In the atention of:

Romanian Government, Mrs. Vasilica-Viorica DĂNCILĂ, Prime Minister

Romanian Parliament, Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Nicolae Liviu DRAGNEA, President

Romanian Parliament, Senat, Mr. Călin POPESCU-TĂRICEANU, President

Ministry of Justice, Mr. Tudorel TOADER, Minister

Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mrs. Carmen Daniela DAN, Minister

The supreme council of magistrates, Mrs. Simona Camelia MARCU, President

Public Ministry, Prosecutor’s Office High Court of Cassation and Justice, Mrs. Augustin LAZĂR, General prosecutor 

Given that two more women lost their lives in Romania last week because of domestic violence, we believe that urgent measures must be taken to strengthen the protection of women victims of domestic violence.

In accordance with the provisions of the Istanbul Convention, Article 45 – Sanctions and measures:

1. All parties shall take the necessary legislative or other measures to ensure that offenses established in accordance with this Convention are subject to effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions, taking into account their gravity. These sanctions will, where appropriate, include sentences involving deprivation of liberty which may lead to extradition.
2. The parties may take other measures in relation to aggressors, such as:

• monitoring or supervision of convicted persons;
• withdrawal of parental rights if the best interests of the child, which may include the victim’s safety, can not be guaranteed in any other way.

The procedures for monitoring protection orders must be a priority, and in this regard, we ask you to find the necessary means to purchase electronic bracelets for monitoring aggressors.

We also draw your attention to the fact that in March 2017, the Prosecutor’s Office attached to the High Court of Cassation and Justice published its activity report for 2016. Extract from this report (page 22): “It draws attention the large number of serious offences committed between family members (murder, rape, harassment or assault and battery and bodily injury), which necessitates preventive action by authorities and non-governmental organisations. “

According to the statistics obtained from the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police in connection with the persons and offenses provided by the Law 217/2003 on the prevention and combating of domestic violence:

• In 2013, from the total of 23,090 reported criminal offenses, 6,282 were at art. 193/New Criminal Code
• In 2014, of the total of 28,2014 criminal offenses reported, 11,937 were at art. 193/NCC;
• In 2015, of the total of 33,317 reported criminal offenses, 15,705 were at art. 193/NCC;
• In 2016, of the total of 35,202 criminal offenses reported, 18,500 were at art. 193/NCC;
• In the first 10 months of 2017, of the total of 30,647 criminal offenses reported, 16,980 were regarding art. 193/NCC.

More than that, the number of cases entering the courts having as their primary or secondary object art. 193/NCC is around 5% of the total number of criminal offences reported and only 1% of this total are condemned, which shows us a major malfunction of protecting the victims of such crimes and compliance of the Romanian state with Directive 2012/29 /EU laying down minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crimes, making the act of justice in these cases unnecessary and useless.

In this regard, we ask you to take urgent steps to change:

–  art. 193/NCC – „Assault and battery” by reducing the number of medical care days from 90 to 30.

– art. 223/New Criminal Procedure Code – Conditions and cases of application of the preventive arrest measure, by including in paragraph (2) the following offenses:

1.Determining or facilitating suicide (art. 191 Criminal Code)

2. Assault and battery (art. 193)

3. Bodily Injury (art. 194)

4. Maltreatment of a minor (art. 197)

5. Interrupting the course of pregnancy (art. 201)

6. Injury of the fetus (art. 202)

7. Illegal deprivation of liberty (art. 205)

8. Threatening (art. 206)

9. Blackmail (art. 207)

10. Harassment (art. 208)

11. Trafficking of minors (art. 211)

12. Submission to forced or compulsory labor (art. 212)

13. Proxenetism (art. 213)

14. Exploitation of begging (art. 214)

15. Using a minor for begging (art. 215)

16. Rape (art. 218)

17. Sexual aggression (art. 219)

18. Sex with a minor (art. 220)

19. Sexual corruption of minors (art. 221)

20. Recruitment of minors for sexual purposes (art. 222)

21. Sexual harassment (art. 223)

22. Breaking and entering (art. 224)

23. Invasion of privacy (art. 226)

24.Violation of secrecy of correspondence (art. 302)

25. Child pornography (art. 374)

26. Bigamy (art. 376)

27. Incest (art. 377)

28. Family abandonment (art. 378)

29. Failure to comply with the custody of the minor (art. 379)

30. Preventing access to general compulsory education (art. 380)

31. Preventing the exercise of religious freedom (art. 381)

32. Failure to comply with protection orders (art. 32/Law no. 217/2003)

Since the entry into force of the emergency protection order issued within 72 hours, the Romanian state has not implemented any other measures to ensure the protection and safety of the victims of domestic violence.

In 2017, 73 people died because of domestic violence, we hope that 2018 will not become a record year in the number of family deaths.