

  • Assessment of institutional development needs of the National Centre for Judicial Expertise, Police Forensic Centre, Centre for Legal Medicine completed;
  • Support in implementation of strategic planning practices within the forensic institutions and training of management and staffers relevant for the process delivered;
  • Analysis of the Law on the Judicial Expertise and the Status of Judicial Expert and connected normative acts conducted and findings and recommendations developed;
  • 180 titles of specialised literature provided to the forensic institutions to expand the knowledge base and support access to updated scientific materials;
  • Modern software, mass and spectral libraries provided to the Centre for Legal Medicine and the Police Forensic Centre that boost timely and accurate laboratory investigation capacities;
  • 45 forensic experts (22 women and 23 men) enhanced knowledge and understanding of ISO 9001 and ISO 17025 requirements, relevant for the forensic expertise activity and 87 forensic experts (39 women and 48 men) enhanced knowledge and understanding of ISO 17020 and ISO 9001 standards requirements, relevant for the forensic expertise activity;
  • 42 forensic experts (24 women and 18 men) enhanced their skills in internal and external communication, engagement with mass media and outreach and visibility by means of using the on-line communication;
  • The Centre for Legal Medicine certified for ISO 9001 on quality management;
  • Interaction of forensic institutions with the demanders of forensic services reviewed and roadmap for enhancing the interaction based on the findings of deficiencies and opportunities developed;
  • New logo and visual identity guidelines (Brand book) for the National Centre for Judicial Expertise, the Forensic and Judicial Expertise Centre and Centre for Legal Medicine developed;
  • Vision Document, Technical Concept and Technical Specifications and Regulatory Impact Assessment of the Forensic Case Management System developed;
  • Functional Analysis of the national forensic system conducted;
  • Internal policies and regulations of the forensic institutions in the area of integrity, and ethics dimensions in institutions’ operations reviewed;
  • New functionalities for online submission of legal aid requests and the use of electronic signature in the solicitation process developed and incorporated with the National Legal Aid Council Information System: 66.53% of legal aid requests during 2021 have been submitted online using the electronic signature;
  • Legal hackathon on access to justice, which brought together 40 participants from legal and IT areas organised. Three solutions developed by the participants;
  • 56 young people (48 girls and 8 boys) participated in the two summer camp editions for young people on access to justice;
  • Dialogue Platforms on Access to Justice established in the four project intervention regions work to enhance the cooperation between the national institutions and local actors in the justice sector;
  • Four NGOs from project intervention regions selected and engaged in a tailored institutional capacity development program enhanced their knowledge and elaborated reports on access to justice of different vulnerable groups from their regions;
  • Justice professionals from four project intervention regions completed 9 modules (time management; emotional intelligence; stress management; public speaking, efficient communication, personal leadership, teamwork, conflict management, project writing and management) of a tailored training programme on soft skills;
  • Four local initiatives implemented in the project interventions regions to address the barriers in accessing justice at local level: a special hearing room for audio and video recording; installation of an access ramp at a local court; a legal library with literature in Romanian within a local court in the security zone; training sessions for strengthening the multidisciplinary approach in GBV cases;
  • Standard Operating Procedure on response of the Forensic Medicine Centre to cases of domestic violence, including as a form of violence against women developed;
  • Revision of the Regulation on Medical Forensic Assessment of the Severity of Bodily Injuries from a gender perspective and elaboration of amendments in order to increase the access to justice of victims of GBV and to ensure the prosecution and effective punishment of perpetrators;
  • Intervention algorithm of professionals from the criminal justice system in cases of gender-based violence elaborated;
  • Environmental assessment with identification of status and current situation on waste management, good laboratory practices and green office - green meeting approach, conducted;
  • Assessment Report on Crime and Justice Statistics of the Republic of Moldova and elaboration of the Roadmap to operationalize the recommendations and to accompany the process of further alignment with relevant international statistical standards and EU standards.
YearsBudgetDelivery
Sweden
2019$42,659$19,830  
2020$610,623  $613,346
2021$1,100,000$1,089,547
2022$1,254,713$1,227,161
2023$18,287