Radio România Internațional

Tag: legal

  • Romania’s vulnerable communities and their problems

    Romania’s vulnerable communities and their problems

    Rroma girls and women make some of Romania’s most vulnerable and most neglected groups. More often than not, the authorities’ prejudices and the abuses that are not considered proper abuses by the families, leave those women and girls without protection.

    Romania still is the EU country with the biggest number of underage mothers. The state institutions do not carry a centralized collection of data regarding forced marriages. No data, no such issue on the agenda. No data, no clear-cut knowledge of the causes of forced marriages. It is the opinion of Măriuca-Oana Constantin, a university lecturer with the National School of Political and Administrative Studies, an opinion voiced as part of the awareness-raising campaign carried by E-Romnja — Romania’s only NGO dedicated to Rroma girls and women.

    Carmina is a 10-year-old girl. She graduated from the 4th grade when she was married to a 14-year-old boy as the outcome of a marriage arranged by the parents, Two years later, Carmina gives birth to a child. The authorities took note of that regarding the case, yet the case was eventually dropped, the reasoning for that was something like “the victim consented to having sexual relationships, approved of by the parents” or “the Rroma tradition encourages such relationships”. No research on parents was conducted.

    Carmina’s story is only one of the five stories presented as part of a campaign running like “In the Name of Tradition?”. It was launched by E-Romnja, the NGO that seeks to debunk the myth whereby the marriage between children is a matter exclusively concerning the Rroma communities. It is one of those obnoxious prejudices justifying cases of violence against vulnerable persons.

    How do we know the problem exceeds the Rroma community? Because demographic data on premature deliveries confirm it. It is the idea of Cerasela Banica, State Secretary with the National Council for Combatting Discrimination.

    Roxana Oprea is E-Romnja’s equal opportunities expert. Here is what the answer was, to the question why the issue of forced marriages was of no interest for the institutions.

    “It is very simple and there is glaring evidence for that, I daresay, since there is a lot of racism in institutions. People relate to the phenomenon as a cultural practice specific to the Rroma community alone, yet the reality is different. Something like that, we’re not the only ones to say it, the E-Romnja Association, there are also other institutions and international bodies saying it.

    So for this very reason, it never has been a priority for institutions and decision-making bodies. Therefore, since it is not something affecting the entire population, it is viewed as a cultural practice and, because of the bias and the prejudice, you do not intervene. “

    ‘
    Carmina’s story, a story we have presented above, is one of the hundreds such stories we will never know. One of the many stories that really happens, as, more often than not, we keep viewing children as being their parents’ property, not recognizing them as individuals having their own rights and needs. As for the forced marriages, most likely, the biggest mistake of those who want to help (social assistants, teachers, psychologists, NGO staff, judicial professionals and suchlike) is they go and talk with the parents, thinking the problem can and must be solved in the family or in the community. Actually, more often than not, parents are the abusers. Roxana Oprea.

    “We just cannot help considering this normalizing area; the moment you, as an institution, as a school, as the General Social Assistance Direction, the moment you noticed those things happened and you did nothing about it, then what is the signal you give to parents ? That what they do is okay. So you, practically, validate adults’ abuses on their own children.

    It is a vicious circle and, if we do not strengthen that kind of approach, whereby we no longer choose to point our finger at the Rroma community alone and lay the blame on the Rroma community, we cannot be in line with the international standards. We will continue to be on the shameful list of the countries allowing child marriage. “

    The Criminal Code has a legislative void on forced marriage, the legislation does not view forced marriage as a self-contained criminal act. In the rare circumstances when such cases are brought to court, they are tried as sexual crimes. E-Romnja has raised another key problem: the use, by the authorities of the phrase “consensual union” when they refer to the marriage between two persons, of which at least one is younger than 16.

