Moldova

ISSAT supported the Norwegian Ministry of Justice through 3 field deployments (Ukraine, Moldova, and Norway). In 2014 ISSAT supported a review of NORLAM which served as a basis for the current re-design of the programme. The Norwegian Ministry of Justice is currently in the process of setting up a potential NORLAU project which would be based on the NORLAM cross criminal justice chain approach.  

The Norwegian Mission of Rule of Law Advisers to Moldova (NORLAM) was established in March 2007 and is planned to terminate in 2016. This is a bilateral cooperation project between Moldova and Norway. The overall objective of the cooperation is promoting good governance, strengthening the rule of law and promoting human rights in Moldova. Furthermore, the program should work in line with the European Integration Process of Moldova and support the aims of the EU-Moldova Action Plan (Strategy for Justice Sector Reform 2011- 2016), as well as strengthening bilateral cooperation between Moldova and Norway.

NORLAM`s  activities in Moldova are based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from 2007. Details of the agreement are as follows:

• Competence-building within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the judicial system, the General Prosecutor`s office and the legal profession,
• with the aim of increasing the efficiency of the institutions guaranteeing human rights and the rule of law in the Republic of Moldova in line with Moldova`s European objectives and commitments.

ISSAT completed a review of NORLAM in August 2014 to provide guidance as to whether the program should continue beyond 2016, and if so, what should be the scope of the work and how should it be organized in the future.

The Norwegian MoJ and the Norwegian MFA is in the process to consider an extension of NORLAM beyond 2016, in light of the ISSAT report.

In this respect NORLAM and the MoJ organizes a seminar in Chisinau Wednesday 4th of March 2015 to discuss NORLAM’s further contributions to justice sector reform in the light of Moldova's needs and other providers of justice assistance.

Moldova and EU aims to sign the Association Agreement in the summer of 2014, with the intention to make the EU association process irreversible. Important for further process of Moldovan integration to Europe is the Government’s ability to implement current national strategies, laws, reforms and EU standards related to the Association Agreement. Key reform lies under the responsibility of the Moldovan MIA where there is a need to strengthen the strategic management to facilitate above mentioned implementations and reforms.

Moldovan MIA has a broad range of tasks under its responsibility and works closely linked to the Police, combined they employ almost 18, 000 police officers and civilians.

-          Management of migration and asylum issues

-          Fighting organized crime, protection of the safety of society and the national security

-          Fighting the increased cross-border criminality and police corruption

-          Increase of and improvement of the cooperation between the Police and other law enforcement agencies

-          Adjustment to the relevant international and European standards and best practices, etc.

The main purpose of the review is to provide guidance to the NORLAM programme, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Norwegian Ministry of Justice as to whether this assistance should continue beyond 2016, and if so, what should be the scope of the work and how it should be organized in the future.

This planned assessment of NORLAM should also keep in mind a later assessment to be done with a view to assess the Judicial Crisis Response Pool as a tool for Rule of Law development.

The conclusions should indicate the major strengths and weaknesses of NORLAM, outlining major developments since the review in 2009. The lessons learned should present the assessors’ impressions of the major achievements and successes together with the principal failings and reasons for the latter. The recommendations should suggest adjustments and/or improvements, as well as provide guidance as to the future activities of NORLAM and other bilateral teams.

It is anticipated that ISSAT will support the review with 3 to 4 experts and will include a 2 week deployment in Moldova.