Press statement
UPR is a new mechanism of the UN which functions since 2008 and which consists of the review of the human rights practices of all states, once every four and a half years. Romaniahas been evaluated for the second time in January 2013.
Within this process, putting to use its human rights expertise, the Center for Legal Resources has:
- Sent in July 2012 an evaluation regarding effective remedies for discrimination in Romania, especially in what regards the activity of the national Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD) and with regards to high-level discriminatory speech as connected to the idea of impunity.
- Has participated to the UPR pre-session in November 2012 where CLR had an oral statement on : the lack of efficacy of anti-discrimination instruments from Romania, impunity for criminal discriminatory acts done by authorities against the Roma, in the field of housing, the lack of a national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture and bad treatment as foreseen by the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture ratified by Romania in 2009, the lack of a system guaranteeing the rights of persons with mental disabilities in state institutions and preventing ill treatment, legal gaps in the field of protecting persons with mental disabilities.
- In January 2012, CLR has been present to the 15th session of the UPR working group, where the Romanian state has presented the national report within the evaluation and then entered a dialogue with the other states. CLR has had the opportunity to interact with representatives of the other states, offering to the state missions reactions to the Romanian report on the real situation of Roma housing and on the right to own property as connected to the right not to be discriminated against, more precisely to the restitution of properties, especially the Greek-Catholic Churches, by the Romanian state.
Within the working group session, CLR has noticed that one of the recommendations made by the French state to Romania,[1] namely to make its national human rights institution, here explicitly mentioning the NCCD, fully compliant with the Paris Principles (Principles adopted by the UN General Assembly referring to the way in which a human rights institution should be regulated and should function to be truly effective in promoting human rights) has been modified in the draft report on Romania[2] of the Working Group, leaving out the explicit mentioning of the NCCD. The recommendation would thus become useless. CLR has signaled this problem to the missions. Although at the adoption of the Report on Romania by the working group this omission has not been rectified by France, we continue to hope that France will reassert and prioritize its traditional attachment to the idea of human rights, making the rectification within the period allocated to potential editing modifications and thus returning to the recommendation the vocation to be implemented.
Contact person: Delia-Luiza Niţă, Anti-discrimination Programme Manager, (+4) 0729.120.383.
[1] The documents can be accessed through the registration open to anyone on the Extranet Section of the Human Rights Council, here: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/HRCRegistration.aspx (Accessed at: 31.01.2013).
[2] United Nations, General Assembly, Human Rights Council, Draft of the Working Group on the UPR. Romania, Para. 109.20, 24 January, 2013, A/HRC/WG.6/15/L.3, available at: http://www.upr-info.org/IMG/pdf/a_hrc_wg.6_15_l.3.pdf (Accessed at: 31.01.2013).
