A group of 30 judges and prosecutors attended a training seminar with the topic “Women’s rights: Access to Justice and Women’s Career in the Judiciary” organised by the National Institute of Justice of the Republic of Moldova with the support of the Council of Europe in the framework of the project Improving Women’s Access to Justice in Five Eastern Partnership Countries.

The training was delivered by the following experts: Diana Scobioala, Executive Director of the National Institute of Justice, Associate Professor of Law; Olga Dorul, Associate Professor of Law; Corina Voicu, Director of the Department for Legislation, Documentation and Legal Services of the Superior Council of Magistrates from Romania; Iustina Ionescu, Anti-discrimination expert, Romania; and Raluca Popa, Senior Project Officer, Gender Equality Unit of the Council of Europe.

“We have planned for three training seminars on this topic to be held at the National Institute of Justice of Moldova, of which the current one is the first. These seminars are important, not least because the European Court of Human Rights continues to find Moldova in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, especially in cases involving violence against women and domestic violence,” declared the Director of the National Institute of Justice. “We will also host a regional conference for the five countries of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) that will bring together judges, prosecutors and representatives of those institutions that address human rights and non-discrimination as part of democratic societies,” she added.

The training seminars address the following topics: Women’s rights and equal access of women to justice; International women’s rights standards and examples from their application in judicial practice; ECtHR case-law on women’s rights; Access to justice standards introduced by the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention); Women’s access to the legal professions. The training seminars are part of the official curricula of the National Institute of Justice for further training of judges and prosecutors; participants were offered NIJ certificates.