Legislation

(The present draft law was accepted by the Council of Representatives of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania in Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) on November 14, 1993, and was put into final form by the group of entrusted experts.)

The Parliament of Romania

acknowledging, that the national, ethnic, and linguistic minorities, to which Romanian citizens belong, and are in numeric minority on the territory of Romania have their independent historical traditions as well as ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic characteristics;

recognizing, that the existence of these communities is conditioned by the preservation of their own traditions and characteristics;

acknowledging, that these national minorities and autonomous communities contribute in a significant measure to the cultural diversity among the European nations;

proclaiming the commitment to the ideas of democracy and humanism as well as the intention of mutual understanding and friendly cooperation among peoples and nations;

considering that solving the problems of national minorities and autonomous communities is a fundamental factor of democracy, justice, stability and peace;

being convinced, that the harmonious cohabitation of national minorities and autonomous communities together with the majority nation is the fundamental element of the internal and international stability;

knowing, that to protect the rights of the national minorities and autonomous communities and of the persons belonging to them is the fundamental element of the international protection of human rights and as such is an international area of cooperation;

confirming, that the individual rights of persons belonging to national minorities, as well as their right to their collective identity shall be respected as a constituent part of universally acknowledged human rights, and the effective exercise of their individual and collective rights shall be guaranteed;

accepting, that all national minorities, which declare themselves autonomous communities are entitled to internal self- determination and the right to have their own system of institutions;

aiming at the establishment of a democracy comprising the entire society and at the building of a state based on the rule of law on the basis of the principle of subsidiary;

undertaking the commitments formulated in: the Proclamation of Alba Iulia (Gyulafehérvár) issued on the 1st December 1918, law 86/1945 on the Statutes of National Minorities, United Nations' Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Charter of Paris, the European Convention of Human Rights, the European Charter for Local Self-Governments, the Helsinki Final Act of the European Conference on Security and Cooperation, as well as the documents of Copenhagen and Geneva, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and Recommendations 1134. (1990), 1177. (1992) and 1201. (1993), as well as Resolutions 232. (1992), 273. (1993) of the Council of Europe and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities issued in December 1992;

declares, that the special individual and collective rights of national minorities and autonomous communities are fundamental rights of freedom, fully respects them and, to ensure their recognition as well as to regulate their realization, it enacts the following law:

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL DISPOSITIONS

Article 1

This law regulates the special rights of the national, ethnic or linguistic minorities which live on the territory of Romania as well as the special rights of those Romanian citizens, who belong to such minorities.

According to the present law autonomous community is that national minority, which defines itself as such and exercises its rights according to the principles of self-determination.

Article 2

The national identity is a fundamental human right and both individuals and communities are equally entitled to it.

It is the inalienable right of each national minority, to define itself as an autonomous community.

The national minorities and autonomous communities together with the Romanian nation are political subjects and state-forming communities.

The internal self-determination is the inalienable right of autonomous communities, and it manifests itself in various forms of autonomy.

National minorities, which define themselves as autonomous communities, shall have the right to personal autonomy based on the minority rights of persons belonging to them, as well as to local self-government and regional autonomy.

Article 3

The state recognizes and guarantees complete and inviolable equal rights for all the national minorities and autonomous communities, for each ethnicity and their members, as well as the right to promote free expression of their national or ethnic identity in all areas of political, social, cultural and economic life.

Article 4

The national minorities and autonomous communities, their ethnics and persons belonging to them shall have the right to live freely and undisturbed in their homeland, ensure their livelihood there, to maintain the historically developed patterns of their settlements and their ethnic conditions, use freely their mother tongue and practice freely their religion.

Article 5

The national minorities are entitled to be represented in public offices and in the judiciary.

The communities, which have personal autonomy shall have the right to self-government and, in this sphere, they have the right of determination and execution in the field of education, culture, public life, social activity and information.

Article 6

In those units of public administration, in which persons belonging to a national minority or to an autonomous community constitute the majority, they may exercise local self-government and, collectively, they shall have regional autonomy.

In the cases specified in the preceding paragraph that minority shall use its mother tongue as an official language.

Article 7

In defining the areas of administrative units and electoral constituencies, as well as in proposing and adopting plans of local and economic development, environmental protection account must be taken of settlement relations, links, economic interests, just as the developed traditions of the national minorities and autonomous communities.

