Eurasia Press & News
The US Department of State has criticised Romania in its annual human rights report, for ‘problems in several areas’ including government corruption, prison and detention center conditions and some restrictions on the freedom of the press, Newsin news agency reports.
The report concludes that the Romanian government generally respected the human rights of its citizens, but notes violations in certain areas. Government corruption and transparency is the main focus of the report, stating problems such as that the government did not implemented effectively laws that prescribe stiff penalties for official corruption.
“The authorities’ generally ineffective response to corruption remained a focus of public criticism, political debate, and media scrutiny throughout the year. NGOs and the media continued to note that no major case of high-level corruption had yet resulted in judgments involving prison sentences. While there
were some convictions of lower-level officials for corruption, the European Commission, in its July interim progress report, criticized court sentences as “lenient and inconsistent” and parliament for lacking an “unequivocal commitment to rooting out high level corruption,” reads the report.
Romania is subject to a special European Commission mechanism for regular monitoring for progress in justice sector reform.
Furthermore, the US Department of State says that the Romanian government “addressed some human rights problems during the year; however, abuses continued to occur. There were reports of police and gendarme harassment and mistreatment of detainees and Roma. Prison conditions remained poor. The judiciary lacked the public’s trust in its ability to apply the law impartially. Restrictions on freedom of religion continued to be a great concern due to the restrictive, discriminatory religion law. Property restitution remained slow, and the government failed to take action to return the Greek Catholic churches confiscated by the communist government in 1948”.
The full text of the report is available at: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/eur/119100.htm
