Bucharest, October 27, 2005
To:
Ambassador-at-Large John V. Hanford III
Office of International Religious Freedom
U.S. Department of State
Ambassador Michael Kozak
Senior Director for Democracy, Human Rights and
International Organizations
National Security Council
Ambassador Glyn T. Davies
Acting Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights
and Labor
U.S. Department of State
Paula Dobriansky
Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Global
Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Senator Sam Brownback
Senator Tom Lantos
Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Representative Joseph Pitts
Representative Christopher Smith
Michael
Cromartie
Chairman, U.S. Commission on International Religious
Freedom
Mark Taplin, Charger D’Affaires US Embassy
Robert Gilchrist, Political Counselor, US Embassy
Jonathan Scheele, Head of Delegation - Delegation of
the European Commission in Romania
H.E. Monsenior Jean-Claude Perrisset The Apostolic
Nuncio in Romania
Her Majesty's Ambassador Mr Quinton Mark Quayle
H.E. Mr. Jaap L. Werner, Ambassador Extraordinary and
Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in
Romania
Pierre Moscovici, Rapporteur for Romania, European
Parliament
Terry Davis, Secretary General Council of Europe
Adriana Mychelova, External Relations Officer, Venice
Commission
Professor Cole Durham
Willy Fautré, director Human Rights Without Frontiers
Int. (Brussels)
Antoine Sondag, President Pax Romana International,
Geneva
H.E. Traian Bãsescu, Romanian
Presidency
Cãlin Popescu-Tãriceanu, Romanian Prime-Minister
Nicolae Vãcãroiu, President Romanian Senate
Adrian Nãstase, President Romanian Representatives
Chamber
Adrian Iorgulescu, Ministry of Culture and Religions
Adrian Lemeni, State Secretariat for Religious
Denominations
György Frunda, President Human Rights and Minorities
Commission within the Romanian Senate
Péter Eckstein Kovács, President Commission on
Legal, Disciplinary and Immunities Issues within the
Romanian Senate
Nicolae Pãun, President Human Rights, Religious
Denominations and Minorities Issues Commission within
the Romanian Representatives Chamber
Sergiu Andon, President Commission on Legal,
Disciplinary and Immunities Issues within the Romanian
Senate
Raluca Turcan, President Commission for culture, arts,
and mass media
Romanian human rights organizations are concerned
about the Draft Law on Religious
Freedom and On the
Status of Religions because, despite its stated goals,
the draft contains provisions that trigger
discrimination and flout human rights standards
endorsed by Romania.
The draft raises concerns regarding its compatibility
with the Romanian Constitution, as well as with the
Romanian legislation. Current provisions of the draft
violate the general principles established by the
national laws, such as the Law on the Status of
Associations and Foundations, the Law on Child
Protection, the Law on Education, the Labour Code, the
Law on the Judiciary, the Anti-discrimination Law. For
example, proposed provisions regarding religious
personnel limit access to justice for the clergy in
various cases. Thus, the separation between public law
and canonic law is incomplete and fails to acknowledge
the primacy of public norms when constitutional rights
and fundamental freedoms are at stake and canonic law
becomes a
source of discrimination. Opting for the
status of clergy or assimilated status implies, in the
current draft, giving up free access to justice.
Statutory provisions and canonic law have an exclusive
jurisdiction for issues of internal discipline
(lay/public justice can not intervene). In the light
of recent events in Romania (death caused as result of
religious practices, harassment of religious personnel
by hierarchical superior clergy), creating a special
regime which is bypassing state-justice is dangerous.
The whole content of the draft displays an obsessive
concern with public order and control.
The US Helsinki Committee stated that ranking
religions in a three layers structure is
discriminatory. Still, the draft creates such a
distinction. The three-layers structure will certainly
generate confusion when corroborated with legislation
on the status of associations and foundations. The
Registration procedure is within the
responsibility of
the Ministry of Culture and Religious Denominations,
and of the Government. Such responsibility
relinquished to an agency known for the lack of
neutrality and the biased views of its personnel is a
matter of concern. Otherwise, the draft does not make
clear how these provisions will apply to the majority
church (Romanian Orthodox Church) and the impact on
the status of the Orthodox Church, given the fact that
it still functions according to a Communist-time law.
Minority religions have voiced concerns mostly on
creating a separate registry for religious
associations with a required threshold of 0,1% of the
population and 12 years of functioning before
recognition. The high number of members for religious
associations (300) in order to recognize the religious
association contradicts existing legislation on
associations and foundations and limits the
constitutional right to association.
Also a departure from
the principle of separation
between State and Church consists in granting
automatically the status of public utility to
recognized denominations. Under Romanian common law,
the status of public utility must be justified under a
specific procedure. The draft creates fiscal benefits
for particular groups when these benefits are not
supported by compliance with the requirements of the
general law.
