SUMMARY OF THE REPORT
OF THE FEDERATION OF NGOs for CHILDREN – FONPC


TO the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child – Geneva
Ref: The Third Romanian Government Periodic Report for 2003-2007


The Alternative Report on the Respect for Children’s Rights in Romania was drafted as part of the project bearing the same name, implemented by the Federation of NGOs for Children – FONPC in September 2007 – July 2008 and co-financed by UNICEF Romania and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The first observation of the Alternative Report is that the Country Report gives the broad picture, focusing mainly on describing the set of laws that entered into force on January 1st 2005. The Country Report is highly technical and it points out most of all the changes to some legal texts and procedures, failing to provide an effective analysis of the progress made in relation to the application of laws and of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Chapter 1.
GENERAL MEASURES OF IMPLEMENTATION (articles 4, 42 and 44.6) reviews the existing legal framework in the field of child protection and welfare in Romania and it shows that Law 272/2004 on children’s rights protection and promotion is in line with the international conventions that Romania has signed, but its provisions are hard to implement.

This chapter talks about issues related to the limited capacities of the National Authority for Children’s Rights Protection (NACRP) to nationally coordinate child policies and the national action plan that failed to include actions and programmes targeting: early childhood, family welfare promotion, child poverty eradication, and child violence prevention.

The Report tackles issues related to funding schemes and human resources, and it shows the difficulties facing the Public Services of Social Assistance (PSSA), at local level and the General Departments of Social Care and Child Protection (GDSCCP) at county level, as well as the conflict of interests at GDSCCP.

The Report also looks at: shortages of the children’s rights monitoring system, including the lack of an Ombudsman-like institution for children (its attributions are filled in by a deputy of the People’s Advocate Institution).

It also talks about the problems of NGO funding. Although NGOs made a significant contribution to the development of child and family services, their funding was left almost entirely up to foreign sources.

Chapter 2.
DEFINITION OF THE CHILD (article 1) looks at the latest changes in the Family Code about the minimum age for marriage.

Chapter 3.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES (articles 2, 3, 4, 6 and 12) reviews the four general principles.

In relation to non-discrimination, the Report illustrates the difficult implementation of legal provisions addressing specific vulnerable groups: HIV/AIDS, disabled children and Roma children.

As to the best interests of the child, it underlines the fact that the state benefits for children ignore this principle, which impacts major areas like: education, healthcare and welfare – key areas to a child’s normal development and life skills.

This chapter examines the situation of children who are on the poverty line (Roma children, children from rural areas), children whose right to life, health and survival is not respected.

As to the respect for the views of the child, the Report highlights the fact that although this right is embedded in Law 272, no policies or strategies have been made to promote the child’s right to opinion and to participation (mainly for mentally disabled children and freedom-deprived children).

Chapter 4.
CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS (articles 7, 8, 13, 17, 14, 15, 16 and 37) describes the situation of children abandoned in maternities and hospitals whose right to identity is still not fulfilled. Moreover, issues related to freedom of expression, thought, conscience and religion are also detailed here. This part of the Report shows that, in Romania, Religion classes are decided by the school and parents without giving the chance to the child to get informed and speak their mind. As to the child’s right to protection of privacy and private life, the Report says that this right is often infringed, mainly in childcare institutions with multi-bedded rooms, in large families and poor families where all family members share a room.

Chapter 5.
FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE (articles 5, 9, 10, 11, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25 and 27) gives some data about the deficient state of local family support and prevention services, about alternative care measures that can be provided to children who are temporarily or indefinitely without parental care in line with Law 272/2004: guardianship, special protection measures and adoption. The Report shows a dysfunctional decision-making of the Child Protection Commission (as an administrative authority) and of the courts, as well as of the childcare institutions. Unfortunately, this perpetuates the old practices featuring seclusion, isolation from the community, lack of child consultation and participation.

The same chapter talks about the state of the professional foster care services, whose rapid development was not followed by a proper increase in human resources allocated by GDSCCPs. The Report stresses the fact that although this measure should be temporary, there is a growing tendency of turning it into a long-term/permanent one.

It was noticed that the number of national adoptions is still relatively and constantly small and that the internal adoption process is quite difficult. The issues concerning the situation of abused, neglected and exploited children reveal the deficiencies of the case referral, monitoring and intervention system.

Chapter 6.
According to the information from Chapter 6, BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE (articles 6, 18, 23, 24, 26 and 27), the access to healthcare has slightly improved, but there are still major problem areas. The healthcare sector developed to include community nurses and health mediators for Roma population, practitioners that, however, are not provided the proper logistics and technical support needed to efficiently fulfil their tasks. This chapter also reviews child mortality, still high in Romania, disease and malnutrition fight (surveys indicate significant deficiencies in the mothers’ nutrition during pregnancy and afterwards).

As far as child mental health is concerned, dysfunctions in child diagnosing, monitoring and needed care-giving are highlighted. This Report stresses that health education and contraceptive education are still poorly available in schools, and consequently there is a very high number of young women to whom abortion is the easiest contraceptive method.

As to the use of drugs, the Report points out the overwhelming significant number of drug users among youth and improper intervention services in the area. This chapter also talks about the situation of disabled children and related problems: rendering public spaces, public institutions and public means of transportation disabled people-friendly, access to rehabilitation services, and the small number of experts in the field.

Chapter 7.
EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES (articles 28, 29 and 31) analyses school dropout (the school dropout rate reached 1.7% in 2004/2005), access to education (small number of preschool units and bad shape of schools), rural area schools (small number of schools and the problem of under-qualified teaching staff getting rural area jobs).

It is also shown that early education has long been ignored by the institutions in charge of child education and welfare and by the community. This chapter also looks at the school curriculum which is way too overloaded and inefficient, at issues regarding school hours which are also too long, strongly affecting the child’ pace and misbalancing his/her development. In addition, the school violence phenomenon is being described as a problem that has become very common to Romanian schools.

Chapter 8.
SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES (articles 22, 30, 32-35, 37-40) presents the issue of refugee children, of exploited children, and the situation of abused or sexually exploited children. The system of risk situation identification relating to child labour and sexually exploited or abused children is not yet well developed. The number of these children in Romania is obviously still underrated. It is also important to note the difficulty of proving this type of crime and sentencing the abusers, as well as the absence of juvenile courts. The same chapter presents the situation of Roma children (discrimination isolates Roma people from the society, it pushes them back to poverty and delinquency), the situation of street children (in 2007, there were 153 street children, but the services targeting this group are still underdeveloped). This Report also reveals the high number of children whose parents work abroad – children who face many problems. Missing children are another group of children with underdeveloped services and a quite complicated intervention procedure.

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