More and more legal professionals are becoming aware of the needs and challenges faced by child victims and witnesses of crimes. However, it is imperative that effective measures are applied to ensure that procedures are carried out in an adaptable and sensitive manner to the needs of children. In this regard, the National Institute of Justice, in cooperation with the National Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse (CNPAC) and the Ministry of Justice, launched on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, the online training programs "Child-friendly justice for victims/witnesses of crime - multidisciplinary response to violence against children" and "Training program for interviewers in the field of interviewing child victims/witnesses".
In the opening speech, the Ad interim Director of the National Institute of Justice, Ecaterina Popa, the UNICEF Moldova Representative, Maha Damaj, the President of the National Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse, Daniela Simboteanu, and the head of the Public Policy Coordination Directorate at the Ministry of Justice, Lilia Rusu, referred to the importance of training programs for judges, prosecutors, state-guaranteed legal aid lawyers, and interviewers.
Thus, the course "Child-friendly justice for victims/witnesses of crime - multidisciplinary response to violence against children" aims to strengthen the professional capacities of representatives of the justice system to have the necessary competencies and skills to interact with child victims or witnesses of crimes and to collaborate with the regional center for integrated assistance to child victims/witnesses of crimes in their best interests. The program, which lasts for 24 hours, is divided into eight thematic modules integrated on the ILIAS platform of the NIJ and contains theoretical and practical information, extracted from national and international legislation.
Also, during the event, the particularities of the "Training program for interviewers in the field of interviewing child victims/witnesses of crime" were presented, which was piloted last year, and the course beneficiaries were awarded certificates.
Both programs were developed based on the trilateral collaboration agreement signed last year by the National Institute of Justice, the Ministry of Justice, and CNPAC under the project "Support for integrated assistance to child witnesses and victims of crimes in the Republic of Moldova", with the support of UNICEF and the World Childhood Foundation.
