WOMEN"S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE CONCLUDES CONSIDERATION OF ROMANIA"S REPORT

Press Release
WOM/1230

WOMEN’S ANTI-DISCRIMINATION COMMITTEE CONCLUDES CONSIDERATION OF ROMANIA’S REPORT

While reluctance to use “positive discrimination” to close the wide gap in gender equality between men and women was understandable, that might often be the only way to correct years of subtle discriminatory practices, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was told this afternoon.

As the Committee concluded its consideration of Romania’s fourth and fifth combined periodic report on compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, experts on the Committee said Romania should speed up implementation of programmes to advance women at all costs. If political will were genuine, nothing would be impossible.

Several experts also expressed concern that Romania, like other countries whose economies were in transition, faced serious problems in ensuring women’s human rights. That, coupled with the phenomenon of globalization, was most often manifested as a diminution of women’s health care concerns.

One expert added that unsafe abortion was still one of the primary causes of maternal death in Romania. There seemed to be an absence of an effective strategy to promote family planning. Unfortunately, abortion remained a form of birth control. She asked the representative if studies had been conducted on how often women underwent abortion. Romania had many active medical practitioners. Were they involved in family planning and services?

On the issue of health, Victoria Popescu, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry, assured the Committee that Romania had remained loyal to the spirit of article 12 of the Convention, which concerns women and health. She said that the 1998-2003 policy on reproductive health had three priorities: to ensure HIV/AIDS control; to reduce incidents of abortions; and increase the prevalence of contraceptives in birth control objectives. Family doctors were now being encouraged to pay specific attention to family planning.

Ecaterina Laudatu, Head of Department for the Protection of Children, Women and Family, Office of the Ombudsman, said that while the maternal mortality and child mortality rates had gone down, when compared with other countries the rates continued to be high. To improve that situation, Romania benefited from the assistance of international organizations, as well as local government

Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee - 1a - Press Release WOM/1230 482nd Meeting (PM) 23 June 2000

organizations. The problem had been studied at many levels. Different international organizations had undertaken enormous educational campaigns. Romania also had a national strategy for the development of family planning.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. Monday, 26 June, to hear in-depth replies to comments and queries posed by experts on Cameroon’s initial periodic report.

Women’s Anti-Discrimination Committee - 3 - Press Release WOM/1230 482nd Meeting (PM) 23 June 2000

Committee Work Programme

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women met this afternoon to continue its consideration of the fourth and fifth combined periodic report of Romania’s compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It was expected to hear further comments and questions by the Committee’s expert members, as well as responses by the Romanian delegation. (For background on Romania’s report, see Press Release WOM/1229 issued today.)

Questions and Comments by Experts

An expert said that she was concerned about the lack of specific objectives. What were the principle aims of Romania’s national plan for the promotion of women? A strong mechanism with decision-making power was needed. Coordination should also be an important element of the strategy. Romania’s political will to integrate into Europe was clear, but its political will to integrate women into decision-making positions was not clear. Romania should speed up implementation of programmes to advance women. If political will was genuine, nothing would be impossible.

Another expert said that Romania had not acknowledged that “positive discrimination” was necessary to accelerate the wide gap of discrimination that had always existed between men and women. If positive discrimination was not used to close that gap, Romania might have to wait another 20 or 50 years to get where it wanted to be. The report had also mentioned that favourable laws had been put in place to encourage foreign investment. Sometimes that was done at the expense of indigenous people. The anxiety to entice and attract foreign investment sometimes killed local initiatives. Moreover, if the environment in a country was not favourable, that is, if there was violence, investors would come and go. Romania would have to make sure foreign investors found an acceptable, enabling environment.

On article 12 (health), she said that unsafe abortion was still one of the primary causes of maternal death in Romania. There seemed to be an absence of an effective plan to promote family planning. Abortion remained a form of birth control, which it was not supposed to do. She wanted to know if studies had been conducted on how often women underwent abortion. Were the women who underwent repeated abortions employed or unemployed? Romania had many active medical practitioners. Were they involved in family planning and services? That could be a way of reaching rural areas. Did Romania have an environmental health policy?

The expert then also asked for more details on the cases of tuberculosis in Romania. Economies in transition, coupled with globalization, faced serious problems. One of those problems was a lack of quality nutrition. Tuberculosis was a disease that was linked to deficiencies in nutrition. Was that disease recurring and were HIV patients contracting it? On the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease, the report mentioned smoking habits as one of the major factors. There were no recent studies on the use of tobacco among women. She strongly urged action in that regard. Whereas smoking among women in developed countries was declining, it was increasing in developing countries, and in countries with economies in transition. The smoking habit could be prevented. Programes to discourage smoking must be established, particularly for women in the reproductive age.

Response by Romania

In response to concerns of experts about women’s shelters, NORICA NICOLAI, Secretary of State, Ministry of Labour and Social Protection said that there was one pilot shelter for protecting victims of domestic violence sponsored by the Government. Non-governmental organizations, however, supported and operated five such shelters.

On the issue of women in the labour force, she said that a Gender Commission had recently been established to ensure the inclusion of a gender perspective in all collective bargaining agreements. The relationships between trade unions, employers and workers were also monitored closely in order to harmonize gender perspective policies related to the workplace.

