Moldova meets EU requirements in crime and justice statistics
Crime and justice indicators in the Republic of Moldova are broadly available, being in line with basic European and international standards, but national statistics, as in many other states, are dispersed, unevenly used and not verified in alternative sources. . These are some of the conclusions of a report on the sectoral assessment of statistics in the field of crime and justice from the perspective of their alignment with international and European standards, launched on Wednesday, in Chisinau, by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), with the support of the United Nations Development Program ( UNDP) and Sweden.
The event was attended by representatives of the National Bank of Romania, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the National Anti-Corruption Center, the Superior Council of Magistrates, the courts, the Council for Legal Assistance Guaranteed by the State, development partners and the Italian Institute of Statistics, the media . academic, non-governmental organizations.
Other challenges identified are the non-compliance of the classifiers used at the national level with the International Classification of Crime for statistical purposes, the insufficiency of specific knowledge and the incorporation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the system of criminal justice statistics, the lack of a well-defined mechanism for coordinating and verifying the data that is. reported to international organizations by criminal justice authorities. The report also mentions the unavailability on web pages of important data that are systematically reported internationally, the practices of consultation with data users of data sets and the dissemination of national authorities.
“Moldova focused on the achievement of the objectives arising from the commitments assumed in the Association Agreement signed with the European Union – the harmonization and standardization of criminal statistics and justice being an important priority for the reform of the justice sector. A better integrated national data collection system to achieve statistical communication and cooperation between law enforcement institutions, better accountability and professional data analysis will help Moldova move forward in its effort to to benefit from international criminal and civil cooperation with European jurisdictions and to align with the best European standards”, said Katarina Fried, Ambassador of Sweden to the Republic of Moldova.
“Our commitment to peace, justice and strong institutions is based on solid data. They function as an indispensable basis for the development, monitoring and evaluation of evidence-based policies. This in-depth assessment, carried out by UNDP in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, is an important initiative that came up with recommendations for the development of higher quality statistics, better aligned with international and EU standards. As a result, Moldova will have sufficient and reliable data to monitor the achievement of Sustainable Goal 16: peace, justice and strong institutions”, said the Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in the Republic of Moldova, Andrea Cuzyova.
The conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation were reflected in a roadmap, concludes the director of the National Bureau of Statistics, Oleg Cara: “The recommendations and conclusions of this evaluation will support our efforts, as well as those of the national institution to produce and disseminate statistical data in the field crime. and justice, to further establish the availability and quality of this data, but also to implement the European integration agenda”.
The evaluation of crime and justice statistics was carried out between October 2021 and June 2022, with the support of the UNDP project “Strengthening the efficiency and access to justice in Moldova”, financed by Sweden.