Vezi raport EN

(and to the extent to which the Council is presented with all factual and legal issues, • approx. 346 decisions admitting the including the written evidence and testi- cases; monies taken in the judicial case), “expert • approx. 823 decisions rejecting the reports - specialised legal opinions”, essen- cases. tially procedural documents that operate as “judicial advice” in the area of equality of rights and non-discrimination. Legal endorsement and contracting activity Reporting statistical data: In January-December 2019, 603 documents In 2019, NCCD was brought to court, as an (letters, letters of empowerment, admin- advisory body - “specialised expert”, in order istrative orders, explanatory memoranda, to submit a number of “specialised points partnership agreements, protocols etc.) were of view” (procedural documents operating subjected to the endorsement procedure. as “judicial advice”) for a total number of approx. 763 new cases (associated to pro- During 2019, 201 public procurement pro- ceedings brought during the current year cedures were initiated and concluded: as well as during the previous year, where the trial went on during 2019), whose sub- • Public procurement contracts – 16; ject was related to incurring tort liability • Annual Public Procurement Plan – 5; (remedies for the victim) as a result of an • Direct procurement procedures – 180. infringement of the non-discrimination principle. Activity of the Investigation and The cases which were settled during 2019 Review Unit can be statistically categorized depending on their subject, as follows: According to the provisions of art. 41 para. (1) of the Internal Procedure for the settle- • appr ox . 1263 pr o c e e d i ng s on ment of petitions and notifications, “the case “emoluments”; handler shall take the decision to investigate, • approx. 1736 proceedings with a sub- if applicable, following the review of the pe- ject included in the category “other tition and the attached evidence.” Thus, the requests” (labour litigation, rescission case subject to investigation, accompanied of administrative documents, termi- by the decision taken by the case handler is NCCD | Activity Report | 2019 nation of contracts, denial to answer sent to the Investigation and Review Unit requests, claims - other than financial within the Legal Affairs Department, in rights/wage related claims etc.). order to clarify any issues and also in order to collect information, witness testimonies The decisions taken during 2019 by the and evidence required in order to process courts hearing cases on incurring tort lia- the claim. After this review, the investigative bility in non-discrimination matters (cases team is filling in an investigation report to 30 Content be attached to the documentation resulting 1(3%), religion 1(3%), non-contagious chronic from the review. disease 1(3%), HIV/AIDS 1(3%), civil status 1(3%), domicile 1(3%), no criterion 7(19%), – (three of the files operated two discrimi- Statistical state of the cases nation criteria). investigated by the Investigation During the investigations performed in 2019, and Review Unit in 2019 interviews were organized with 237 persons, In 2019, the Steering Board assigned 34 with an average of approximatively 6 persons/ files to the Investigation and Review Unit. investigation. Among those, 105 persons In order to comply with the decisions taken were from Bucharest and Ilfov county and by the case handlers and to achieve the goals 132 persons from the rest of the country. of the inspection activity, 40 investigations were performed (some of the cases requiring more than one trip), distributed as follows: Conclusions: 22 in Bucharest city and Ilfov county, 2 in North West region (Cluj county 1, Bihor Compliance with the mandate: county 1), 6 in South East region (Tulcea county 1, Galati county 1, Buzau county 1, While performing the investigative activi- Constanta county 3), 4 in South Muntenia ties, the agents assigned to investigate the region (Arges county 1, Prahova 1, Calarasi complaint must comply with the goals set 1 and Ialomita county 1), 2 in North-East by the case handler through its decision in region (Iasi county 1, Botosani county 1), 3 terms of the notified issues (such objectives in South West Oltenia region (Dolj county aiming at, as applicable, discussions with 1, Valcea county 1 and Gorj county 1) and 1 the respondents, with the claimant, in case in Centre region (Mures county 1). some further clarifications may be brought, Legal representation activity of the National Council for Combating Discrimination respectively with the witnesses). From a total of 34 cases subject to verifica- tions, in 26 cases (representing 72% of the In reasoned situations, the case handler overall number) the alleged discrimination may order ad-hoc investigations Throughout act took place in the urban area, while in the 2019, no situations that could have required remaining 10 cases (representing 28% of the an extension of the initial mandate were overall number), it took place in the rural identified. area. In 15 of the cases under investigation (representing 34% of the overall number), the respondents fell in the category of legal Issues that may lead to a failure in entities, while in 29 cases (representing 34% achieving the goal of the overall number), the respondents were natural persons. In six of the cases under While undertaking their inspection activity, investigation, the respondents were natural the agents working for the Legal Affairs De- persons, as well as legal entities. partment are hindered, in most of the cases, by the witnesses’ reluctance to confirm or As regards the discrimination criteria, the deny the facts described by the claimants state of play of the investigated cases is the in their petitions. following: disability 9 (23%) ethnicity 5 (14%), gender 3(8%), occupational/educational A high number of actions are related to the background 3(8%), social category 2(5%), professional environment, most of the time political