To ensure genuine equal rights, she said, civil and academic society must be involved at all levels. Unfortunately, in Eastern Europe, there were no research institutes whose objectives were to specifically study, collect and disseminate data in that area. Fortunately, however, Romania had adopted its action plan following the Fourth World Conference on Women which, among other things, ensured promoting women to decision-making positions; promoted equal access to health care and education and called for monitoring cases of violence against women. There was a particular view to ending that particular scourge as soon as possible.

Despite the action plan and other advances, she said, Romania was not unlike other developing countries in that it suffered greatly from the negative impacts of globalization. Globalization tended to hinder development. So as Romania was taking steps away from highly centralized, industrial-based economy to a market economy, the country was confronted with an information revolution with which it was not socially equipped to cope at the present time.

On women and health, she assured the Committee that Romania had remained loyal to the spirit of article 12 of the Convention.

ADRIANA CRACIUN, of the Ministry of the Interior, said that important measures were underway to address the issue of trafficking in women. Law enforcement agencies had been contacted to pay particular attention to shadow corporations, which pretended to offer real jobs, but which were in fact procuring victims for international prostitution schemes. The Government had also established new approaches to penalties for trafficking.

She went on to say that the presence of persistent mafia activity had also required intense supervision by the police. Some of the Government steps taken to decrease violent crimes and other criminal activity had been to increase the response capacity of police in cases of anti-social activities, and to enhance cooperation between police, non-governmental organizations and the Government. Community participation was also encouraged, in order to identify criminal agents within neighborhoods. A system to identify victims was also being established.

On the issue of health, VICTORIA POPESCU, Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry, said that the 1998-2003 policy on reproductive health had three priorities: to ensure HIV/AIDS control; to reduce incidents of abortions; and increase the prevalence of contraceptives in birth control objectives. She said that, at present, there was not much information on private medical care, but family doctors had been encouraged to pay specific attention to family planning.

She went on to say that an inter-ministerial commission had been established to aid the Government in the exchange of information and ideas in such sensitive areas as reproductive health care. She agreed with the experts that smoking was a serious health problem with various psychological and sociological effects, but at present there were no particular campaigns aimed at reducing it.

ECATERINA LAUDATU, Head of Department for the Protection of Children, Women and Family, Office of the Ombudsman, said that while the maternal mortality and child mortality rates had gone down, when compared with other countries the rates continued to be high. The number of abortions had also decreased. Regarding HIV- infected children, in 1996 Romania had some 5,000 persons with HIV and children represented some 70 per cent of those cases. To improve that situation, Romania benefited from the assistance of international organizations, as well as local government organizations.

The problem had been studied at many levels, she said. Different international organizations had undertaken enormous educational campaigns. Those children did face serious problems with reintegration into schools and the community. They also had difficulty accessing medical services. International organizations had organized shelters to address the problems of HIV-infected children who had been abandoned. The Ministry of Health had a national programme for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. It also had a national plan for the development of family planning. A national agency for protecting the rights of the child had recognized the rights of children abandoned in hospitals. The Government would have to improve the situation of HIV-infected children. Statistics could be made available.

Regarding the institution of the Ombudsman, in 1998 she said that the Ombudsman had started with eight departments. After 12 months, the eight departments were reduced to four because of budgetary reasons. The Ombudsman examined complaints related to the rights of children, women and families. About 30 per cent of the complaints were from women. Those women, however, were asking for the intervention of the Ombudsman for other people, including their children and parents. Very few complaints were directly related to discrimination against women.

Questions and Comments by Experts

An expert asked the delegation to clarify certain articles of the draft law on equal opportunities. On the constitutional framework, how were the courts being used? Did women have access to the courts? What programmes did Romania have for mainstreaming gender? In the area of violence, she was concerned with the criminal law. The criminal law must set standards for society. Culture could have no excuse for denying the right to bodily security. If there was agreement between victim and aggressor, an offer of marriage would take away the offence. That just compounded the grave injury to the woman. A new law on that crime was very important.

Sexual violence must be treated as an offence against society as a whole, she added. In domestic violence, it was not clear that normative values would be articulated in the law. Battery was not just something in the family; it was violence of a significant nature against the woman’s right to bodily security. Protection orders must be included in the law.

On article 6, the expert reinforced the concern expressed by another expert for legalizing prostitution. Romania must understand the implications of legalizing prostitution. On health care, how was the male population being educated to understand the reproductive rights of women. On article 16, Romania would need to take a stance on child marriage. How did the law treat the many people living in domestic relations that were not marriage? Were there any rights in that relationship? Could they receive child support?

Another expert said that, on the problem of stereotypes, in spite of some progress made in educational policies, at the content level of education the old mentality persisted as a result of conservative curricula, textbooks and teaching methods. She wanted to know if efforts had been made to revise textbooks and curricula, especially at the primary and secondary levels. Although the number of women involved in education was very high, only a few women held top administrative positions. There were also great gender discrepancies in urban and rural areas, and high illiteracy among women above age 50. Were there programmes for adult education?

