Millennium Partners Consulting

🇲🇩 Moldovan Legal Professionals Enhance their Knowledge about Hate-based Crimes Investigations   On July 5, 2024, during a workshop organized by the #MillenniumPartners' Addressing Hate-Based Crimes (#AHC) Project in Moldova, a total of 27 Moldovan legal professionals — prosecutors, judges, and lawyers received essential knowledge and tools to effectively identify, investigate, and prosecute hate crimes. “Understanding how to uncover and investigate hate crimes ensures that these crimes are accurately identified and prosecuted, and it signals to the society that such offenses are taken seriously and will trigger legal consequences, said Cristina Malai, LL.M., PMP, Millennium Partner’s Vice President, during the workshop’s opening remarks. During the workshop at the Ungheni District Court, various legal professionals from the Ungheni region discussed approaches to discovering and investigating hate-based crimes. The workshop was led by  Igor Dolea, a leading Moldovan criminal law expert who is also the Director of the Institute for Penal Reform (an AHC grantee). He provided insights on international best practices, the relevant case-law of the European Court of Human Rights, and recent changes to Moldovan laws that support hate-crime prosecution.   By exploring case studies on how to define a biased or hate-based crime, correctly determine the offenders’ motives and collect evidence, the workshop participants enhanced their skills and confidence in addressing hate-based crimes, as attested by the very positive evaluation forms submitted by the participants at the end of the workshop.

Under the Addressing Hate-based Crimes in Moldova Project (AHC)🇲🇩, Millennium Partners trained 23 representatives of the Moldovan People’s Advocate Office on investigating hate crime cases brought before this office. At the training, participants used the Practical Guide on Investigating Requests Resulting in Reasonable Suspicion of Hate Crimes and Offenses developed by the AHC consultant Anatolie Munteanu, a renowned specialist in the field.   “The Guide and the training are very important for us, particularly at this moment, as we are currently finalizing drafting the Regulation on the examination of requests involving human rights violations. It was an opportunity for the staff of the People's Advocate Office to discuss and express their views on the stages, level, and timeline of interventions to ensure the protection of individuals,” said Vladimir Cojocaru, the General Secretary of the People's Advocate Office.   Learn more about the Practical Guide and the important work of the Moldovan People’s Advocate Office in Millennium Partners’ latest news piece. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eNbBbZaR

USAID joined anti-corruption champions from around the world at the International Anti-Corruption Conference in Lithuania to discuss countering corruption in key sectors like energy and global health; supporting the defenders of democracy; and forging new partnerships with the private sector and other donors. Assistant to the Administrator for the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights and Governance, Shannon Green, recaps the week’s events. #IACC2024 #AntiCorruption #USAID #Democracy #HumanRights

Congratulations to our Chief of Party Olivia Pritac Goaga (currently of addressing Hate Crimes in Moldova and formerly Access to Justice) and our team. This is pathbreaking news. Mediation has been in the works for years but it was our Access to Jsutice project that provided the critical technical assistance and advocacy work to help make this a reality!

Big news from Moldova! 🇲🇩 The incorporation of mediation services into the state-guaranteed legal aid system marks a major step forward for justice accessibility. Now, mediation extends to civil and contravention cases and includes those with lower incomes, minors, and individuals with disabilities. Chief of Party Olivia Pirtac-Goaga highlights how this move can lighten the load on courts, making the legal process faster and more cost-effective. "We are pleased to see that the efforts of Millennium Partners, which began in late 2019, are coming to fruition. State-guaranteed mediation services will help to ensure fair access to justice for Moldova's vulnerable groups. Additionally, state-guaranteed mediation has the potential to relieve courts of many minor cases, thus making the justice process more efficient in terms of both time and costs." Read Millennium's latest post to learn more 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eSPs7aVw Pictured is Former United States Ambassador to Moldova, Kent D. Logsdon (right), with ATJ Chief of Party, Olivia Pîrțac-Goaga, at the ATJ Closing event, March 2023.

Cristina is our rule of law rock star! We are delighted she came to the US to visit us at our Charlottesville headquarters and to attend the World Bank rule of law conference!

