ROMANIA

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ROMANIA

• NATIONAL COUNCILFORCOMBATING DISCRIMINATION
• Roma in an Expanding Europe
• Budapest 30th of June 1st of July 2003
• 
  Cristian JURA

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The structure of NCCD

• President
• Steering Board Composed of 6 the President,
  all jurists, appointed by the PM from lists
  proposed by 7 different Ministries
• Secretariat 4
• Department of Ensuring the Respect of
  Non-discrimination - 2
• Department for Affirmative Politics and Studies -
  5
• Juridical Department 1
• Administrative Department 6
• Inspection Team 1

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The activity of NCCD

• In the exercise of its functions The National
  Council for Combating Discrimination
  independently carries out its activity, without
  any restriction or influence from other
  institutions or public authorities.

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The Independence of the Activity

• the Councils budget is projected until 2006 as
  a task resulted from the National Programme for
  Accession into the EU and for the implementation
  of the National Plan for Combating Discrimination
• the National Council can apply contravention
  sanctions even to the central and local public
  administrations authorities
• the recruitment of its personnel has made by the
  Council itself
• the members of the Steering Board are appointed
  for a period of 7 years and the procedure for
  changing them is very complicated art 5 paragraph
  (7) G.D. no 1194/2001
• by law, some of Councils functions can be
  established by the Parliament art. 2 paragraph
  (2) G.D. no 1194/2001
• most of the Councils activities are focused on
  the relation with the Trade Unions, the Employers
  and NGOs

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The guidelines of the activity

• 1. Prevention
• 2. Sanction
• 3. Cooperation

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Principles of the activity

• Information
• Access
• Transparency

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1. Prevention

• The second draft of the National Plan for
  Combating Discrimination
• Instruction regarding the discriminatory
  restrictions promoted by the media advertisements
  in the field of employment -published in the
  Official Journal nr.235/ 7th of April 2003
• Consultancy for the discriminated persons (56
  persons in 2003)

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2. Sanction

• The Steering Board play a key role in
  identification and sanction the discrimination
  deeds
• The Steering Board analyze complains and decide
  if there was a discrimination or not and sanction
  the identified discriminations
• The Steering Board has applied 16 sanctions in
  2003

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Grounds of discrimination covered by Romanian law

• Race
• Nationality
• Ethnicity
• Language
• Religion
• Social status
• Beliefs
• Gender

• Sexual orientation
• Disability
• HIV/AIDS
• Chronic non-infectious diseases infections
• Refugees
• Asylum seeker

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Fields of Discrimination

• Equality in the economic activity
• Access to legal, administrative and health public
  services
• Access to education
• Freedom of movement, choice of residence and
  access to the public places
• Personal dignity

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2.1 Petitions

• In 2002 NCCD received 132 petitions
• In 2002 NCCD solved 115
• In 2003 NCCD 221
• In 2003 NCCD has solved 165
• In 2003 NCCD has applied 16 sanctions (2
  sanctions for petitions received in 2002)
• The rest are on different stages

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2.2 Ways to solve a petition

• Direct ways sanctions
• Indirect ways mediation between different
  entities (with success, Moisei case, Maramures
  county), this is not yet provided by the law

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Case Law

• 25.02.2003 - establishing a hostile, degrading,
  offensing atmosphere towards the rroma ethnic
  community, the right to personal dignity,
  20.000.000 ROL, President of the County Council
  Prahova
• 10.03.2003 establishing a hostile, degrading,
  offensing atmosphere towrds the rroma ethnic
  community, the right to personal dignity,
  2.000.000 ROL, Ziua newspaper, Bucharest

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• 11.03.2003 establishing a hostile, degrading,
  offensing atmosphere towards the rroma ethnic
  community, the right to personal dignity,
  2.000.000 ROL, Bucovina Sev newspaper, Suceava
• 11.03.2003 establishing a hostile, degrading,
  offensing atmosphere towards the rroma ethnic
  community, the right to personal dignity,
  2.000.000 ROL, Ziua de Vest newspaper Timisoara
• 11.03.2003 equal opportunities in employment
  process, gender issues, warning, Planet Prices
  srl Bucharest
• 8.04.2003 forbidden access in public places for
  rroma people, the right to personal dignity,
  2.000.000 ROL, Casablanca disco, Botosani

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• 8.04.2003 forbidden access in public places for
  roma people, the right to personal dignity,
  4.000.000 ROL s.c. Beni-Carmen s.r. l. Buzau
• 20.04.2003 equality in employment, discrimination
  on age, 5.000.000 ROL, Brigade for the Protection
  of Human Rights
• 23.04.2003 equality in employment, discrimination
  on gender, warning, S.C. Dance Club S.A. Focsani

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3. Cooperation

• National Alliance against Discrimination an
  open-ended forum for debates, established in
  April 2003, composed of NGOs, social partners and
  NCCD (42 members at the moment) and observers
  from UE Delegation, Ministry of Integration,
  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNHCR and UNICEF
• Interministerial Committee on Discrimination is
  in an advanced stage to be established
• University program NCCD wants to create
  research units on discrimination within
  universities, to use universities as thinktanks,
  to train students and professors, to disseminate
  information 6 universities have confirmed their
  participation
• Protocols with different Ministries are on an
  advanced stage of negotiation with Ministry of
  Youth and Sport, Ministry of Education and
  Research, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Labor
  and Social Solidarity, Ministry of Public
  Administration, etc.

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Issues identified for the amendments of the legal
framework

• Victimization
• Harassment
• Multiple discrimination
• Instruction to discriminate
• Improve the definition of indirect discrimination
• Mediation

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Burden of Proof an issue?

• Council Directive 2000/43/EC, art. 8
• Member States shall take such measures as are
  necessary, in accordance with their national
  judicial systems, to ensure that, when persons
  who consider themselves wronged because the
  principle of equal treatment has not been applied
  to them establish, before a court or other
  competent authority, facts from which it may be
  presumed that there has been direct or indirect
  discrimination, it shall be for the respondent to
  prove that there has been no breach of the
  principle of equal treatment.
• Paragraph 1 shall not prevent Member States from
  introducing rules of evidence which are more
  favorable to plaintiffs.
• Paragraph 1 shall not apply to criminal
  procedures.
• Paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 shall also apply to any
  proceedings brought in accordance with Article
  7(2).
• Member States need not apply paragraph 1 to
  proceedings in which it is for the court or
  competent body to investigate the facts of the
  case.

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Procedure

• The Steering Board of the National Council for
  Combating Discrimination, exercising its
  deliberative role, analyzes the petitions and
  complaints received (art. 2 letters g and k -
  G.D. no 1194/2001) and adopts by decisions (Para
  6 G.D. no 1514/2002), the appropriate measures,
  after investigations carried out by the
  specialized personal of the Council (Para 10
  G.D. no 1514/2002).

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Compensations

• For all discrimination cases, the victims are
  entitled to claim damages, proportionally with
  the prejudice, as well as to the re-establishment
  of the situation prior to the discrimination or
  to the annulment of the situation created by
  discrimination, in accordance with common law.
• Upon request, the court can order that the
  competent authorities withdraw the license of
  legal entities that significantly prejudice the
  society by means of a discriminatory action or,
  although have caused a minor prejudice
  repeatedly violate the provisions of the legal
  framework.
• Human rights non-governmental organizations can
  appear in court as parties in cases involving
  discriminations pertaining to their field of
  activity and which prejudice a community or a
  group of persons.

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Conclusion

• We do not want to act just as an singular
  institution for combating discrimination, we want
  to create an effective system for combating
  discrimination