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OVERVIEW ON GENDER EQUALITY ISSUES IN ROMANIA

 Prepared by Group for European Integration

 INTRODUCTION

 Promoting equal opportunities for women and men and ensuring full enjoyment of all human rights is a priority in Romania. Romania’s non-discrimination legislation has been constantly modernized to incorporate the most advanced international norms and standards .

The Romanian Constitution (Article 16) stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law and public authorities, without any privileges or discrimination. The principle of equality between the sexes is explicitly regulated under Article 4 of the Romanian Constitution and in a number of other national regulations. Romania boasts a well-articulated and non-discriminatory de jure framework .

The European Commission emphasised in the evaluation document Agenda 2000 that in the field of equal opportunities, the national Romanian legislation covers the provisions of the Community legislation on non-discrimination on account of gender .

The steps for improving the legislation concerning equal opportunities between women and men have been created through inter alia:

• the ratification of the Revised European Social Charter;
• the adoption of the National Action Plan for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (2000);
• the Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men (202/2002.

The Law on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men is the only legal text providing for the principle of equal pay for work of equal value. Furthermore, it explicitly defines and prohibits both direct and indirect discrimination as well as sexual harassment. The Law covers the following areas:

A.	Protective measures
	Equal pay for women and men Equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion and working conditions Safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding
B.	Burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex
C.	Part-time workers
D.	Self-employed workers
E.	Parental leave
F.	Social security schemes

 The Law on Equal Opportunities between Women and Men offers the legal framework to solve notices, complaints and denunciations concerning sex discrimination as follows:

• The employees have the right to submit notices, complaints or denunciations on gender discrimination towards the employer or against him, if he is directly involved and to request the support of the trade union organisation or of the employees representative of the unit in order to solve the situation within the work place;
• If the notice/complaint/denunciation cannot be solved at the level of the unit by mediation, the employee claiming and proving a violation of his/her rights in the labour market or other fields has the right to submit a complaint to the competent judicial instance;
• People who consider themselves victims of discrimination may present their case to the competent judicial authority free of charge .
• The trade unions and non-governmental organisations monitoring human rights protection have the right to represent the discriminated persons where necessary. The latter services are free of charge for the persons who do not have the necessary material means .

GENDER EQUALITY MACHINERY

The gender equality structure (limiting it to the institutions, which are specifically dealing with gender issues) is provided in Picture 6 .

In the Romanian Parliament, there is a Commission for Equal Chances and Treatment, which was founded in 2000 within the Economic and Social Council. The Social and Economical Council, through the Commission for Equal Chances and Treatment, supports, in accordance with its prerogatives, implementation of the principle of equal chances and treatment between women and men into the normative acts having implications upon the socio-economical life .

The Commission for Equal Chances and Treatment represents one of the two Special Committees established within the Chamber of Deputies. Like the other committees, the Commission is formed in accordance with the political configuration of the Chamber of Deputies. The main functions of the Commission are:

• to eliminate any form of gender discrimination and to improve women’s conditions in society;
• to integrate the principle of equal chances between women and men in the legislative initiatives, in policies and programmes including both women and men;
• to monitor the application of provisions referring to the equal chances and treatment between women and men within the international documents ratified by Romania .

The Office of Ombudsperson was established in 1997 and represents an authority under parliamentary control. The Office has responsibility for defending the rights and freedoms of the people in their relations with the public authorities. In its structure the Office of the Ombudsman has two specialized departments:

1. The Department concerning the civil and political rights;
2. The Department concerning the protection of social, economical and cultural rights .

These departments employ public clerks on an individual work contract basis and are in charge of:

• receiving and distributing the petitions submitted by persons who have been injured by public administration authorities due to violation of their civil rights and freedoms;
• monitoring the legal solving of petitions and complaints received and requesting the public administration authorities to cease the violation of civil rights and freedoms, restore the rights of the petitioner and repair the loss .

The Office of the Ombudsman works in conjunction with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection to investigate complaints regarding the equality of chances and treatment between women and men, to fight against gender discrimination in the fields regulated by law .

The only statistics about complaints on gender issues are provided by the Romanian Ombudsman Office. For the year 2003, of a total number of 5400 petitions registered at the Ombudsman Office related to the violation of the civic rights and freedom, 30 were related to equal rights between men and women .

A specialized body for gender discrimination does not yet exist in Romania .

At governmental level, at the initiative of the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection, a Consultative Inter-Ministerial Commission on Equality of Treatment for Men and Women (CODES) was established to ensure a permanent exchange of information on the experience and measures in the field of gender equality and the elaboration of recommendations for the authorities of the central public administration. The Commission monitors the application of the provisions of the National Plan of Action for equal chances between women and men in sector policies as well as the progress achieved .

CODES has the following functions:

• disseminating of the “integrated approach” concept within the central public administration, seeking to incorporate the principle of social equality between men and women and to eliminate gender disparities and discrimination in elaborating and applying the sector policies;
• evaluating the degree to which the legislation in the field is applied and observed;
• stimulating the adoption of action programmes dedicated to training and awareness raising with regard to the problem of equal opportunities between men and women;
• elaborating recommendations and criteria which support and direct governmental, nongovernmental and local public authorities structures in applying policies of integrated approach;
• promoting information and experience exchange concerning the actions that have been developed in the field;

CODES is formed by 22 members, including representatives of the public authorities holding at least the position of director .

