From 5 to 7 April the Director of Human Rights and a delegation of the Department for the Execution of Judgments carried out a mission to Romania with support from the Agent of the Government of Romania before the European Court of Human Rights and Romania’s Permanent Representation to the Council of Europe. The high-level exchanges focused on avenues to strengthen the domestic capacity to respond rapidly and efficiently to the European Court’s judgments, given in particular the high number of cases concerning Romania revealing structural or complex problems which remain to be fully implemented.
The discussions allowed outlining a number of priority areas such as: conditions in psychiatric hospitals and issues related to involuntary psychiatric placement and treatment; the criminal law response to sexual offences, including when victims are children; overcrowding, material conditions and healthcare in prisons; actions of law enforcement agents and related legislative safeguards; investigations into the crackdowns on anti-governmental demonstrations in 1989 and early 1990s; legal gender recognition; non-execution or delayed execution of domestic court decisions by State and by State-controlled entities; dysfunctions in the mechanisms set up to afford reparation for properties nationalised during the Communist regime.
Exchanges were held with the Prime Minister’s Chancellery, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, the Human Rights standing committees of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, the Superior Council of Magistracy, the Ombudsperson’s institution, and the National Institute for Magistracy.
