MINELRES: Romani CRISS News Letter on Implementing the Anti-discrimination
Legislation at Local Level
MINELRES moderator
[email protected]
Wed Mar 26 18:46:41 2003
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
No 15 / 2003/03/24
Human Rights Department
Romani CRISS presented at the Council of Europe the stage of
implementing the anti-discrimination legislation at local level
On Friday, 21st of March 2003, at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg,
ECRI (European Commission against Racism and Tolerance) and EUMC
(European Centre for Monitoring Racism and Xenophobia) organised the
meeting �Legal Solutions for Fighting against Racism.
The meeting debated three themes: �Application of effective national
legislation against racial discrimination, incitement to racial
discrimination and violence at local level�; �Youth and the fight
against racism and intolerance� and �Mechanisms for dialogue,
co-operation, conflict resolution and the necessary conditions for their
success � community cohesion: the UK experience�.
The representative of Human Rights Department within Romani CRISS
discussed about the stage of anti-discrimination legislation in the
context of the Centre and South-Eastern Europe countries. Despite the
comprehensive law on discrimination and the real progress in this
matter, Romania had to harmonise its internal legislation to the
standards imposed by the Directive 43/2000 adopted by the European Union
Council.
The participants underlined that the harmonisation process of the
anti-discrimination legislation according to aquis communitaire of
European Union was slow, and the implementation at local level,
including in the EU member countries is also slower.
Discussing the case of the candidate countries, the CRISS representative
mentioned there was a risk that the adopted legislation not to
correspond to the discrimination standards in the context of a certain
international pressure. Moreover, some countries, like Romania, have
unrealistically deadlines for establishing mechanisms of implementing
the law. The National Council for Fighting against Discrimination
functioned effectively after two years of the adoption of the Ordinance
and the Governmental Decree, even though the legal regulations
stipulated 60 days for establishing the Council.
On the other hand, an obstacle in applying the law was the lack of this
body itself and the Courts of law interpreting the law differently in
the discrimination cases brought in front of the Courts. With this
specialised mechanism lacking, the judiciary procedures and the
difficulty of proving the discrimination determined a delay in taking
decisions regarding ethnical discrimination of Roma persons.
The paradox of this situation is that the non-governmental
organisations, especially Romani CRISS, succeeded to obtain the first
sanctions in the discrimination matter, not based on the comprehensive
law regarding anti-discrimination, even though adopted, but based on
legal stipulations from different normative documents.
Therefore, a well-known Romanian newspaper had been sanctioned
administratively for publishing discriminatory ads regarding services or
selling/renting buildings, and a restaurant�s owner had been sanctioned
for displaying a notice at the entrance of the place and for the
unjustified refusal of services for persons of Roma ethnicity.
In the debate of the theme regarding local implementation of the
legislation, the participants marked out positive practises in
implementing anti-discrimination legislation in the west European
countries. In Great Britain, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland, the
specialised mechanisms in fighting against discrimination have national
coverage through networks organised at local level, establishing free
telephone lines for the discriminated victims, possibility of mediating
the discrimination cases, legal assistance for the victims, etc.
In this context, Robin Oakley, expert within European Dialogue (Roma
Rights and Access to Justice) from Great Britain presented the projects
jointly implemented with Romani CRISS, Romania, taking in consideration
the experience from Great Britain in preventing and fighting against
discrimination, and also a study realised by the Human Rights Department
within Romani CRISS. The study initially published in Great Britain
analyses the development of the legislative system and the specialised
bodies in fighting against discrimination at local level, by examining
the legal frame from Romania and Great Britain. Romani CRISS will
publish soon the study in Romanian language also.
Even though the harmonisation and implementation stage of the
anti-discrimination legislation is relatively slow in European context,
important steps have been made both in member countries of European
Union and candidate countries, the parliaments of these countries are
discussing the law projects in this matter. Taking into account article
13 of European Union Treaty and Directive 43/2000, this process have
been monitored and doubled by exact deadlines starting with July 2003,
during a four-year time frame in which the member countries will report
the measures taken for harmonising the national legislation with the
stipulations of the Directive 43/2000 of European Union Council and also
in regard with the ECRI General Policy Recommendation no. 7 on national
legislation to combat racism and racial discrimination.
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This newsletter is edited by Romani CRISS - Roma Center for Social
Intervention and Studies
within a project financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Buzesti St. NO 19, Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, Tel/fax: 00 40 21 231
41 44; 00 40 21 212 56 05.
E-mail: [email protected] ; Website: www.romanicriss.org / Website:
www.romanicriss.ro
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