The expert said that while the Government of Romania had taken measures to promote equal opportunities in the labour market, there were very few women in the managerial level. What efforts were taken to promote women to top positions in industry and business? Many women were concentrated in the low wage area. Romania had a monthly state allowance for families with children up to age 16, regardless of their economic and social status. What would that amount to in United States dollars? How much was it against the average family income? With foster families, did that mean domestically adopting children? What kind of qualifications did they have? She also asked for clarification on the paternity leave system. How many men had opted to have child care leave in their country?

An expert said that Romania’s national machinery for the implementation of gender policies must include clear timetables and identify specific goals in order to be effective.

Another expert asked if rural women (article 14) and domestics working on the farms would could receive social security pensions, or health care.

She went on to express concern over Romania’s assertion that the Government could not change some forms of subtle discrimination in employment. While it was true that it was certainly a complex issue, it was also apparent that Romania had enacted new laws that forbade such discrimination in other areas. Would the Ombudsman, with such a broad mandate, be able to tackle that particularly thorny issue? In that regard, it was suggested that the necessary resources be allocated to perhaps establish a second Ombudsman’s office to deal specifically with discrimination in the workplace. She also wondered if the Government and judiciary were aware that the low-level of pay for jobs that were traditionally considered “women’s work” was a direct violation of the Convention?

Response by Romania

Ms. POPESCU agreed with the experts that there were some weaknesses in Romania’s national machinery. It was important to note, however, that the country’s institutional evolution had been basically linked to budget concerns.

She went on to assure the Committee that Romania’s inter-ministerial commission had a mandate required by law with competencies in raising awareness of society to gender issues and the equality of women. While that mandate did not have legal force, the Commission actively brought together the best practices of all other ministries working in the area of women’s rights. Representatives within that Commission also advocated broad cooperation with non-governmental organizations.

She also agreed with experts that creating a second Ombudsman to concentrate on discrimination in the workplace would be most helpful in combating that and other subtle forms of discrimination.

She said that there had been many debates on the issue of prostitution in Romania. Those who favoured legalization were thinking in terms of health, not in terms of moral values. There was a strong trend against legalizing prostitution, however. That was the view supported by many non-governmental organizations. Also, the male population was targeted in the use of contraceptives. After the Beijing Conference, the emphasis had been on gender issues, not solely women’s issues. Romania was trying to achieve a balanced approach to gender. Information training programmes were now directed to males, as well as females.

Turning to adoption concerns, Ms. LAUDATU said that families received $20 a month as a “symbolic gesture” from the Government. Otherwise, family benefit allocations averaged between $2 and $3 per month per child. Additional allocations for families with three or more children increased incrementally.

She also said that currently women working in the agricultural sector did not receive any family money, but could apply for social assistance. Again, the figure was considered “symbolic”, as it was based on a decision by local mayors, who most often had very small budgets for such matters. To that end, a national solidarity fund was under consideration to offset the negative effects of that policy.

Addressing experts concerns about negative stereotypes in Romania, Ms. POPESCU said that a programme of early educational reform had been started. An important component of that was revision of textbooks and other teaching tools to include “modern principles” when presenting images of women. So-called “alternative texts” had been introduced in some schools, and it was now up to the teachers, parents and children themselves to decide whether they would be used. Gender-related coursework had also been introduced at the college level.

It was unfortunate, she added that at present, the mass media was perhaps perpetuating sexist ideals. At the Government level, however, a project was underway to raise awareness of the media to concerns about women.

She acknowledged that lower pay in certain sectors of the labour market was a form of discrimination. To combat that, it was felt that there should be a complete re-evaluation of national thought on job categorizations in terms of values and the social importance of work that was generally considered “women’s work.”

In her concluding remarks, AIDA GONZALEZ MARTINEZ (Mexico), the Committee Chairperson, said that the Committee was grateful for the delegation’s detailed response to the Committee’s questions and comments. What was important was that there was mutual interest in achieving the full implementation of the Convention,

and full compliance towards human rights for women. It was clear that the Committee continued to be concerned with the integration of human rights legislation into domestic law, as well as health, employment, equal salaries, low wages and segregation of some jobs. While the Government’s efforts to tackle the HIV/AIDs problem were praiseworthy, the Committee was nevertheless concerned with the HIV/AIDS problem in Romania.

She said that the delegation should be complimented for the sincerity of their presentation. Abortion was a problem of serious magnitude. Abortion not only affected the physical, but the mental health of women. It could also be a cause of social and family problems. The Government’s interest in carrying out family planning policy was encouraging. She was glad that attention was also being focused on boys and men. Most of her colleagues had referred to the issue of violence in the family. She was very glad that the Government paid attention to that issue, and that there was so much non-governmental organization activity in that area. It was not just a question of punishment, but of recognizing that violence against women was a violation of human rights. It was important that the consciousness be created to the effect that violence in the family was not a private problem, but a problem of society as a whole.

She said that the Committee was grateful for the information the delegation had provided on trafficking in humans. In referring to agreements on cooperation made in the area of organized crime, she was happy that it included both the countries of origin, as well as transit. It was important also that sanctions and punishment take the client into account.

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