The summing up of the results of the Council of Europe project “Improving women’s access to justice in five Eastern Partnership countries” was one of the main topics addressed at the regional conference “Access to justice for women victims of violence”. The event took place on 18 – 19 October 2018 in Strasbourg.
The meeting brought together representatives of the Governments and judicial training institutions of the Republic of Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and Belarus, experts from the Council of Europe, civil society and academics. From the part of the National Institute of Justice, the event was attended by Diana Scobioala, Director, Ecaterina Popa, the head of the Continuous training section, Dumitru Obada, the head of the Didactical-methodical and training of trainers section, Olga Dorul, NIJ trainer, Violeta Cojocaru, NIJ trainer, and Oleg Rotari, The Governmental Agent of the Republic of Moldova.
The conference served as a framework for highlighting the progresses made by the states during 2015 – 2018 and the measures taken in order to improve the perception of the Istanbul Convention to ensure access to justice for women victims of violence. Also, a series of practical tools designed for legal practitioners were presented and perspectives of cooperation between the judicial training institutions of the Eastern Partnership countries were discussed.
In her speech, the NIJ Director shared the experience of the National Institute of Justice in carrying out training activities for judges, prosecutors and other justice sector professionals focusing on the fight against domestic violence, gender discrimination, the exclusion of prejudices against women and so on. In particular, she referred to the integration into the initial training course of simulated trials before the European Court based on scenarios that include discrimination issues and women's access to justice.
The regional conference was organized by the Council of Europe in the frame of the PGG Project “Strengthening access to justice for women victims of violence in the six Eastern Partnership countries”.