    Consent for marriage CANNOT be demanded from a minor person, younger than 16, it is stipulated in the Intervention Guide for cases of marriage between children/forced marriages, published at the beginning of the year. It was also Cerasela Bănică who explained for Radio Romania International criminal investigation files do not consider this lack of consent but rather they choose placement based on such reasoning as “parents agree”, “they had been living together for long”, “they have already had sexual relations” or “it is a habit of the Rroma community”. Something like that leaves the victim completely defenseless. “

    Asked how the authorities viewed the campaign, here is how Roxana Oprea answered:

    ” The campaign is viewed with interest, but what is the standpoint it is viewed from? From the standpoint whereby Romania is somehow compelled, legally, to eliminate such a practice, being a signatory party of several international conventions on preventing and combatting gender violence. We have Directive no 1385 of the European Parliament and the European Council issued on May 15, 2024, stipulating EU member states had a three-year period of grace, starting with the date the directive came into force, to transpose the regulations into domestic law.

    Therefore, we somehow have some pressure at European level so Romania may comply with those international standards. There is also the Grevio report, assumed by Romania Government which, similarly, urges the state to take measures and criminalize such a practice. “

    Roxana Oprea also stated the issue was not viewed as one pertaining to the gender violence, and, even though such an issue were viewed as a gender violence issue, whenever violence targets a Rroma woman, is it no longer viewed as belonging to society.

    “ I think it is so normalized that, were we to speak about violence as a general phenomenon, it is normalized in all communities. We have reports revealing Romanians are tolerant regarding verbal, sexual violence that rape is justified if the woman looks somehow provocative. There are judicial reasonings compiled by Romanian women and men judges, specifying an 11- or a 12-year-old girl enticed a man or gave her consent for rape. “

    At the pressure of the European Union, Romania has until 2027 to take action against such a phenomenon.

  • Legal establishment projects targeting minors and families in Romania

    Legal establishment projects targeting minors and families in Romania

    The Brasov-based Tribunal for Minors and Family was
    established in 2004. It was Romania’s s first such judicial establishment. It
    was aimed as a pilot-project and was meant to stand as a model for identical
    projects that were supposed to be carried all over the country until 2007, at
    least in Romania’s major cities. It is just that, in 2022, the Tribunal for
    Minors and family in Brasov is still a singular court, specializing in dealing
    with civil and criminal cases where minors are involved.


    All along, there have been voices pleading for the
    dismantling of the Brasov-based court, on the grounds that its activity is
    untenable. Financial reasons for its dismantling have been mentioned, among
    other things, whereby the scope of the court was way too narrow as compared to
    the human and material resources required for its functioning. In a recent
    public discussion, hosted by PressHub.ro, the current president of the Tribunal,
    judge Gabriela Chihaia, brought up her own reasons against the dismantling of
    the aforementioned tribunal.


    First off, on the premises at the Brasov-based Tribunal
    for Minors and Family a special room was set up for the hearing of children. Through
    the care of an association titled Women Get Involved, through sponsorship and
    donations, the hearing of minors was made possible, for various cases they are
    involved in, in a much friendlier environment, with relaxing, lively-colored
    interior design and furniture. Children can experience traumas whose aftermath
    can be long-lasting in their lives, so an environment where they can feel
    relaxed is of utmost importance, when the hearing procedure is ongoing in
    court.

    Judge Gabriela Chihaia:


    ʺIn an environment that is different from the court
    room, which is austere, arid and where a certain set of procedures needs to be
    followed, with people having to stand up the moment the court enters the hall
    or when the petitioner and the respondent are appealed, with the culprit who
    can be deprived of freedom and kept in custody or can be be subject to house
    arrest or placed under judicial control or can be even free, being present in
    the court room, with the culprit’s family or friends who, in certain cases, can
    even be in the court room, or if the session we have is public or when, more
    often than not, we have a minor individual as an injured party and then the
    court session is closed to the public, being held outside the court room, in
    the halls of the tribunal or in the courtyard, it goes without saying that the
    minor individual having to face those people even at a mere visual level has
    but one more trauma to experience, in addition to the trauma which exists by default,
    once they are involved in a court case. So those special rooms enabled them to find
    it a great deal easier to speak before the court. We had minors who first
    played and who, even though they were more stressed out and more tense in the
    beginning, they relaxed afterwards and said their statement much easier than
    they would done that in a proper court room, that’s for sure.


