Annual report – 2009

 

In the first half of 2009, APADOR-CH’s activity was aimed at contributing to the organization’s overall objective, which is for the organization to successfully carry out its mission to raise the level of awareness on, and respect of human rights and the rule of law. In this respect, APADOR-CH followed to meet a number of seven specific objectives:

1. Strengthening the constituency for human rights with political actors, in media and with the general public
2. Improving the practices regarding the legal protection of vulnerable groups against discrimination
3. Developing efficient mechanisms to ensure the rights of persons deprived of liberty
4. Increasing transparency of administration
5. Improving reasoning and transparency of judicial decisions;
6. Eliminating unjustified state interference with the NGOs’ associational life

1. Reacting to human rights threats

 

1. Objective #1: Strengthening the constituency for human rights with political actors, in media and with the general public

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
More political actors support human rights	Meetings with leading politicians and  MPs, especially members of the human rights and legal committees of the two Chambers of Parliament	2009	At least 50% of the MPs in the human rights and legal committees of the two Chambers of Parliament meet with APADOR-CH representatives
	Round-tables with political actors  on important  human rights issues (topics to be decided according to existing initiatives at the material time)	2009 -2011	–          At least 2 round-tables per year are organized; –          – At least 10 politicians participate in each meeting
More journalists include a human rights perspective in their work	Meetings with journalists in charge with justice and human rights issues for the main media outlets	2009	Representatives of at least  2 TV stations, 2 newspapers and 2 radio stations, all with national coverage, participate
	Issuing Human Rights Newsletter for the media and the general public	2009-2011	At least 10 newsletters are issued each year
More citizens show interest and support to human rights	Updating APADOR-CH web-site with relevant information on human rights and create newsletter  to be dispatched to those registered in a database of contacts	2009-2011	–        At least 1,000 visitors of APADOR-CH web-site per month; –        At least 50 individuals redirect 2%of their income tax to APADOR-CH each year –        At least 12 RSS feeds for the website per year;
	Involving volunteers in APADOR-CH’s activity	2009-2011	At least 3 volunteers get involved in APADOR-CH’s activity, for a period of at least 3 months each, per year
	Publishing an annual Human Rights Report for Romania	2009-2011	– At least 50 national/intl  organizations receive the report -At least 500 visitors read the report on-line

 

In the first half of 2009, APADOR-CH activity was mostly aimed at ensuring that human rights and the rule of law are respect in relation with the adoption of four new legislative codes: the Criminal Code, the Civil Code, the Criminal Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code. Therefore, the meetings with political actors and media were centered on this topic.

 

On 9 January 2009, APADOR-CH was the first NGO in Romania to publicly protest against the initiative of the Government to pass the four draft codes without a parliamentary debate. APADOR-CH also pointed out the flaws in the procedure of adopting the drafts, which did not included a real public consultation, as well as problematic material provisions affecting human rights and called for the withdrawal of the drafts and the organization of a real public consultation. Detailed comments on problematic provisions related to human rights in the draft Criminal Code and draft Criminal Procedure Code were prepared in the course of January 2009. After the authorities decided that a parliamentary debate would take place, on 13 February 2009, APADOR-CH sent its comments to the Ministry of Justice, to the chairs the two Chambers of the Parliament, to the members of the legal commissions in the Parliament and to the prime-minister and drawn the public attention to the issue once more. In addition, on 27 February 2009, APADOR-CH issued a public protest regarding the proposed provision that illegally obtained evidence, including through torture, can be used in the criminal proceeding provided certain conditions are met. On 9 March 2009 APADOR-CH publicly contradicted the incorrect clarifications provided by the Ministry of Justice on this topic.

 

In the course of March 2009, APADOR-CH participated to several informal meetings with representatives of other NGOs which resulted in the birth of the coalition “Stop the Codes!” which included 22 NGOs and was officially launched on 30 March 2009. As a member of the coalition, in April and May 2009, APADOR-CH participated to weekly press conferences, radio and TV broadcastings, as well as in several meetings with the President of Romania, the Prime-minister of Romania, the President of the Senate, MPs members of the special commissions debating the Civil Code and the Criminal Code. In addition, APADOR-CH provided assistance to media NGOs in correcting provisions of the Civil Code posing serious threats to freedom of expression. Such assistance included participating in several debates with the members of the drafting commission as well as MPs working on the draft Civil Code and resulted in correcting some of the most problematic provisions. Therefore the indicators for the first three planned activities for 2009 were met.

