Open letter to Prime Minister Ludovic Orban

To the attention of the PNL group leader from the Chamber of Deputies Florin Roman, to the senators and liberal deputies

Prime Minister Ludovic Orban,

318 non-governmental organizations active in the field of child protection, assistance to victims of human trafficking, domestic violence, human rights, independent or grouped in federations and networks in the field of social services and civic action request public explanations regarding the appeal to the Romanian Constitutional Court by The Government of Romania of the Law amending and supplementing Law 286/2009 on the Criminal Code and Article 223 of Law 135/2010 on the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provided for the increase of penalties for pedophiles and rapists and the imprescriptibility of these acts.

In Romania, which is facing an increased incidence of rape and pedophilia crimes, given the exceptional gravity of these acts, the difficulty with which these cases are handled and the long duration from the time of the crime, to a possible conviction, we do not understand what resort made the Romanian Government to defend these criminals, even against the vote given by the senators and deputies of their own party.

In 2019 alone, according to the Romanian Police, 197 children and 918 women were raped, one victim dying and 328 sexual assaults were registered, of which 103 with a minor. 643 sexual acts with a minor, 53 with a victim under the age of 13 and 412 with a victim between the ages of 13 and 15 were reported to the Romanian Police.

According to statistics provided by the Superior Council of Magistracy, 2037 cases regarding sexual intercourse with a minor have reached Romanian courts in the last five years, along with another 355 cases of rape with a victim under 16 years of age. Not infrequently we see how the courts consider that young victims can give their consent, while sex offenders receive suspended sentences. All this in the conditions in which we do not have a system of reintegration of the convicts and on the prevention of recidivism.

How is it possible for the Romanian Government to challenge these normative acts that discourage such crimes and to address the Constitutional Court of Romania “from the perspective of the offender”?

The consequences of these major traumas for victims are sometimes impossible to heal and mutilate the lives of children and women, whose perspective is suffering for life. On the other hand, we have witnessed the fact that another important amendment of art. 199 (paragraph 2) of Law 286/2009 on the Criminal Code, which would have discouraged the crimes of domestic violence by the fact that reconciling the victim with the aggressor no longer entails the removal of criminal liability, although passed on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies on 28.07.2020, was exempted from voting. The final report for PLX 103/2018 – the initiative we are referring to, also exists on the website of the Chamber of Deputies. There is also a negative opinion from the Ministry of Justice (Government), without explanation.

We ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, to explain those actions of the Ministry of Justice and the Government that you lead: contesting an amendment that would discourage the crimes of pedophilia and rape and negative opinion for another change that would make it possible to punish any domestic violence aggressor.

Mr Florin Roman,

We also ask you for explanations regarding the actions taken by you as a group leader, to support the voting of this project, given that the initiator is a PNL deputy.

What is the reason for postponing the vote on PLX 103/2018 in the Chamber of Deputies, at a meeting where the group you lead can build a majority in the vote?

Please note that any postponement of the vote escapes some unpunished aggression, so we ask you to speed up the final vote.

We are waiting for a public response for there actions, in order to be clear who is working for whom.

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