All the cases reported here relate to "extremist crimes" motivated by bias, related to participation in armed conflict, recruitment of others to participate in an armed conflict and/or undermining the constitutional system.
Parliament continued discussing the amendments to the Moldova Criminal Code's hate crime provisions, which ODIHR reviewed in 2016.
In April, ODIHR, together with the OSCE Mission, Prosecutor's Office, the Police and several civil society organizations, organized a one-day workshop on improving the police recording of hate crimes. The workshop resulted in 14 recommendations to the Moldovan authorities.
In its "Fifth report on Moldova", the Council of Europe's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance recommended that the authorities put in place a system to record hate crimes, collect and publish hate crime data, and ensure that hate crimes are effectively investigated. To these ends, ECRI recommended that the authorities increase its training efforts for police officers and justice officials, and implement confidence-building measures to enhance the relationship between the police and vulnerable groups, in particular, the Roma and the LGBT community.
ODIHR observes that the law enforcement agencies of Moldova have not recorded the bias motivations of hate crimes.