Article 8

In those units of public administration, in which the national minorities or autonomous communities live in numeric inferiority as compared to the total number of the population, the national minorities and autonomous communities have limited right to veto in questions affecting their self identity.

Article 9

The state shall support the promotion of contacts of national minorities and autonomous communities and that of persons belonging to them with citizens of other states, with whom they share ethnic, linguistic, cultural or religious ties.

Article 10

The law will punish any libel, negative discrimination or incitement to hatred against national minorities and autonomous communities or persons belonging to them.

The forced assimilation of persons belonging to national minorities or autonomous communities by political, cultural, linguistic, social or economic means is forbidden. Rendering more difficult their circumstances of life and conditions of existence is forbidden, just as any negative discrimination against them at their place of work or in any other respect, as well as the expression of any such intentions.

It is forbidden to alter the ethnic distribution of the population in the detriment of the minorities on the territories inhabited by the national minorities or autonomous communities, as well as to modify the administrative borders or the conditions of the settlements without the consent of the involved communities. It is forbidden to resettle the members of national minorities or autonomous communities by force.

In case the above are not observed, the national minorities and autonomous communities as well as persons belonging to them have the right to use any legal means to preserve their individual and communal existence.

It is forbidden to damage, destroy or demolish the cultural objects, historical monuments, memorials and traditional architectural monuments of a national minority or autonomous community by any means; the same is applied to the depravation of their national character.

Article 11

The state will financially support those minority institutions which have legal personality in public law.

The financial sources of the minority institutions and organizations are:

a. state budget;

b. their own income;

c. support from foundations;

d. support received from domestic and foreign organizations;

e. donations;

f. other sources not forbidden by law.

Article 12

The minority institutions and organizations may receive financial support rom foreign organizations, foundations and private persons.

Non-profit donations are duty-free.

CHAPTER II.

UNIVERSAL RIGHTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES AND AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS OF MINORITIES

Article 13

The individual has the right to freely adhere to a national minority.

The right to a national identity, the acceptance of such an adherence and its declaration does not exclude their double or multiple ethnic attachments.

No disadvantage may arise for them on account of the exercise or non-exercise of their rights as members of such a minority.

Article 14

It is the right of any person belonging to a national minority to declare secretly his or her adherence to a national minority on the occasion of a nation wide population census.

Article 15

Persons belonging to a national minority shall have the right to express, preserve and develop their ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious identity, and may not be subject to any attempt of assimilation against their will.

Article 16

It is forbidden to question the belonging of any person to a national minority by the etymological analysis of his or her name or by any other means; it is forbidden to influence any change of his or her freely chosen affiliation.

Article 17

Every person belonging to a national minority shall be equal before the law, shall have the right to equal treatment in politics, economy, culture and social life as well as in any other fields of public life.

Article 18

It is the right of any person belonging to a national minority:

a. to use freely his or her mother tongue in private and in public, in administration and in court;

b. to set up and manage their own societies, organizations, scientific, cultural and religious institutions and political parties;

c. to participate in their own educational system;

d. to set up educational institutions at any level of instruction in their mother tongue;

e. to learn, foster, develop and to pass on, his or her mother tongue, history, culture and traditions;

f. to practice his or her religion including the acquisition, possession and use of religious materials and to carry out religious educational activities in his or her native language in denominational schools;

g. to express his or her opinion freely, to inquire, exchange and obtain information in his or her mother tongue;

h. to set up societies, participate in the activity of international non-governmental organizations;

i. to have equal opportunity in obtaining public employment;

j. to have his or her personal data relating to his or her minority status protected.

Article 19

Any person belonging to a national minority shall have the right to enter upon the register his or her surname and first names according to the rules of his or her mother tongue and spelled accordingly in any public document as well as to choose freely his or her children's first names.

Article 20

Any person belonging to a national minority shall have the right to display any signboard, inscription or information made public in his or her mother tongue.

Article 21

Any person belonging to a national minority shall have the right to foster his or her family's ethnic traditions and family relationships, to celebrate family occasions and to conduct any church and civil ceremonies connected with these family occasions in their mother tongue.

COMMUNITY RIGHTS

Article 22

To preserve, foster, develop and perpetuate the identity of a national minority is an inalienable community rights.