 

As regards issuing Human Rights Newsletter for the media and the general public no specific activities for creating a formal newsletter were undertaken in the first half of 2009, as most of the time and energy of the APADOR-CH staff was devoted to the draft codes. Nevertheless, between January and June 2009, APADOR-CH issued newsletters regarding cases decided by the ECHR in which APADOR-CH was involved, explaining the way the judgements affect the legal order. Six such newsletters were issued, regarding the following cases: Tatar (27 January), L.Z. (3 February), Tarau (24 February), Greek-Chatolic Parish Sf Vasile Polona (7 April), Olteanu (14 April) and Damian-Burueana & Damian (25 May). They were distributed to the media and posted on APADOR-CH’s web-page.

 

In the first half of 2009, APADOR-CH updated the content of its site and improved accessibility, which resulted in an increased traffic compared with 2008. According to www.trafic.ro, the number of visitors increased as follows:

 

Month	Nov 2008	Dec 2008	Jan 2009	Feb 2009	Mar 2009	April 2009	May 2009	June 2009
No of unique visitors	494	408	591	1,660	1,795	1,668	1,721	1,489
No of visits	842	621	1,857	5,596	5,200	4,139	4,369	3,925

 

The other indicators for success of this activity were not designed to be met during the reporting period.

 

In the first half of 2009, three volunteers were involved, on a regular basis, for more than three months, in APADOR-CH activity: Adelina Bobosatu (student in social assistance), Catalina Filote (student in law) and Bogdan Carpan (lawyer). They were involved in answering letters from individuals addressing APADOR-CH, organizing events and administrative matters.

*

In the second half of 2009, APADOR-CH continued to monitor the debates on the new Criminal Code and the new Criminal Procedure Code in the Parliament and participated in several meeting of the special commission debating it. APADOR-CH was in constant dialogue with both the members of the parliamentary commission and the staff, and was weekly updated on the decisions of the commission. As a result, almost all amendments proposed by APADOR-CH to the Criminal Procedure Code were adopted.

 

As regards issuing Human Rights Newsletter for the media and the general public no formal newsletter was issued in the second half of 2009. Nevertheless, between July and December 2009, APADOR-CH continued to issue newsletters regarding cases decided by the ECHR in which APADOR-CH was involved, explaining the way the judgements affect the legal order. One such newsletters was issued in November 2009, regarding two cases on freedom of expression (Ieremeiov v. Romania). It was distributed to the media and posted on APADOR-CH’s web-page.

 

In the second half of 2009, two volunteers were involved, on a regular basis, for more than three months, in APADOR-CH activity: Alexandra Savencu (student in European Studies), and Bogdan Carpan (lawyer). They were involved in answering letters from individuals addressing APADOR-CH, organizing events and administrative matters. Adelina Bobosatu, who previously worked as a volunteer for APADOR-CH for about one year, joined the staff in September 2009.

 

2. Objective 2: Improving the practices regarding the legal protection of vulnerable groups against discrimination

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
NGOs’ are better prepared to meet the advocacy and legal needs of vulnerable groups susceptible of discrimination	Training and assistance on human rights and rights based advocacy for social services NGOs working with the vulnerable groups susceptible of discrimination	2009	At least 15 NGOs receive training/assistance on human rights issues
	Updating a resources web-page dedicated to NGOs working with vulnerable groups	2009-2011	At least 300 unique visitors of the web-page per month
	Expanding a network of trained lawyers and experts available for NGOs working with vulnerable groups	2009-2011	–     At least 100 lawyers and experts, covering at least 75% of counties, are included in the public APADOR-CH database –     At least 35 lawyers are trained on human rights each year
Challenges of vulnerable groups susceptible of discrimination are documented	Monitoring access of drug users in detention (prisons, prison hospitals and police lockups) to HIV prevention and drug treatment services	2009	-a policy-paper, including proposals to improve the system, is drafted and is included in the strategy of public authorities
	Monitoring access of religious minorities to public services, including public cemeteries	2009	All local councils are informed on their obligation to ensure access to public services though a policy paper to be distributed
Improving Roma access to housing	Strategic litigation	2009-2010	At least one case is brought before the ECHR

 

**

As regards the project aimed at increasing transparency of authorities when taking decisions involving individuals with disabilities, in the second half of 2009, APADOR-CH offered training assistance to the 20 NGOs trained at the beginning of the year. Together with these NGOs, APADOR-CH addressed 100 requests for information to asses the degree in which the authorities have respected their legal obligations in respect of individuals with disabilities. The responses were the base of an assessment report, which also included recommendations and practical tools for the authorities (such as a check list on their obligations towards the disabled). The report was launched in a public conference which took place in 13 October 2009 and then distributed to the relevant authorities.

