A two-day professional training seminar was held in Ashgabat with the support of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, bringing together representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman of Turkmenistan and the Office of the People’s Advocate of Moldova.

The main objective of the meeting was to exchange experience in protecting human rights, handling citizens’ complaints and improving the professional expertise of institutions working in this field.

During the seminar, Moldovan experts — People’s Advocate Ceslav Panico and Children’s Rights Ombudsman Vasile Coroi — delivered presentations on methods for handling individual complaints, the principles of gathering and analysing evidence, and the specific aspects of interviewing witnesses and victims.

The training programme also placed particular emphasis on modern tools for protecting children’s rights, methods of monitoring the observance of their interests and mechanisms for supporting women’s rights.

William Leaf, Head of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabat, noted that establishing direct cooperation between independent human rights institutions helps to continuously improve national human rights protection mechanisms.

The seminar provided an opportunity to strengthen professional cooperation between the relevant institutions of Turkmenistan and Moldova, as well as to exchange experience in protecting citizens’ rights and freedoms.