The law acknowledges and protects the historical, territorial, settlement, cultural, linguistic, religious, and ethnic traditions of national minorities and autonomous communities as political entities.

Article 23

National minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right:

a. to practice, develop and to preserve their traditions, as well as to define their cultural, linguistic and religious identity;

b. to declare themselves as independent judicial and political subjects;

c. to internal self-determination;

d. to freely express their identity through the practice of autonomies in accordance with their historical and territorial characteristics and traditions;

e. to display the names of localities, streets, squares, institutions and of the public bodies in their mother tongue, anywhere where the minority constitutes at least 10% of the population;

f. to establish and maintain unhindered contacts with those States with which they have ethnic, linguistic, cultural or religious relations, without infringing the principle of the state's territorial integrity;

g. to ensure the regular preparation and broadcast of programs for national minorities on the national radio and television network;

h. to appeal for legal redress to the state organs or to international organizations and institutions in case communal rights are violated.

Article 24

The state budget shall ensure the financial conditions required to set up and manage the educational, cultural and scientific institutional network of the national minorities and autonomous communities, and to maintain and preserve their monuments in their original condition.

Article 25

The national minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right to keep their gatherings and feasts, to maintain, cultivate and pass on their architectural, cultural monuments and traditions, and use their national symbols.

The national minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right to choose the dates of their religious feasts, which count as official holidays according to the traditions of their own religion.

USE OF LANGUAGE

(1) In education

Article 26

Persons belonging to a national minority or autonomous community shall have the right to be educated in their mother tongue, to receive education and instruction in native-language state owned educational and training institutions at every level of instruction. Natural persons, churches, organizations and societies shall have the right to establish and to maintain denominational and private educational institutions.

Article 27

The state shall guarantee:

a. education in their mother tongue in kindergartens, as required, either in separate kindergartens or in separate groups therein;

b. education in their mother tongue in primary schools, as required, either in separate elementary schools, or in separate classes or groups;

c. education in their mother tongue in secondary schools (in grammar schools), as required, either in separate schools, classes or groups;

d. education in their mother tongue in vocational schools, as required, either in separate schools, classes, or groups;

e. education in their mother tongue at universities, colleges, faculties and other institutions of higher education, as required, either in separate universities, colleges, faculties or other institutions of higher education or in separate faculties, sections or groups for the students;

f. education in their mother tongue at postgraduate level;

g. the possibility to obtain academic degrees and various scientific honors and titles in their mother tongue.

Article 28

If the number of minority pupils is not large enough to start a separate class or group in a particular locality, as required by the law on education, the same procedure will be applied as in the case of the Romanian pupils in localities inhabited by national minorities. This minimum number cannot be larger than 4 in elementary schools and 7 in secondary schools or institutions of higher education.

Article 29

Native-language state and denominational education is financed by the state and proportionally by the authorities of the local administration, which will also support the private educational institutions.

Article 30

a. In those administrative units, in which a national minority represents at least 30% of the population, the state shall guarantee that the members of the national majority have the possibility to learn the language and the culture of the national minority and autonomous community;

b. Teaching of the ethnography, history of the national minorities, autonomous communities and their mother nations, their cultural traditions and values will be guaranteed in native-language educational and training institutions.

Article 31

The state will guarantee the financial means and infrastructure for the training of teachers needed in the native- language educational network of the national minorities and autonomous communities.

Article 32

The state will support the employment of visiting-teachers and visiting-professors who come to Romania and undertake the education of persons belonging to national minorities and autonomous communities.

The state acknowledges the diplomas and degrees taken abroad by persons belonging to national minorities and autonomous communities in institutions of higher education according to the procedure established jointly by the legitimate representatives of national minorities and autonomous communities and the Ministry of Education.

Native-language educational institutions shall ensure the conditions to master the Romanian language.

Article 33

Minority school inspectorates, respectively minority directorates within the school inspectorates maintained by the state and local administrative authorities have to be established in order to control and supervise the educational institutions of the national minorities and autonomous communities; if the size of the network requires, autonomous departments or secretariats of state within the Ministry of Education shall be established for the same purpose.