 

In the second half of 2009, APADOR-CH continued to implement the project started on 1 May 2009 and aimed at strengthening the capacity of social service NGOs working with disadvantaged groups to defend the rights of their beneficiaries, including in the field of anti-discrimination. The guide on discrimination for individuals was published in 7800 copies and distribute via 20 NGOs working with vulnerable groups. In August and September a manual for lawyers on human rights and discrimination was published. The manual was further used in training sessions for lawyers who could support NGOs in defending their beneficiaries’ rights. Between October and December 2009, 5 such sessions were held in Iasi, Craiova, Cluj and Bucuresti with the participation of a total of 107 lawyers. NGOs also participated in the sessions in order to present to their lawyers the problems of their beneficiaries.

 

As regards the monitoring of access of drug users in detention (prisons, prison hospitals and police lockups) to HIV prevention and drug treatment services, during the reporting period APADOR-CH visited the Targsor prison for women (on 10 September 2009) and continued monitoring the legislative process regarding National Antidrug Agency prerogatives.

 

During the reporting period, APADOR-CH also secured funding for another project aimed at transferring APADOR-CH’s experience on advocacy to ARAS, the lead Romanian NGO in providing assistance to individuals infected with HIV/AIDS. The project started on 14 November 2009 and shall contribute to ARAS implementing an advocacy campaign for the taking over of funding HIV/AIDS services by local authorities.

 

 

 

3. Objective 3: Developing efficient mechanisms to ensure the rights of persons deprived of liberty

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
Romania ratifies and implements the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against Torture (OPCAT)	Providing technical support (access permits, know-how etc) to existing pilot mechanism monitoring places of detention, set up by APADOR-CH and Centre for Legal Resources	2009-2011	-At least 5 volunteers continue to carry out monitoring visits in places of detention, each releasing at least 2 reports per year
	Meetings with relevant decision-makers (Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Presidency) for informing them on the activity of the pilot mechanism and raise awareness on the need to ratify and implement the OPCAT	2009-2011	At least 3 decision-makers are met each year until the Protocol is implemented
	Public statements on the need to ratify and implement the OPCAT	2009-2011	At least 2 statements are released each year until the Protocol is implemented
	Exchange of information on best practices and advocacy methods with NGOs and authorities in other countries	2009-2011	The experience of at least 5 other countries in implementing the OPCAT is documented
Increasing the transparency of prison budgets and financial management	Addressing requests for information on the prison budgets (allocations v. expenditures)	2009-2011	All prisons and the National Administration of Penitentiaries answer the requests for information
	Promoting best practices to prison administration	2009-2011	All prison administrations are informaed on the best practices
Improving efficiency of judges supervising places of detention	Training judges on human rights	2009-2011	At least 10 judges per year are trained
	Promoting best practices among judges	2009-2011	All judges supervising detention places are informed on the best practices
	Advocating the Ministry of Justice to modify the Law on prisons toward increased capacity of  judges to apply sanctions to prison administration	2009-2011	MJ promotes the amendments to the Government
	Informing persons deprived of liberty on the role of the judges	2009-2011	The number of admissible complaints increases with 5% each year

 

**

In the second semester of 2009 APADOR-CH secured funding for a project aimed at implementing the OPCAT by the national authorities.

 

 

4. Objective 4: Increasing transparency of administration

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
Citizens gain direct access to information on decision taken by the local administration	Advocacy campaign to promoting best practices in publishing county official gazettes	2009-2011	At least 20 councils publish comprehensive county official gazettes by the end of 2011
The prefect becomes active in enforcing the Law on decisional transparency in the administration	Lobbying the prefects on their role in enforcing Law on decisional transparency in the administration	2009	40 perfects are informed on their role
	Promoting best practices to prefects	2009	At least 15 prefects start to challenge decisions taken without observing transparency requirements
The Law on decisional transparency is amended by introducing sanctions	Lobbying decision makers to promote APADOR-CH’s amendments to the Law on decisional transparency	2009-2011	The legal commissions of the Parliament support APADOR-CH’s amendments

 

**

 

During the reporting period, APADOR-CH continued to implement a project aimed at lobbying the prefects to become more active in enforcing the Law on decisional transparency in the administration. The 14 NGOs previously trained replicated the lobbying effort in their respective counties (6 counties). In September 2009, the experience of all NGOs involved was summed up in a report on the role of the prefect in enforcing the Law on decisional transparency in the administration. The report was released in October 2009, and later distributed to all relevant institutions.