Financial support from the state budget goes to the
majority religion or proportionally to recognized
religions, based on disputed or outdated census
figures. There is no possibility for opting out or
re-directing taxes towards unrecognized religious
minorities or humanitarian groups in the case of
non-believers.
Access to cemeteries is another major concern. The
current draft states that confessional cemeteries are
accessible to other religious groups, where no public
cemetery exists, only according to administrative
regulations of
the owner. In most cases, confessional
cemeteries are Orthodox cemeteries. What do Orthodox
regulations say? The practice is to burry heretics
(any other religion but Orthodox) and those who
committed suicide at the gates/ margins of the
cemetery. Also most of the time the cleric responsible
tries to impose the Orthodox service upon families
belonging to minority religions. This is the case of
access to Orthodox confessional cemeteries (majority
in the countryside), common practice in Transylvania,
in former Greek-Catholic areas or everywhere in
Romania, in case of Protestant denominations. Creating
various confessional cemeteries or communal cemeteries
along the existing ones is less feasible than granting
free access to cemeteries or transforming all
countryside cemeteries wherever there is only one
cemetery in state-owned (communal). In order to ensure
the applicability of these provisions and preclude
partisan bias, the law
has to create effective
mechanisms and provide sanctions if local officials
fail to comply.
The majority religion, via guidelines for applying
existing regulations, controls the public education in
the field of religion, even though regulations as such
may be correct. Also the draft does not offer any
opting out or minority alternative publicly supported.
Property rights are a matter of the rule of law. In
this respect, the way the draft law defines sacred
goods, which are left to the decision of current
owner, and the fact that the draft provides for their
inviolability, may end up freezing the current
situation, recognizing after 15 years of freedom the
lawfulness of abuses dating back to Communist times.
The current draft law is not in the spirit of the law,
in the spirit of justice; it creates double standards
in property rights.
The issue of the authority in charge with the
implementation of the law is also of
concern for human
rights groups and minority religious groups. The scope
of guidelines issued by the State Secretariat for
Religious Denominations is generally decisive.
Unfortunately, prior experiences confirmed by the way
the State Secretariat for Religious Denominations
conducted negotiations do not offer reasons for
optimism. While during debates the State Secretariat
avoided independent experts and human rights NGOs,
both in drafting and debating the law, now it is
pushing for adopting the draft under emergency
procedures to prevent public debates. Contrary to the
public statements by experts of the State Secretariat,
the consensus over the draft law has never been met,
and currently all traditional minority religions went
to the European Commission to present their views on
religious life, property restitution and religious
discrimination.
One might even ask whether the law is necessary, or
other solutions might
better solve real problems on
the ground. For instance abolition of decree 177/1948,
strengthening and applying criminal law on the matter,
as well as strengthening and monitoring
non-discriminatory procedures of existing
institutions, currently weak and lacking expertise are
serious alternative solutions to the draft law,
acceptable for some minority religious groups.
Given the declared intention of the State Secretariat
for Religious Denominations to push for the draft to
be adopted as law by the end of the year under
accelerated procedures, and the lack of public debates
on such an important issue for the Romanian society,
the signatory organizations seek your support in
advocating with the Romanian authorities for a law
that observes international human rights standards.
The current draft violates fundamental rights and
constitutional guarantees and infringes the principle
of separation between State and Church by
creating
privileged categories and discriminating against
non-traditional religious denominations. Only by
reaching consensus and engaging both the civil society
and all religious groups in a bona fide dialogue, the
State Secretariat for Religious Denominations can be a
credible author and the final draft can be considered
as legitimate.
Signatory organizations:
General Association of Romanian-Uniates
(Greek-Catholics)/Asociatia Generala a Romanilor Uniti
(Greco-Catolici)
Center for Legal Resources/Centrul de Resurse Juridice
ACCEPT Romania
Euroregional Center for Democracy/Centrul Euroregional
pentru Democratie
Romanian Center for Global Studies/Centrul Roman de
Studii Globale
APADOR-Helsinki Committee/APADOR-CH Comitetul Helsinki
Human Right Protection League/Liga Apãrãrii
Drepturilor Omului (LADO)
Association Solidarity for Freedom of Belief/Asociaþia
Solidaritatea pentru Libertatea de Conºtiinþã
Ombudspersons for National Minorities
Noesis Cultural Association
Contact persons:
Iustina Ionescu, Program Manager, Center for Legal
Resources, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +40 722 253 789
Dorina Nãstase, Executive President, Romanian Center
for Global Studies, [EMAIL PROTECTED], +40 722
762 332
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