Last week CIPE attended Transparency International’s International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in #Vilnius, Lithuania. Representatives from our Anti-Corruption and Governance Center (ACGC), our Africa team, and our CIPE Europe & Eurasia (E&E) team engaged in vital discussions and sessions aimed at combating corruption globally. Here’s a recap of our productive week:   ► Kicking off #IACC2024 on the 18th, CIPE's Senior Anti-Corruption Consultant Cynthia Gabriel joined 6 other experts at the Plenary I panel to discuss countering kleptocrats and their enablers, highlighting strategies to strengthen anti-corruption efforts worldwide.   ► On the 19th, CIPE hosted a workshop focused on the pivotal role of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in promoting integrity and combating corruption. Featuring E&E Business Integrity and Anti-Corruption Programs Director Ekaterina (Katya) Lysova, the session showcased successful strategies and collaborations in detecting fraud and fostering ethical practices, featuring insights from business leaders across Lithuania, Ukraine, and Nigeria. This event is part of CIPE’s work to foster integrity among SMEs as an implementing partner of the U.S. Department of State's Global Initiative to Galvanize the Private Sector as Partners in Combating Corruption (GPS). Learn more about GPS here: https://acgc.cipe.org/gps/ ► Lola Adekanye, who leads CIPE’s Business Integrity & Anti-Corruption Programs in Africa, contributed her expertise during two impactful panels on the 20th. She discussed the media's anti-corruption potential in Africa and business integrity solutions for public procurement.   ► Closing out the conference, ACGC Deputy Director Michele Crymes, Esq. joined experts to discuss innovative tools like the U.S. Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA) aimed at countering foreign bribery, underscoring CIPE's commitment to advancing global anti-corruption efforts. ► On the 20th, Senior Anti-Corruption Advisor Johannes O. Tonn hosted a lunch uniting key organizations active in beneficial ownership transparency (BOT) work—including Open Ownership, EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative), National Democratic Institute (NDI), and International Republican Institute & Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. Participants discussed coordinating efforts at country level & agreed on regular CIPE-led calls to advance our joint efforts ► Johannes Tonn also brought together representatives from civil society, the private sector, & international organizations for a Tech-4-AntiCorruption Breakfast on June 21st, featuring panelists from Microsoft, The World Bank Open Data Charter & more. Speakers discussed trends in the Tech-4-AntiCorruption space over the past 20 years to situate current strategies for moving forward productively, ensuring commitments to technology for anti-corruption work for all actors, including civil society and Small & Medium Sized enterprises.

📢 The USAID GAP/SNA Activity will be at #ICRN2024 in Lisbon! Don’t miss Millennium Partners’ Dr Ingrida Kerusauskaite and Kayleigh Zigler co-facilitating,  “Under the Radar: The ‘Unusual Suspects’ That Enable Corruption.” 🔎Identify the #enablers of #corruption that are under-researched and largely operate under the radar. Date: Thursday, June 27 Time: 17:15-18:00 WEST Location: Sala 2

Millennium Partners VP, Cristina Malai, LL.M., PMP, attended the Justice and the Rule of Law Forum, hosted by The World Bank Bank in Washington D.C. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/eXNhV_Cf   The Forum's Closing the Global Justice Gaps session sparked great discussions on the need to prioritize people’s justice needs, apply local data-driven solutions, work collectively across multi-stakeholder networks, integrate formal and informal justice systems, and leverage digital tools.   Millennium Partners is proud to have contributed over the years to advancing locally led solutions to improve access to justice in many countries. A recent example is the adoption of  a new law in #Moldova to  extend state-guaranteed #mediation to more categories of people, such as minors, the economically vulnerable, and the severely disabled persons. Mediation is a proven tool to provide access to lower cost and more efficient justice. The change was made possible through the technical assistance and advocacy provided by the Access to Justice Project, implemented by Millennium Partners and led by a talented team of Moldovans.

#IACC2024 Great discussion about approaches to identify and disable corruption enablers at the GAP/SNA Technical Workshop on Disabling the Enablers of Corruption and Activating the Gatekeepers.  Full house, interesting and innovative ideas. Jennifer Anderson Lewis (in personal capacity) Victoria Ayer Dr Ingrida Kerusauskaite Kayleigh Zigler Andrew Green Maksym Klyuchar Nils Taxell  Andrew RoganBarbara STONESTREET Ekaterina (Katya) Lysova Renne Traicova Onyinyechi Ough