 

In the second semester of 2009 APADOR-CH secured funding for a project aimed at involving the youth organizations and the young people in using the transparency laws. The project started in December 2009.

 

 

5. Objective 5: Improving reasoning and transparency of judicial decisions

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
The judgements are subjected to public scrutiny	Lobbying with the Ministry of Justice and the Superior Council of Magistrates on fulfilling their obligations to launch the electronic system of publishing all court decisions	2009	The system is officially launched
	Monitoring the courts on fulfilling their obligations to publish decision	2009-2011	All courts not publishing their decisions are identified
	Round-tables with representatives of courts	2010-2011	At least one court per each Court of Appeal participates
	Promoting best practices	2009-2011	At least 10% of the courts publish their decisions in the first year the system is implemented The number of courts publishing their decisions increases with 10% of the courts each year

 

No specific activities were implemented during the reporting period.

 

6. Objective 6: Eliminating unjustified state interference with the NGOs’ associational life

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
The Law on associations and foundations is amended by eliminating abusive provisions on organizations’ allowed names	Monitoring the implementation of new problematic provisions on organizations’ names	2009-2010	A data-base with all identified cases is available on-line
	Meetings with decision-makers	2009-2010	At least one MP successfully supports the amendment to the law in the Parliament
	Strategic litigation	2009-2010	At least one case is brought before the ECHR
	Promoting amendments to the Law		The amendments are debated in the Parliament
The requirement to obtain and file fiscal records by founding members/new members of an association is eliminated	Monitoring practices of courts	2009	At least 75% of courts provide information on their practices
	Strategic litigation	2009-2010	At least one case is brought before domestic courts At least one case is brought before the ECHR
	Round-table with judges and decision-makers	2009-2010	At least one MP successfully supports the amendment to the law in the Parliament
The procedure for donations is simplified in respect of NGOs	Monitoring practices of NGOs in receiving donations in Romania and in other 5 countries	2009-2010	At least 75 NGOs answer APADOR-CH’s questionnaire
	Meetings with decision makers (Chamber of Notaries Public, Ministry of Justice, MPs) for identifying and promoting solutions in the form of a draft law	2009-2010	The Ministry of Justice successfully promotes the amendment of the law
Challenges in setting up and running an NGO in Romania are documented	Publishing a practical guide on setting up and running an NGO in Romania	2009-2010	At least 500 active NGOs receive/buy/ the guide or access it on-line

**

APADOR-CH started to implement a project on identifying and removing legal and practical obstacles in exercising the freedom of associations via NGOs in November 2009. The main activities of the project shall be implemented in 2010.

As the initial financial support for the above activities was not received from CEE Trust, during the reporting period APADOR-CH concentrated on committing such support for a different donor. A proposal for a project aimed at the above results was drafted and submitted for the approval of EEA Grants Programme in Romania. An answer is expected for the fall of 2009.

 

7. Objective 7: Reacting to human rights threats

 

Results	Activities	Time-frame	Indicators
Draft laws/initiatives with negative impact on human rights are criticised	Monitoring the web-sites of central administrative bodies, with a special emphasis on the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform, the Parliament, plus the media	2009 – 2011	At least 75% of the draft laws/initiatives with negative impact on human rights are identified in due time
	Drafting and submitting comments on draft laws with negative impact on human rights	2009 – 2011	Comments on all identified draft laws are submitted to the relevant decision-makers
	Generating and participating in public debates over draft laws/initiatives with negative impact on human rights	2009 – 2011	Public debates are organized in respect to all important draft laws/initiatives with negative impact on human rights (where possible according to the law)
	Issuing press releases	2009 – 2011	At least 6 press releases are issued each year
Human rights violations are documented	Monitoring the media	2009 – 2011	At least 2 media outlets are monitored on daily basis
	Meetings with victims of human rights violations	2009 – 2011	Meetings with at least 50% of the identified victims
	Addressing freedom of information requests to the authorities	2009 – 2011	All relevant authorities receive FOI requests in identified cases
	Issuing reports on human rights violations	2009 – 2011	The relevant authorities receive reports in all documented cases
Public authorities violating human rights are held liable for their actions	Litigation in selected strategic cases	2009 – 2011	At least 2 cases per year are initiated

 

**

In the second part of the year most reactions of APADOR-CH related to the new Codes (see under Objective #1 above).APADOR-CH continued to provide support to previous victims of police abuse, especially to Mr. Marinescu, who was ill-treated by the police in 2007 and started legal proceedings with the help of APADOR-CH’s lawyers. His case was still pending by the end of the reporting period.