On 10 December, at the occasion of the World Human Rights Day, the project stakeholders jointly presented the Management framework for Moldova. The meeting gathered management-level representatives from both enforcing and monitoring bodies, as well as ICMPD project and expert team.
Forced-return monitoring is aimed at documenting human rights compliance during the removal operations to and from the country with a view to increase transparency and accountability in the process where the human rights of returnees could be at stake. It is the state’s duty to set up mechanisms for the prevention of human rights violations and to ensure proactively their protection in the framework of forced returns. Moldova has only recently embarked on building a national forced-return monitoring system, and has been working towards developing its legislative and procedural framework. The objective of the meeting on 10 December was to present the Management framework for the forced return monitoring system in Moldova developed as part of the project “Development of a Forced-Return Monitoring System in the Republic of Moldova” (FReMM) that is funded by the Polish Ministry of the Interior and Administration.
The Management framework is the outcome of a series of thematic workshops carried out during March-October through the joint effort of some of the most relevant national actors, and namely the Ombudsman Office, Bureau for Migration and Asylum, and the NGO Law Centre for Advocates. As a result, the document covers aspects such as the mandate and scope of monitoring, organisational structure and responsibilities, selection, training, and deployment of monitors, as well as coordination and information exchange among all stakeholders involved.
During the presentation, the aspect of inter-agency communication and information sharing triggered most of the talks. Participants took the chance to reiterate the need of signing by the end of the Project of an inter-agency Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that would lay-out many of the aspects touched upon during the presentation, including focal points, workflow, division of labour, and other procedural and operational aspects.