affiliation/beliefs 2(5%), nationality the superiors of the claimants being accused 31  in these cases, the reluctance is caused by be filed, as the party delivering such threats the fear of repercussions that may reflect hopes to influence the manner in which the upon them, as the witnesses are quite often investigation takes place by intimidating designated by the claimants from among the the team assigned to verify the substance colleagues who have a direct contact with the of the claim. superiors subject to complaints and who might have information on a relevant behaviour There were also cases in which the defence and attitude for the case reviewed by NCCD. counsel for one of the parties, ignoring the civil proceedings rules (that NCCD procedure This issue could be remedied by introducing must be read in conjunction with), insisted such witnesses among the ranks of persons on participating to hearing the witnesses protected from “any adverse treatment, as a indicated in the Steering Board decision, reaction to a complaint or judicial proceedings without any witnesses requesting this, some- (or due to cooperation with investigations times even when the witnesses expressed undertaken in cases of complaints and judi- their wish to be heard without any party or cial proceedings) related to an infringement any of their representatives being present. of the principle of equality of treatment and non-discrimination.” Buzău Territorial Unit Risks: In 2019, more than 120 persons reported to the Buzau Territorial Unit, asking for legal The NCCD investigative teams were also support for issues related to discriminatory confronted with conf lictual situations situations. The problems at issue were var- arising from the parties’ (claimants and ious, however the most frequent were the respondents) lack of understanding in re- ones related to: lation to the role of the investigative team and from the belief that the latter intends • Job-related discrimination, including to hamper the case or that, through the sexual harassment, harassment and questions asked, would favour the other abuses from superiors; party of the case; however, in most of the • Ethnicity-related criterion, including cases, the members of the investigative team discrimination in public areas, dis- were able to establish a fair professional crimination related to access to cer- relation with the persons able to provide tain public spaces, access to services, relevant information, explanations and discrimination during employment; evidence in order to draft the investigative • Social inclusion, refusal to apply cer- report. We must underline the fact that, tain orders or regulations by some in many of these cases, the investigative institutions; team visits the domicile of the claimant • Discrimination in the school-based or of the defendant, in the case of natural environment, including bullying, as persons, thus exposing themselves to risks well as student segregation, and also NCCD | Activity Report | 2019 of physical abuse that are inherent during lack of tolerance expressed by students, such inspection activities. teachers or parents of students; • Discrimination expressed in posts in Nevertheless, one of the inherent risks as- public media, especially Facebook. sociated with the inspection activity that the investigative team is confronted with is One may include among prevention ac- the threat that criminal complaints would tivities directed against discrimination: 32 Content information campaigns using leaflets, co- Affairs Department - Unit for Legal Affairs, operation with NGOs and the Buzau County Litigation and Contracts, provided the stu- Prefect’s Office, Buzau Labour Inspection, dents of the following universities with the information campaign in Buzau Jobs Fair practical training internships: and in Buzau Agriculture College. University of Bucharest - Law School Mureș Territorial Unit • • 11.03 – 29.03.2019 (3 students); In 2019, Mures Territorial Unit organized 34 • • 01.07 – 19.07.2019 (8 students); audiences and specialised advisory meetings • • 11.11 – 29.11.2019 (4 students). to persons interests in the areas regulated by G.O. 137/2000 and in other areas associated “Titu Maiorescu” University - Law with complaints and petitions of discrimina- School (2 students) tions based on language, ethnicity, disability, communicable diseases, age, inclusion into “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian a disadvantaged social category. University - Faculty for Legal and Administrative Sciences Petitions and complaints received: • • 22.07 – 09.08.2019 (one student); Throughout 2019, 14 complaints/petitions • • 02.09 – 20.09.2019 (5 students). were received by the Mures Unit, among which: National School for Political and Administrative studies (1 student) • Complaints/petitions on potential discriminatory facts based on ethnicity University of Bucharest - Faculty Legal representation activity of the National Council for Combating Discrimination –3 for Political Sciences • Complaints/petitions on potential dis- criminatory facts based on language • • 11.03 – 29.03.2019 (one student); –3 • • 01.07 – 19.07.2019 (3 students); • Complaints/petitions on potential • • 11.11 – 29.11.2019 (3 students). discriminatory facts based on chronic non-communicable disease – 2 • Complaints/petitions on potential University of Bucharest – discriminatory facts based on age and Faculty for Sociology and Social gender – 2 Assistance • Complaints/petitions on potential discriminatory facts based on victim- • 22.07 – 09.08.2019 (3 students); ization – 1 • Other - 3 Based on the above mentioned data, we may conclude that, in 2019, NCCD provided prac- tical training internships for a total number Providing an internship of 34 students. facility for students During this activity, the NCCD trainers presented the students with information During 2019, the National Council for Com- on the concept of discrimination, types of bating Discrimination, through its Legal discrimination, orga