Embassy of the United States of America

• The U.S. Government is pleased to report that Romania is a strong democracy that elected a new government last year in free and fair elections. The Romanian government as a whole respects human rights. A free and vigorous press exists, and Romanian workers have solid rights to organize into labor unions and strike.
• The report notes an important step forward for minority rights in 2001: "UDMR-PSD cooperation helped facilitate the passage by Parliament of a law on local public administration in March; the law provides for use of the maternal language in administration in areas where a national minority represents over 20 percent of the local population."
• While incidents of discrimination against Roma existed, some positive developments occurred in 2001. "In April a national strategy for improving the condition of the Romani community was announced, with the support of the Prime Minister; a commission to implement the plan was established and held meetings during the year. A number of Roma experts were hired in the Ministries, at the county prefect's offices, and in many local mayoral and county offices."
• The Romanian government passed legislation in 2001 banning discrimination based on sex, minority, religious and other grounds.
• We are happy to report that Romania is making progress in combating human trafficking: "In April the Government assigned a senior Police General to coordinate the anti-trafficking unit, significantly increased personnel assigned to the unit, and began to expand inter-agency and local resources assigned to human trafficking." Romania passed legislation against trafficking in 2001.
• However, while Romanian law enforcement continued to make strides towards professional, citizen oriented, police forces, individual officers committed human rights abuses in 2001.