President of Romania's National Council for Combating Discrimination Downplays Ethnic Discrimination in Romania

07 November 2002

On October 16, 2002, the ERRC attended a roundtable organised by the European Commission on Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) at which Mr Cristian Jura, President of the National Council for Combating Discrimination, was present. During his speech, Mr Jura stated that "no serious systematic violations (of anti-discrimination laws) are perpetrated against a particular population" in Romania. In the first two months of the Council's work, according to Mr Jura, it has received approximately one hundred complaints, some of which were with respect to Roma. Mr Jura promised that the Council would publish a quarterly activity report, but when questioned, could not provide a schedule for the first activity report. On August 12, 2002, Divers reported that the Council began operating on August 1, 2002. The Council began operation following Law 48/2002 on "Combating All Forms of Discrimination" (background information on the approval of the legislation is available at: Romanian deputies exclude rights of communities from anti-discrimination legislation ). On August 29, 2002, Divers reported that the Council is sanctioned not only act to on the complaints it receives from victims of discrimination based on age, sex, religion and ethnic origin, but also initiate its own investigations. According to Mr Jura, the Council had reportedly set up a control group to visit places where discrimination is reported to have taken place. In cases where the control group finds that discrimination has taken place based on legal provisions, the Council of Director's of the National Council for Combating Discrimination will reportedly establish and impose a fine, which will vary depending on the number of people discriminated against. Only one member of the Council is a member of a minority group, according to Mr Jura.

(ERRC, Divers)