    There is a second reason why, in Romania, more
    tribunals for minors and family should be set up: the number of cases involving
    minors is growing. In the specialized court in Brasov, they are being dealt
    with and ruled upon fairly rapidly, as compared to the general tribunal.

    The President of the Brasov-based Tribunal, judge Gabriela Chihaia once again.


    I think the number of such cases has
    been growing, at once being slightly on the wane, as compared, at least, to the
    Tribunal for Minors and Family. I began by job with
    this court beginning January 1st, 2019, and I can say that I noticed
    that the number of files where minor injured parties are involved, victims of
    sexual crimes, most often, has been growing. We’re not speaking about an
    exponential increase, though, yet we have such files all the time. With such a
    specialization, we can better get ourselves organized on such files. For example,
    for minor trafficking, a file dispatched to us as a first instance court or the
    file of a murder perpetrated by a minor or attempted murder, perpetrated by a
    minor or targeting a minor, we are very quick to deal with them, but our
    readiness in solving them has to do with the criminal procedure standards and
    practices because, concurrently, we need to comply with the deadlines
    stipulated by the legislation, we need to abide by the parties’ right to defend
    themselves, we need to enable all parties involved to make use of such rights in
    a proper manner. And yet, apart from deadlines, we fare very well as regards
    the deadline for solving the files proper.


    At long last, given the specificity of
    the Tribunal for Minors and Family, its employees have become specialists in
    the matter of minors, in civil, but also in criminal cases.

    Gabriela Chihaia:


    ʺA regular tribunal solves
    minors and family files together with the other files pertaining to a civil or
    a criminal matter. And yet, ruling in several matters, it is obvious the judges
    cannot specialize themselves in each of the aforementioned matters, given that each
    and every one of them claims a specificity of its own. That is why, taking into
    account that, throughout the years, emphasis has been laid on judges’ specialization,
    such a specialized court can only be a good point for the organizing abilities
    of the courts in our country, and implicitly, for the society we work for.


    The project of establishing, in Romania, of tribunals specializing
    in children and family-related issues has been nipped in the bud. However, such
    a project has never been abandoned altogether, because of the need for the minors’
    rights to be observed, also according to the international legislation and
    recommendations. For many people, the existence of one such single court is
    an error. (EN)


  • Un nou raport privind integrarea imigranţilor

    Un nou raport privind integrarea imigranţilor

    Prin programul general Solidaritatea şi gestionarea fluxurilor migratorii
    al Comunităţii Europene, Centrul de cercetare şi documentare în domeniul
    integrării imigranţilor, în parteneriat cu Fundaţia pentru o Societate
    Deschisă, a realizat barometrul pe 2015. Echipa coordonată de Camelia Mihalache
    a delimitat palierele integrării imigranţilor pe 13 dimensiuni mari, de la
    libera circulaţie, până la integrarea propriu-zisă, prin obţinerea cetăţeniei.
    Pentru obţinerea cetăţeniei române, un imigrant trebuie să locuiască legal în
    România timp de 8 sau 5 ani, dacă este căsătorit cu un cetăţean român. În toată această perioadă imigranţii nu au
    dreptul de a vota şi de a fi aleşi, nu pot înfiinţa partide şi nu pot adresa
    petiţii. Modificarea condiţiilor în care imigranţii pot participa activ la
    viaţa politică, exceptând dreptul de vot, care ar necesita modificarea
    Constituţiei, nu cere decât o viziune modernă asupra rolului pozitiv al
    diversităţii în viaţa unei societăţi. Bianca Floarea, cercetător al Fundaţiei
    pentru o societate deschisă: Libera circulaţie este o primă dimensiune a
    integrării. Este vorba de drepturile de intrare şi de şedere pe teritoriul
    României. De asemenea, ne-am referit şi la mobilitatea lor în cadrul graniţelor
    României. În acest scop, s-au folosit trei indicatori: condiţiile permisive de
    intrare şi de şedere, deplasarea liberă în interiorul graniţelor şi reînnoirea permiselor de şedere pentru
    imigranţi. Trecând la partea de evaluare a liberei circulaţii, scorul obţinut
    pentru această dimensiune este unul din cele mai bune, deşi în scădere faţă de
    anul trecut. Este pe locul trei, cu 7 puncte, cele 10 puncte maxime fiind
    obţinute de dimensiunea opinie publică şi reîntregirea familiei. Iată, pe locul
    3 avem dimensiunea liberei circulaţii, însoţită de muncă şi integrarea
    economică. În legătură cu primul indicator, condiţiile permisive de intrare şi
    şedere, trebuie spus faptul că, pentru a intra în România sau pentru a obţine
    un permis de şedere de lungă sau de scurtă durată, un cetăţean al ţărilor terţe
    trebuie să îndeplinească o serie de condiţii. O parte dintre aceste condiţii
    sunt generale, cum ar fi să aibă un document valabil de trecere a frontierei,
    să nu aibă interdicţie de a intra în România, să nu fie un pericol pentru
    securitatea celorlalţi. Există şi o serie de condiţii specifice, care ţin de
    scopul pentru care respectiva persoană a intrat în România, fie că este vorba
    de reîntregirea familiei sau de studii.


