April 23 (SeeNews) - The most significant human rights issues in Moldova during last year included torture at prisons and psycho-neurological institutions, denial of fair public trial, restrictions on freedom of the media, corruption, cases of forced abortion and trafficking in persons, according to an annual report published by the US Department of State.
Cases of mistreatment in police stations and torture cases in detention facilities decreased due to a zero-tolerance policy, the US Department of state said.
According to the human rights organisation Promo-Lex, of the over 600 complaints of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment yearly received by the Prosecutor General’s Office, criminal proceedings were initiated in only 20% of the cases, the 2017 Human Rights Practices report reads.
Media freedom in Moldova is limited as the government, political parties, and political figures owned or subsidized a number of newspapers that expressed clearly defined political views, the report showed. The government owned the Moldpress News Agency, and local and city governments subsidized approximately 23 newspapers and generally influenced their reporting. Large media outlets associated with leaders of political factions or oligarchs exerted pressure on smaller outlets, which brought several to the brink of closing and prompted prominent journalists to leave key outlets acquired by oligarchs. These oligarchs closely supervised content and maintained editorial control over reporting from the outlets they owned, the US Department of State report stressed.
While the law provides for an independent judiciary, instances of government officials failing to respect judicial independence remained a problem. Official pressure on judges and corruption in the justice sector continued to be serious problems, the report also showed.
Even though authorities investigated reports of official abuse in the security services and elsewhere, they rarely successfully prosecuted and punished officials accused of human rights violations, complicity in trafficking, or corruption.
A major problem, according to the authors of the report, is also that women were often subject to forced abortions and contraception. Psychiatric institutions and social care homes registered isolated cases of forced abortions and of forced contraception.
The government also failed to effectively enforce the law on trafficking of persons, as resources, inspections, and remediation for forced labor were generally inadequate, the report stressed. Men and women were subjected to labor trafficking to Russia, Turkey, Cyprus, and the United Arab Emirates. Internal trafficking occurred in all regions of the country, focused mostly on farms and begging in larger cities.
During the first eight months of the year, the State Labor Inspectorate (SLI) conducted 2,552 labour inspections and monitored 2,235 organisations, including 322 from the public sector. As a result, the SLI documented 21,039 violations of the labour code, including 14,343 violations of labour relations and 6,696 violations of workplace health and security, and sent to court 130 cases. In 1,942 cases, the employers remedied the problem. Labour inspectors issued 64 contravention notices, and 22 persons were reinstated in their legal labour relation rights, the report showed.