Parliamentary action against discrimination

 

Doina DRETCANU

Deputy

Romanian IPU Group

 

 

The fight against discrimination should be placed in the context of the national policies for development, democratic consolidation, and the promotion of social cohesion. In order to be effective, any strategy in this field needs the input of both State entities, national parliament and all relevant actors of the civil society. 

 

As representative of the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies, and since we celebrate 10 years since the Fourth World Conference on Women, of Beijing, I would like to express my strong belief that women have a most important role in promoting tolerance and solidarity.

 

Based on the Constitutional provisions, Romania was the first country in Eastern Europe to adopt a specific anti-discriminatory regulation of general applicability, namely the Government Ordinance no. 137/2000, approved by the Law no. 48/2002 on the prevention and punishing of all forms of discrimination. This normative act concerns all discriminatory behaviors in the political, economic, cultural and any other field of the public life, encompassing direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and the instigation to discrimination on ethnic and racial grounds. 

 

In line with the EU requirements, our Parliament examined last week a draft law prohibiting the organizations and symbols of fascist, racist and xenophobe character, as well as the cult of persons guilty of acts against peace and humanity.

 

Let me add also that in November 2001 the National Council for Combating Discrimination was set up as independent specialised body in charge with the implementation of the principles of equal chances and non-discrimination.

 

As you know, in 2006, the international community will hold the five-year review of the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action. The conclusions so far are not very optimistic: it seems that there is still an important gap between the international legislation, the resolutions and decisions adopted, on one hand, and the practice of States and societies, on the other hand, as it has been stressed recently by the group of five Independent Eminent Experts appointed on the recommendation of the 2001 World Conference.

Therefore, parliamentary action is essential for this challenge to be successfully addressed. Therefore we welcome this debate, as an opportunity to examine and review our priorities and to streamline our cooperation in the fight against discrimination. 

 

In this respect, there are some points I would like to make:

 

Firstly, parliaments themselves must reflect the multicultural diversity within the society. Romania, for instance, has taken steps to ensure the best possible representation of its national minorities in Parliament.

 

Secondly, political parties should be encouraged to ensure a fair representation of the various minorities (ethnic, national, religious) within the party, at all levels. Such representativity should find an appropriate reflection in Parliament, in the country’s political life and debate.

 

Self regulatory measures need to be taken by each political party and national parliament to prevent the use of racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic arguments in the political discourse;

 

We also believe that a human rights perspective should be integrated throughout its entire parliamentary activity, and in particular in the work of the specialised committees and bodies, other than those directly dealing with human rights;

 

Finally, there are two areas in which the IPU has a central role: the continuation of cooperation and exchanges of information and best practices between Parliaments, on very specific topics, such as the one of our seminar, and the development of the knowledge and expertise of Parliamentarians on tolerance-related issues, in order to enable them to perform more effectively their tasks in this field.