Denim Day Moldova, outlining portraits of first-line heroes devoted to the cause of the victims of sexual violence

For the past 28 years, on the last Wednesday of April, millions of people around the world have worn jeans in solidarity with the victims of sexual violence. This year, La Strada Moldova team chose to mark the Denim Day differently than it has done since 2018, when it launched the Denim Day Moldova campaign.

The challenges faced during the lockdown and the way the law enforcement reacts to them have led us to rethink the format of the campaign. So, we decided to bring to the fore the honorable people from the legal system, with whom we collaborate for the cause of the victims of sexual violence.

This year Denim Day Moldova is about police officers, criminal investigators and prosecutors. It is a campaign, dedicated to professionals who have managed to keep their courage, diligence and empathy in restoring the rights of rape victims, always, in any circumstance.

It would be untrue to say that the system is perfect and that victims of abuse show a high degree of trust and openness to the law enforcement bodies. However, in the police and in the courts there are many professionals, people worthy of all respect, who motivate us - the representatives of civil society - to continue the fight to restore the rights of our beneficiaries.

Daniela MISAIL-NICHITIN, Director of Women’s Program of the International Center La Strada Moldova: „Denim Day Moldova 2020 is dedicated to all representatives of law enforcement agencies that treat properly, fairly and with great diligence every case of sexual violence against women and girls. We respect them as our colleagues. We are connected by successful collaborations, exchange of experience and valuable knowledge. Therefore, we know from the first source how difficult it is now for law enforcement to find time and, why not, motivation to efficiently investigate a rape. For most law enforcement officers, the pandemic means a heavy workload. It is very likely that you might lose, pressed by short deadlines or lack of experience, relevant evidence in a rape case or neglect procedural actions that could prevent a serious act of sexual violence. We would like very much that the heroes of this campaign become a good source of inspiration for their colleagues.”

All 10 characters of the campaign are real people. There are men and women of different ages, with different experience, working in various regions of the country. What unites them all is the professionalism and fairness they show every time they manage a case of sexual violence against a woman, but not only. And each collaboration with them means for us more hope that the case we are collaborating on will be properly investigated and documented, that the chances of restoring the victim's rights will be maintained at a high level.

The history of "Denim Day" began in 1992, in Italy, when a judge of the Supreme Court of Justice decided to overturn the perpetrator's conviction for rape,arguing that because the victim was wearing tight jeans she must have helped her rapist remove her jeans, thereby implying consent. The next day, the women in the Italian Parliament came to work wearing jeans, contrary to the dress code, in solidarity with the victim. Since then, Denim Day has been marked in many states in Europe and the USA on the last day of Wednesday in April, as a symbol of protest against erroneous attitudes towards sexual assault.