A guide for writing petitions to the National Council for Combating Discrimination (C.N.C.D)

Discrimination is very widespread in Romania, but few people access the existing legal levers, especially C.N.C.D., the main authority in Romania with powers in combating and sanctioning discrimination. For this reason, the Coalition for Gender Equality has launched a Guide for writing petitions to the National Council for Combating Discrimination (C.N.C.D) that supports anyone who wants to exercise their rights when they have been discriminated against. The guide is made by researchers Eliza Ciocîrlan and Alexandra Columban from the Action Center for Equality and Human Rights (ACTEDO).

WHAT'S IN THE GUIDE

Very practical and using accessible language, the guide contains:

• explanations of what discrimination is and what types of discrimination are recognized by law;
• what is C.N.C.D. and what powers does it have;
• who can file a petition and how;
• how to draft a petition, what elements it must contain and how long after the act of discrimination was committed/observed;
• what are the deadlines for resolving petitions and what sanctions can be granted;
• some examples of C.N.C.D decisions in which discrimination was found.

SOME DATA REGARDING DISCRIMINATION IN ROMANIA

According to the European Commission's 2019 Special Eurobarometer, 16% of Romanians say they have felt discriminated against in the last 12 months. Moreover, 44% of Romanians consider discrimination on the basis of ethnicity to be widespread, reaching 60% when Roma minority is concerned. Romanians also rate as widespread discrimination based on gender (44% of respondents), sexual orientation (45%), age (49%), religion (43%) and disability (50%).

However, the National Council for Combating Discrimination (C.N.C.D.), the main state authority with powers in preventing, combating, investigating and sanctioning acts of discrimination, receives very few petitions each year. In 2021, C.N.C.D. registered 1048 petitions in the entire country: 301 on social category, 98 related to beliefs, 75 on nationality, 73 - disability, 53 on gender criteria, etc. Most petitions are from Bucharest (336), but only 5 petitions were registered from counties such as Sălaj, Bistrița-Năsăud or Ialomița.

DOWNLOAD THE GUIDE (IN ROMANIAN)

Download from here

ABOUT EGALIS

The guide is part of the project "EGALIS: Gender equality through social change and education" , developed by the Partnership for Equality Center, in partnership with the Front Association, AnA - the Scientific Society for Feminist Analysis, ACTEDO - the Action Center for Equality and Rights Association, PLURAL Association and SEX vs The STORK Association, with financial support from Active Citizens Fund Romania, programme funded by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants Grants 2014 -2021.

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