    Faţă de ediţia de anul trecut a barometrului privind integrarea
    imigranţilor, adoptarea ordonanţei 25/2014
    a făcut ca anumite categorii de persoane să nu
    aibă nevoie de obţinerea unui aviz de includere pe piaţa muncii, dacă a
    obţinut un permis de şedere. Este vorba de cei aflaţi în conducerea filialelor,
    a reprezentanţelor sau a sucursalelor străine pe teritoriul României, dar şi de
    cei veniţi în România temporar, la studii. Cât despre dimensiunea
    anti-discriminare, Daniela Tarnovschi, cercetătoare a Fundaţiei pentru o
    Societate Deschisă, prezintă rezultatele raportului: Românii se declară
    toleranţi şi acceptă imigranţii. În ceea ce priveşte discriminarea, am folosit
    în raport definiţia care se regăseşte în lege. Am studiat patru indicatori:
    recunoaşterea drepturilor fundamentale, protecţia legală a străinilor împotriva
    discriminării şi politici eficiente pentru combaterea discriminării şi faptul
    că imigranţii nu se simt discriminaţi. Ca evaluare se observă că, faţă de 2014,
    există o scădere în ceea ce priveşte nediscriminarea imigranţilor. Sunt
    recunoscute drepturile fundamentale ale imigranţilor, dar nu există mecanisme
    de implementare şi monitorizare a politicilor anti-discriminare. În ceea ce
    priveşte protecţia legală a străinilor împotriva discriminării, există un cadru
    legal anti-discriminare, dar nu există un cadru care să protejeze în mod
    specific străinii împotriva discriminării sau acest cadru este defectuos
    implementat şi neutilizat. La politici de integrare eficientă pentru combaterea
    discriminării, rezultatul este că nu există politici integrale eficiente pentru
    combaterea discriminării.


    Cât despre accesul străinilor la ansamblul politicilor de sprijin şi la
    sistemele sociale, Luciana Lăzărescu a sintetizat rezultatele cercetării
    Fundaţiei pentru o Societate Deschisă:
    Dimensiunea bunăstării este, de fapt, un
    suport pentru toate celelalte dimensiuni. Ne-am referit în primul rând la
    locuinţe. Este vorba de locuinţe sociale, dar ne-am referit şi la cele de pe
    piaţa privată. Ne-am referit şi la accesul la sistemul de asistenţă socială,
    dar şi la două componente ale sistemului contributoriu pe asigurări sociale şi
    este vorba de accesul la serviciile de sănătate şi la asigurările sociale. Un
    plan important în paradigma serviciilor care oferă suport este colaborarea
    instituţională şi, nu în ultimul rând, monitorizarea şi evaluarea impactului
    programelor şi serviciilor asupra imigranţilor.


    Evaluarea bunăstării imigranţilor arată un scor peste media celorlalte
    dimensiuni din raportul pe 2015 realizat de Fundaţia pentru o Societate
    Deschisă.