(2) In Culture

Article 34

The state shall support:

a. the use of the mother tongue of national minorities and autonomous communities in culture;

b. the creation of works of art in the language of national minorities, literary criticism, as well as research and specialized literature and access to these works;

c. the access to the works created in other languages through translations, dubbing or subtitles in the minorities' mother tongue;

d. the knowledge and the propagation of the languages as well as the culture of the national minorities and autonomous communities;

e. if in areas inhabited by national minorities and autonomous communities there is no possibility to establish independent institutions for them, persons to foster the culture of national minorities in their mother tongue shall be employed;

f. the propagation of technical knowledge in the languages of the minorities;

g. the provision with native language literature and the establishment of a network of libraries for national minorities and autonomous communities.

Article 35

The minority organizations shall conduct scientific and cultural activities as well; for this purpose they shall establish institutions, which may have international contacts.

Article 36

The state shall support:

a. the collection of ethnographic artifacts belonging to the cultural heritage of national minorities; the establishment, managing and development of collections in public hand;

b. publication of books, periodical for national minorities and autonomous communities;

c. the maintenance of their theaters and other cultural institutions.

The state shall guarantee the publication of information of public interest in the languages of the national minorities and autonomous communities.

(3) In the Parliament and in the Public Administration.

Article 37

On special occasions, the members of parliament, who belong to a national minority or autonomous community, may use their mother tongue. The parliament shall be notified about the intention to deliver such a speech in order to provide translation.

Article 38

Those local units of public administration are bilingual or multilingual, in which persons belonging to a national minority or autonomous community constitute at least 10% of the population; in these units persons belonging to the national minorities and autonomous communities in question are entitled to use their mother tongue both in oral and in writing.

In the local councils of bilingual or multilingual units of public administration the councilors shall use their mother tongue; in such instances the Romanian translation of those speeches must be attached to the minutes.

In order to secure the free use of the mother tongue of national minorities and autonomous communities in local and regional public administration, persons, who know these languages or who belong to these minorities and communities, shall be appointed or employed.

In bilingual and multilingual units of public administration, the local authority of public administration as required by the representatives of these communities shall:

a. display the names of localities, streets and squares in the languages of the national minorities or autonomous communities as well;

b. publish its orders and communications in the languages of the national minorities and autonomous communities as well;

c. publish the forms and blueprints used in the administrative procedure in the language of the national minorities and autonomous communities as well.

In bilingual and multilingual units of public administration the competent authorities shall display the names of institutions belonging to national minorities and autonomous communities in their native language as required by their representatives.

The competent authorities bear the expenses involved.

Article 39

Persons belonging to a national minority or autonomous community shall have the right to be employed on equal terms in public offices and civil service.

Article 40

In the bilingual and multilingual units of public administration:

a. the authorities of public administration shall also use the language of the national minorities and autonomous communities;

b. the documents of public administration shall be distributed in the language of the national minorities and autonomous communities or alternatively in bilingual and respectively multilingual publications;

c. the authorities of public administration shall also issue legal documents in the languages of the national minorities and autonomous communities.

Article 41

In those units of public administration, where the persons belonging to a national minority or autonomous community constitute the simple majority of the population, the use of their mother tongue shall be prescribed by law as an official language:

a. in the work of the regional and local authorities;

b. both in oral and in written contact with the local authority;

c. for the drafting as well as for the publication of official communications issued by the regional and local authorities.

(4) In the Armed Forces

Article 42

Persons belonging to national minorities or autonomous communities who serve in the armed forces are entitled to use freely their mother tongue in their private conversations and in their private correspondence.

(5) In the Administration of Justice

Article 43

Persons belonging to national minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right to use their mother tongue before any organ of justice.

Article 44

The state shall create proper conditions for the use of the mother tongue of national minorities and autonomous communities in the administration of justice.

Persons belonging to the national minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right to use freely their mother tongue in criminal proceedings, in civil actions and proceedings with the public administration.

Persons belonging to the national minorities and autonomous communities shall have the right:

a. to use and have accepted as official documents with full values by the authorities the documents produced in their mother tongue during the proceedings;

b. to get acquainted with all the documents connected with the proceedings in their mother tongue;

c. to dispose of an interpreter during the proceedings.

The expenses due to the interpreters as well as the expenses of the translations are covered by the state.

The proceeding must be conducted in the language of the national minorities and autonomous communities provided that:

a. it is requested by the defendant in criminal proceedings;

b. it is requested either by the plaintiff or the defendant in a civil action;

c. it is requested by either party in proceedings with the public administration.

