Situation of minorities in Romania

Recommendation 1114 (1989)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 26 September 1989 (17th Sitting) (see Doc. 6105, report of the Committee on Relations with European Non-Member Countries, Rapporteur : Mr Noerens). Text adopted by the Assembly on 26 September 1989 (17th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Considering the report on the situation of minorities in Romania, presented by its Committee on Relations with European Non-Member Countries (Doc. 6105) ;

2. Recalling the principles underlying its policy of opening up to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe - observance and implementation of international human rights instruments adopted within the framework of the United Nations and the CSCE - and its decision to grant special guest status to the Parliaments of Hungary, Poland, the USSR and Yugoslavia ;

3. Recalling that its Committee on Relations with European Non-Member Countries has on many occasions sought to establish a dialogue with the Romanian authorities, and regretting that they did not reply to the invitation to participate in the hearing on the situation of minorities in Romania held in Strasbourg on 3 July 1989 ;

4. Vigorously condemning the activities of the Securitate (political police) and the systematisation plan devised by President Ceauescu, under which almost half of the 13 000 or so Romanian villages are to be destroyed and whose implementation has already commenced in the Bucharest area ;

5. Aware that, while these human rights violations affect the ‘‘unhappy Romanian people'' as a whole, they are more specifically directed against the Hungarian and the Tzigane minorities, whereas the German and Jewish minorities are gradually leaving the country on a fee-paying basis ;

6. Noting that, contrary to all its international obligations, the Romanian regime blatantly disregards the rights conferred on its ‘‘cohabiting nationalities'' in terms of freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom to engage in political activities, cultural freedom, freedom of religion and freedom of circulation, and expressing its admiration for the courage and resolution of the Romanian dissidents ;

7. Considering that members of the Hungarian minority are increasingly opting for flight to Hungary and that this country, which has acceded to the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, deserves the support of the Council of Europe and the assistance of its member states in coping with the increasingly serious problems posed by this influx of refugees ;

8. Noting that the Romanian regime is increasingly cutting itself off from the other countries signatory to the Helsinki Final Act, and refuses to recognise the universal nature of human rights or any machineryto promote respect for human rights, including that provided for by the concluding document of the Vienna Conference of January 1989 ;

9. Convinced that it would be unwise to exclude Romania from the CSCE process, because it is a valuable vehicle for dialogue and international pressure,

10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

10.1 offer the Hungarian Government its assistance in coping with the influx of Romanian refugees of Hungarian nationality, in particular by inviting it to become an associate member of the Social Development Fund ;

10.2 urge the governments of the member states :

a to exercise all such sanctions as may be necessary against the Romanian Government, while carrying out a food-aid programme for the benefit of the Romanian population via non-governmental organisations ;

b to encourage their towns and villages to ‘‘adopt'' the Romanian villages threatened with destruction, particularly as part of Opération villages roumains, in spite of the difficulties they will have to face ;

c to make unremitting use of the means afforded by the supervisory machinery for the human dimension of the CSCE provided for in the concluding document of the Vienna Conference of January 1989 ;

10.3 promote a direct dialogue between the Hungarian and Romanian authorities, for instance under the auspices of the Council of Europe ;

10.4 request the Romanian Government to accept a fact-finding visit by a small group of members of the Committee on Relations with European Non-Member Countries to discuss this recommendation with parliamentarians and appropriate government officials, and to allow it to undertake unsupervised its own programme of visits and meetings using its own interpreters, in preparation for a further report by the committee.