CODES may invite to its reunions, representatives of other public institutions and also those of governmental and non-governmental organisations and may solicit the support of specialists in the field of equal chances and treatment between men and women. The co-ordination of the CODES activity is assured by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection .

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection represents the governmental mechanism responsible for the developmentof strategies and policies in the field of promoting equal opportunities between women and men and eliminating any form of gender discrimination .

The Department for the Promotion and Monitoring of Women’s Rights Observance was established in 1995 within the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. In 1999, the department was transformed into the Directorate for the Equal Opportunities – the only structure of the central administration with responsibilities in the field of observing and promoting women’s rights and responsible for ensuring equal opportunities and treatment for women and men .

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is the public authority responsible for applying and observing implementation of the present law regulations in its field of activity and also concerning:

• the elimination of those provisions from the normative and administrative acts which contradict the principle of equal treatment;
• amending the provisions contrary to the equality principle if they are found in collective work contracts, individual work contracts, internal regulations of the units and also the statutes of independent professions .

The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection supervises the application of the provisions of the Law on Equal Treatment in its field of activity, through co-ordinated and subordinated institutions, which have within their remit the application of measures promoting equal chances and treatment between women and men and for eliminating direct and indirect discrimination based on sex. These institutions include:

• The National Agency for Labour Force Occupancy, which assures the application of the measures observing equal chances and treatment between women and men in the field of providing services for work occupancy and professional training, and also in the field of social protection for unemployed persons .
• The National House for Pensions and Other Social Insurance Rights, which assures the application of the measures observing equal chances and treatment between women and men in the field of managing the public system of pensions and other social insurance rights .
• Work Inspection assures the application of the measures observing equal chances and treatment between women and men in the field of establishing work relations and of work health and security and controls the application of the present law provisions both in the public sector and in the private one, through work territorial inspectorates .
• The National Council for Adults Professional Training, an autonomous administrative authority having a consultative role, which assures the application of the measures for observing equal chances and treatment between women and men in developing policies and strategies concerning adult professional training.

 The National Institute for Scientific Research in the Field of Labour and Social Protection and the National Institute for Research Development for Labour Protection, both being under the coordination of Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, are responsible for promoting and ensuring equal chances and treatment between women and men in their specific fields of activity and offer all the data and information they have and which are necessary for developing the strategies and policies in the field .

The Ministry of Education and Research, which, by the territorial school inspectorates, performs the control concerning the inclusion into educational plans and into other curricular instruments, and also into the current activity of educational units, of the measures for observing the principle of equal chances and treatment between women and men .

The Ministry of Health and Family, which, by county directions of public health and of Bucharest city, exercises control over applying the measures for observing the equality of chances and treatment between women and men in the field of health, concerning the access to medical services and to their quality and also concerning health in the work place .

The National Institute of Statistics in Romania provides various statistics in a number of fields. In the Annual Report of the institute, gender segregated statistics are presented (regarding population, labor force, health, educational system, etc.). The information offered by the National Institute of Statistics in Romania is provided through press releases, or published in classified lists and in the Statistic Bulletin CANSTAT. Also the National Institute of Statistics offers statistical indicators and a Catalogue of publications and statistical services. The web address of National Institute of Statistics is: http://www.insse.ro/indexe.htm.

 Social partners and NGOs. Trade Union Confederations appoint representatives having prerogatives for ensuring the observance of equal chances and treatment between women and men in the work place. The appointed trade union representatives receive, from persons who consider they have been discriminated against complaints/denunciations, apply the procedures for solving these and solicit to the employers to solve the employees’ requests. In the units in which no trade union organisation exists, one of the trade union representatives elected by the employees has the prerogative to assure the observance of equal chances and treatment between women and men at work place. 60 NGOs for women were officially registered; despite this figure the rate of female participation in all Romanian NGOs in general did not exceed 46% .

Educational institutions working on promoting gender equality. In Romania both formal and informal educational systems provide courses, study programs or conduct research in the field of gender issues .

(a) Formal educational system: many universities have courses and programmes on gender issues (even at master’s level). It is worth mentioning the gender studies performed by the National School of Political Science in Bucharest, the course on feminism established at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest and the module on “Women, Culture and Society” established at the Faculty of Sociology, Department of Social Work in the same university. Similar initiatives have been taken in the universities of Iasi and Timisoara .

In October 1998, with the support of the Open Society Institute’s Gender Studies Small Grant Programme the Information and Documentation Centre on Gender Studies and Feminism was founded. Established within the framework of the Institute of Anthropology at Cluj, the Centre strives to institutionalize gender studies in Romanian universities and to encourage interdisciplinary research on gender related issues .

(b) Non-formal educational system: 73 NGOs are reported to be active in the field of gender issues and anti-discrimination problems. They organise training courses, modules, summer schools and other types of gender education .

CHALLENGES TO GENDER EQUALITY

Although Romania has made important steps forward in the field of gender equality and it is moving in the right direction, the pace is not fast enough. Speaking about gender issues, one can easily notice that further efforts are still necessary to improve the situation. Some measures could include:

• To increase awareness on gender issues;
• To better inform and raise the awareness of people on the protection of their rights;
• To enhance the transparency (reports and statistics available);
• To raise the financial support at the level of local authorities and local public administration;
• To deliver an extended and diverse educational offer within the non-formal educational system;
• To improve the collaboration among specialized organisations and bodies at all levels;
• To make the agencies and other specialised bodies more visible and active .

 Picture 6. Gender equality machinery of Romania

2003-2006