The Republic of Moldova is in process of improving national statistics in the field of crime and justice

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), with the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Sweden, completed the sectoral evaluation process of crime and justice statistics from the perspective of their alignment with the international and European standards.

The results of the evaluation were presented on 14 September 2022. The event was attended by representatives of the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Prosecutor's Office, National Anti-Corruption Center, Superior Council of the Magistrate, courts, National Legal Aid Council, development partners, Italian Institute of Statistics, academia, and non-governmental organizations.

The indicators on crime and justice in the Republic of Moldova are wide available, being in line with basic European and international standards, the report states. Nonetheless, the national statistics of the justice and crime fields, as in many other countries, encounter a series of obstacles, such as: dispersed information collected from different sources, lack of alternative data verification sources, irregular frequency of data dissemination at the international level, overlap of data, exchange and dissemination of often unpredictable information, uneven use of statistical definitions and data counting rules.

Other challenges identified are non-compliance of the classifiers used at the national level with the International Classification of Crime for statistical purposes, lack of specific knowledge and the incorporation of the Sustainable Development Goals in the criminal justice statistics system, lack of a well-defined mechanism for coordinating and verifying the data that are reported to international organizations by criminal justice authorities. The report also mentions the unavailability on the web pages of some important data that are systematically reported at the international level and the lack of consultation practices with data users of produced data sets and disseminated by national authorities.

“Moldova has been focusing on achieving the objectives arising from the commitments assumed in the Association Agreement signed with the European Union – the harmonization and standardization of criminal and justice statistics being an important priority for the justice sector reform. A better national integrated system of data collection; improved communication and cooperation on statistics between law enforcement agencies; better accountability and professional data analysis will definitely help Moldova to advance in its endeavor to improve international criminal and civil cooperation with European jurisdictions and align to the best European standards,” said Katarina Fried, Ambassador of Sweden to the Republic of Moldova.

“Our commitment to peace, justice and strong institutions builds on solid data. They represent an indispensable basis for evidence-based policy making, monitoring and evaluation. This in-depth assessment, carried out by UNDP in collaboration with the National Bureau of Statistics, is an important initiative which produced recommendations for achieving higher quality statistics, better aligned with international and EU standards. As a result, Moldova will be able to share more and better data for monitoring the realization of the Sustainable Goal 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions,” mentioned Andrea Cuzyova, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative to the Republic of Moldova.

The findings and recommendations of the evaluation were reflected in a roadmap, concluded 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 other national institutions that produce and disseminate statistical data in the field of crime and justice, to further improve 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", funded by Sweden.