Corneliu DONI, Moldova
PROJECT: Developing the national potential in re-socialization of justice-involved children

Interested in law and justice, Corneliu is working in the field of arbitration and public procurement. Currently, Corneliu is an Associate lawyer at the law firm “CEACHIR, ZAMFIR & Partenerii”. Therefore, he acts as arbitrator at the International Commercial Arbitration Court under the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Moldova. To promote international and domestic arbitration, he joined a recently-established non-profit organization Moldovan Arbitration Association (MAA) as a General Secretary. Previously, Corneliu was a coordinator of EduJust, an informal legal education project for children. As a student, he was engaged in various voluntary activities at the local and international organizations, including Youth League from Moldova, Promo-LEX, Invento, etc.

Corneliu holds a Master’s degree in Investment Treaty Arbitration from the Uppsala University (Sweden) and a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the Moldova State University.

“I have always endeavored to assist justice-involved youth and make the system more human-oriented. This action was the opportunity to research the issue in-depth and deliver the guidelines for the professionals involved in this process. Given that, it was my honor to present the research findings to the professors and responsible social workers in the six Moldovan cities. Looking back at my work today, I am proud of having advocated several policies to improve the quality of the resocialization of youth in my country. Nevertheless, there is still much more to be done at the institutional level to provide the necessary capacity for the prevention and social rehabilitation.” – Corneliu DONI

Developing the national potential in re-socialization of justice-involved children

The project aimed to research the best practices, methods, and tools to help delinquent children in re-socializing and provide guidelines to the involved stakeholders, including the teachers, psychologists, officers from the National Inspectorate of Probation, police officers and volunteers. To achieve the latter objective, Corneliu did comprehensive and interdisciplinary research of the most effective ways of re-socializing justice-involved children. To explore the best practices, Corneliu undertook three study visits in Romania, Czech Republic, and Germany. During these visits at the Buzias Educational CenterCzech Probationa and Mediation ServiceIRZ, Bruke, Don Basco Youth Center, Youth Detention Centre in Dusseldorf, he held discussions with more than 40 field experts. The interviews and in-depth discussions played a crucial role in developing a final publication offering the best role-models targeted on the Moldovan Justice system.

The project produced a research publication introducing international practices on general incentives and mitigation measures of delinquent acts. The book is a guide for the policemen, probation officers, psychologists, pedagogues, and social workers to help juveniles involved in criminal activity. Corneliu published 800 copies of the book and distributed it among the education directorates, policemen, and probation officers across the country. Thus, the guidelines were also shared with the Youth Centers in Chisinau and Social Assistants from Chisinau and Criuleni. Overall, he covered six Moldovan cities, including Chisinau, Balti, Cahul, Gagauzia, Criuleni, Hîncești.

Research paper ‘Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Guidelines (in Russian)’:

Fellowship Programs 2018
Country Moldova
Areas of Interest Awareness raising
Capacity development
Topics Human rights
Judiciary & legal system
Support to local actors to provide basic services
Project duration June 2018 - August 2018