The civil society organizations ask the Parliamentary Fractions to accept the amendments to the Draft Law no. 301 regarding the sanction of the acts motivated by hatred and prejudice

On 8 December 2016, the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova approved, in first reading, the draft law no. 301 (the version combined with the project no. 277 of 20.06.2016) for the modification and completion of some legal acts regarding the regulation of the crimes motivated by prejudice.

The draft law no. 301 represents a set of legislative amendments to the Criminal Code and the Contravention Code, which refers first of all to the definition of the reasons for prejudice, to the revision of the basic offenses and the aggravating ones which concern the acts motivated by hatred and prejudice.

Subsequently, this bill was submitted to the Ministry of Justice for review. On 22 October 2019, public consultations were organized with representatives of civil society, members of parliamentary committees (Committee on Human Rights and Interethnic Relations, Committee for Legal Matters, Appointments, and Immunities) and representatives of the Ministry of Justice. During the consultations, Promo-LEX and Legal Resources Centre from Moldova presented an opinion regarding the bill with several recommendations.

Following the public consultation, the amendments to the draft law no. 301 were to be presented and discussed in parliamentary committees and factions in order to reach a general consensus.

The Committee for Legal Matters, Appointments, and Immunities will examine this draft law on 11 February 2020 for the second reading vote. Unfortunately, these proposed amendments were not introduced in the draft law to be examined by the Legal Commission on 11 February 2020.

In this regard, several civil society organizations reiterate the importance of accepting the amendments made by non-governmental organizations for the most effective application of the future provisions of the Criminal Code and the Contravention Code.

In the context of the introduction on the parliamentary agenda of the draft law no. 301, the signatory organizations

CALL for

The adoption, in the second reading of the draft law no. 301 to amend and supplement some legislative acts with the amendments proposed by the civil society organizations, taking into account the recommendations made on it by the national organizations in the public consultations of October 2019 and of the international organizations.