All the documents of the proceedings must be produced in the Romanian language and in the mother tongue of the person concerned in the proceedings.

Article 45

The state undertakes that, on request, laws, governmental decisions and orders shall be published in the mother tongue of the national minorities and autonomous communities.

(6) In Medical Services

Article 46

The members of the national minorities and autonomous communities living in bilingual or multilingual units of local public administration shall have the right to medical services in their mother tongue.

In clinics, hospitals, old people's homes, social institutions of bilingual or multilingual units of local public administration the medical authorities in charge shall employ a due number of doctors and nurses who know or speak the languages of the national minorities and autonomous communities or belong to them.

If the medical authorities in charge decide or the conditions concerning the personnel are given without this decision, the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be applied in administrational units in which the percentage of persons belonging to national minorities and autonomous communities is below 10%.

The provisions specified in the previous two paragraphs can be applied even in those local administrative units, in which the members of a national minority or autonomous community living there does not reach 10 percent of the population, if the organs of the health administration decide likewise, or if there is enough personnel already present.

(7) In Media

Article 47

The administrational authorities in charge, respecting the independence of the media:

a. shall make possible maintenance of a proportional broadcasting time on the national television and radio for minorities;

b. shall promote the establishment and functioning of local radio and television channels for minorities;

c. shall support the preparation of audiovisual programs for minorities.

Article 48

The state promotes the direct reception of the radio and television programs of those countries, which broadcast in the languages of the national minorities; it also promotes the functioning of those audiovisual stations, which broadcast toward regions where the same language is spoken.

(8) In Economic and Social Life

Article 49

The law guarantees:

a. the undisturbed use of the mother tongue of national minorities and autonomous communities in the economic and social life;

b. the use of the languages of the national minorities in documents related to economic and social life, especially in labor contracts and in technical documents, which contain instructions concerning the use of certain products or establishments.

Article 50

In bilingual or multilingual administrative units of public administration, the state shall guarantee that organs controlling the economic and social life, during their control, shall use the mother tongue of national minorities and autonomous communities.

PERSONAL AUTONOMY

Article 51

National minorities, which declare themselves as autonomous communities shall have the right to personal autonomy.

Article 52

Within the framework of personal autonomy the community shall have self-governing and executive rights in the fields of education, culture, social activity and information.

An autonomous community shall elect its bodies and officials in free and periodical elections.

Article 53

The autonomous community, having personal autonomy, shall elaborate its own statute concerning the local self- administration.

LOCAL SELF-GOVERNMENTS OF SPECIAL STATUS

Article 54

Those units of public administration, in which national minorities or autonomous communities constitute the numerical majority of the inhabitants, shall have a special status on the basis of local self-governing autonomy according to law. The mother tongue of the national minorities and autonomous communities shall be used as an official language.

Article 55

In local self-administrations with special status, persons belonging to the Romanian nation or other national minorities shall participate in the activity of the administrative units.

Article 56

The competence of self-governments of special status is directed by the dispositions of the European Charter for Local Self-Governments.

REGIONAL AUTONOMY

Article 57

The association of self-governments with special status is guaranteed on the basis of the autonomy of local self- governments.

Article 58

In the associations of self-governments established on the basis of regional autonomy the autonomous community shall use its mother tongue as an official language.

Article 59

The autonomous community, which exercises regional autonomy, shall establish its own statute concerning the organization and functioning of its self-administration.

CHAPTER III.

CONCLUDING DISPOSITIONS

Article 60

Real estates, art treasures, libraries, archives and other properties which had belonged to the institutions, organizations, associations of the national minorities who live on the territory of Romania or to their predecessors as well as to their religious denominations and had been taken into state ownership or cooperative property through laws violating the private property or illegally by force shall be returned to their rightful owners or their successors in their original form or, if this is not possible, their proper value shall be returned in money.

Article 61

The laws and statutes in force shall be modified to conform to the provisions of the present law within a year.

Article 62

The state shall guarantee that those laws and statutes, which contain disadvantageous provisions for the minorities be modified or abrogated.

Article 63

By the enactment of this law any contrary regulation is repealed

Béla Markó; President

CsabaTakács, Executive President

Note: We acknowledge with thanks data from the Hungarian Human Rights Foundation for the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania

Copyright © RMDSZ/DAHR - 1995-1998

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