Current judicial practices in the testimony of child-victims
and witnesses of crime
in the Republic of Moldova

„Current judicial practices in the testimony child-victims and witnesses of crime in the Republic of Moldova” is the title of the new publication, conducted by the International Center „La Strada” with the financial support of OSCE Mission in Moldova. The study is a fast-track assesment of the problem, undertaken in 2008-2009 and focuses on a summative analysis of the current national practices of hearing child-victims/witnesses of human trafficking/ commercial sexual exploitation. It is intended as a starting point in achieving child welfare and qualitative data collection from the children testimonials.

On one hand, analyzing the current situation regarding the management of child testimony, multidisciplinary approach to cases, and child perception of the interventions made by the professional groups, the authors found that child testimony is currently limited to a series of questions addresed in court by the prosecuting attorney, the social worker or the psychologist (or a combination of all of them), each awaiting a particular response from the child-victim.

On the other hand, the fact that the involved specialists do not receive specialized training in the field of hearings, do not know the principles of hearing and their organizational stages. Instead, they prefer to address the cases in an individual way rather than the complex, multidisciplinary one.

At the same time, identifying and documenting cases are influenced by inherent circumstances. For example, sexually exploited children consider the experience they have had as a secret and feel frustrated when are forced to share it. They do not acknowledge the actions committed against them as offenses, respectively, they are not reported to the law enforecement or social services, preferring rather to confide in friends and relatives.

The experience that „La Strada” experts had collaborating with law enforcement agencies shows that the mediation of the contact between the police and the child-victim shortens the prosecution process and ensures his/her welfare. The involvement of specialists from different fields, followed by a careful and complete examination, is important in maintaining the testimonials, and the security of the child.

An impulse to examine the current pratices for the testimony of child-victims/witnesses, consisted in the failure in the Republic of Moldova to obide by several existing international recommendations and principles on hearing children. Moreover, it is necessary to change something in the way of preparation, organization, and conduct of hearings, which should ensure the main interest of the child, and improve the quality of the testimony gathered by the investigators.

The main recommendations deal with raising awareness within the professional groups working with children, especially law enforecement officials, about the importance of organizing the hearings in a specially arranged place (room for the testimony of children), child-friendly, in this way, ensuring the quality of testimony collected from child-victim/witness. There should be created a sufficient number of rooms, specially designed for interviewing children. Among professionals it should be promoted not only the practice of hearing children in a specially designed environment for them, but also video and audio recordinging of the testimony, and use them thereafter, as evidence in court without the necessity to call the child victim witness in front of the jury and the audience in the courtroom. If necessary, the prosecutor, the defense and the judge will go to the hearing rooms, thus creating a proper environment for the child and reducing the number of interviews, but at the same time, respecting the adversarial principle during the investigation. Naturally, such rooms require a trained staff in this regard and institutional collaboration.

Decreasing the number of testimonials a child must give and reducing victimization, which requires application of a limited number of interviews (preferably one) and constant specialists is another requirement among recommendations included in the publication. Finally, the conversation with the child must take place in one of the final stages of the criminal trial, when all the evidence and information has been colleted, and the child testimony is to confirm their validity.

In its varriant as a project, the summary report of current practices of child victim-witness hearing was presented to the representatives of law enforcement (judges, prosecutors, criminal investigation officers) in a round table discussion. The opinions and suggestions of the participants coincided largely with the main principles outlined in the report. It is important to mention that all participants recognized the need to establish and promote mediation services and specialized rooms for the hearing of child-victim/witnesses of trafficking and sexual exploitation. The main conclusions and recommendations of the report were also presented to the subgroup of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, which works to prevent and combat gender-based violence, including domestic violence.

The summary report is recommended especially to social professionals, representatives of law enforcement agencies and employees of NGOs working in the child care system and recommends the involvement in the hearing of a specialist trained in working with victims, preparing children for the process of investigation / testifying, supporting and providing a secure place to the child.

Authors also believe it would be appropriate to have an international conference on the study of such notions as “investigative interview" and agree upon some recommendations and principles. This conference would also address the organization and conduct of interviews, which could subsequently serve as standard principles in the given context.