February 22 (SeeNews) - Overcrowded prisons, systemic discrimination of the Roma Roma population and of sexual minorities as well as domestic violence against women are still serious issues in Romania, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
In April, the European Court for Human Rights advanced recommendations aimed at reducing overcrowding in prisons in a "pilot judgment" issued against Romania. It imposed an obligation on the state to resolve the highlighted structural dysfunctionalities or risk sanctions, Amnesty International said in the 2017/2018 edition of its report The State of the World’s Human Rights published on Thursday.
Roma people and and sexual minorities continue to experience systemic discrimination in Romania, according to the report of the non-governmental organisation focusing on human rights. In February, the European Commission stated that the risk of living in poverty was almost three times higher for Roma than for the rest of the population.
However, new legislation aiming to prevent, combat and prohibit segregation in primary and secondary education entered into force after its adoption in December 2016 by the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research. Two ministerial orders established a public policy against segregation in schools on a wide range of grounds, including ethnic origin, disability and socio-economic status of families, and a related action plan scheduled to be implemented by October, Amnesty International said.
Regarding same-sex marriage, the Senate’s decision on a national referendum on the possible restriction of the constitutional definition of "family" from “marriage between spouses” to "marriage between a man and a woman" remained pending at the end of the year.
Romania is also failing in providing good living conditions in social care and psychiatric institutions for people with disabilities, according to the report. The monitoring mechanism required by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by Romania in 2011, was not fully operational at the end of the year, the NGO said.
In May, Romania was criticized by the European Court for Human Rights for failing to take appropriate action to prevent and combat domestic violence despite existing legislation and a national strategy. The court also criticized the limited number of shelters for women victims of domestic violence available across the country, Amnesty said.