drepturi procedurale

This research is the first quantitative study carried out in Romania regarding the perspective of suspects and defendants on how their procedural rights were respected in practice. The research was carried out as part of the European project “EQUALITYDATA“, a collaboration between five non-governmental organizations: Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC, coordinator), Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania-Helsinki Committee (APADORCH), Centre for European Constitutional Law (Greece), League of Human Rights and Fair Trials (Belgium). The project was co-funded by the European Union and its results complement previous qualitative and empirical studies carried out by the association on the practical implementation of European Directives in the field of criminal procedural law.
The projects’ aim was to provide a representative picture of how people deprived of their liberty perceived their interaction with the justice system and to establish whether there were discriminatory practices in the criminal justice process in the participating countries from the moment of police arrest to conviction. And, if so, to identify the nature of this discrimination
and the possible impact on the ability of suspects and defendants to exercise their rights.
The project partners believe in the need to collect relevant statistical data on potential differences in the treatment of suspects and defendants belonging to vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups include any ethnic group, religious group, minorities, migrants, people living in poverty and other groups specific to certain European countries. Without this data, it is impossible to understand the extent of certain phenomena and their causes, and it is impossible to develop public policies adapted to national and European realities.
The implementation of this project in Romania during the Covid-19 pandemic was possible due to the excellent cooperation
with the Romanian National Administration of Penitentiaries (ANP) which fully supported this research. APADOR-CH would
like to express its gratitude to ANP’s management and to each of the 28 penitentiaries where online interviews were conducted,
as well as their staff, involved in identifying detainees who were willing to take part in the survey. Carrying out this research
would not have been possible without the dedicated work of the people working in the prison system.

Content:

Methodology
Police arrest
Legal aid in police custody
Right to information of persons deprived of liberty
Meeting the family and medical assistance
Insults and offensive remarks during the criminal proceedings
Complaints regarding the violation of certain rights
The maximum sentence provided by law for the offense committed
Outcome of the criminal proceedings and the role of the lawyer
Conclusions

Download and read full report

Duration of the project: 2021-2023

Coordinator: Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft Austria

Partners: APADOR-CH, Rights International Spain, Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Fair Trials Europe

Activities:

Data collection, regional survey and interviews;
Development of factsheets and a supporting video on good practices;
Regional exchange at 4 regional consultations;
National exchange at 4 national roundtables;
Development and implementation of national strategic advocacy activities;
Publication on lessons learned how to effect change and report launch at meeting with EU CSOs.

Direct beneficiaries:

– Criminal justice practitioners (120), such as police officers and lawyers, in 4 Member States;

– Decision-makers (90), e.g. high-level representatives of Ministries, and policy makers, in 4 Member States;

– Civil Society Organisations (40), on the national and EU levels.

Indirect beneficiaries:

– Persons suspected and accused of crime

Objectives:

Elaborating good practices and explaining practical solutions to key implementation challenges;
Engaging key criminal justice stakeholders in practical reform efforts;
Strengthening the capacities of CSOs to promote change

Background: Procedural rights in criminal proceedings continue to be a key priority for the European Union (EU), which since 2009 has adopted a series of secondary law instruments covering numerous procedural rights (the ‘Directives’). The Directives, setting up common minimum standards, were adopted to address the fundamental rights concerns arising from the increasing use of mutual recognition and cross-border cooperation instruments.

Although the status of transposition of the Directives is varied, most have been transposed into national law. However, research has demonstrated that even if legislative and other measures are adopted to give effect to the Directives, this does not automatically mean that they are adequately implemented in practice.

Challenges often arise in the practical application at the stage of arrest and police custody. The project ‘Inside Police Custody 2’ examined the status of implementation of the Directives in this context in 9 Member States (among them were this project´s partner organisations from Austria, Romania and Spain; ICCL led the project).

Although the challenges in effective implementation of the rights protect by the Directives are well-known and reform needs have been identified, there remains an urgent need to focus on implementation. This project will build on this knowledge and fill the gap in terms of practical implementation of good practice by responding to the following needs: more detailed information and exchange on good practices; effective strategies to implement recommendations and good practices; strengthened capacities of Civil Society Organisations (CSO).

Co-funded by the European Union’s Justice (JUST) and Rights, Equality and Citizenship Programme (REC)

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