Southeast Europe

speak minority languages [Article 58(4)]. These emergency decrees have proved so
controversial that they have yet to be enacted. Three years after its adoption, the decree
was declared unconstitutional and abolished. The status of the public servants was
adopted in the same register. It stipulated that some servants should speak the national
language of minorities where at least 20% of dwellers of a territorial-administrative unit
belong to national minorities. This stipulation followed the provisions of The
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, but created no clear
obligation to authorities and did not stipulate any punishment in case of violations of the
law (Varga, 2000).
Romanian domestic legislation, therefore, requires significant change before it can be
said to protect the rights of minorities in practice as well as in theory.
International: In addition to the Constitutional articles and domestic legislation
mentioned above, Romania is a signatory to several international agreements under the
terms of which it is bound to protect the rights of its national minorities. Article 20 of
the Constitution underlines Romania’s commitment to these agreements by making the
cornerstone of Romanian legislation the respect of the rights of all its citizens:
Article 20(1): “Should there be any inconsistency between the covenants and treaties on
fundamental human rights to which Romania is a party and internal laws, the
international regulations shall take precedence.” This is particularly significant in
connection with Recommendation 1201 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe discussed below.
In the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), (now the OSCE
(Organisation), which produced its first document (the ‘Helsinki Blue Book’) in 1975,
Romania entered into the sphere of international human rights protection. Immediately
following the fall of communism in Eastern Europe the Charter of Paris for a New
Europe was signed, committing CSCE states to “encourage the valuable contribution of
the national minorities in our societies’ life” and “pledge to improve continuously their
situation” (CSCE, 1990).
The subsequent Copenhagen Document of the CSCE Conference on the Human
Dimension (1990) further underlined the need for member states to continue to work on
their commitment to minority rights within their own countries and also throughout the
OSCE area as a whole. The most noteworthy point concerning the CSCE/OSCE
documents is that they are not legally binding, although signatories make a political
commitment to uphold the terms of the documents.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National,
Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, adopted in December, 1992, affirms that
the rights of members of the above groups are guaranteed regardless of their minority
status. In signing the declaration, states commit themselves to the adoption of legislative
measures to protect these rights. This declaration was also included in the 1996 bilateral
agreement between Romania and Hungary, discussed below.
In 1993 Romania became an associate member of the Council of Europe and was
therefore bound to sign and implement the conditions of Council documents such as the
European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the major
document in which the human rights’ standards of the Council of Europe are laid down.
Article 4 of the convention prohibits “discrimination based on sex, language, religion,
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