Description
The project wishes to tackle the problem of poor decisions frequently taken by Romanian local authorities in matters of urban planning and heritage conservation. These poor decisions are often taken following personal interest rather than the public welfare. By training NGOs and other activists all over the country to appeal to the justice system when needed, we aim at empowering civil society members to act as watchdogs. The project is expected to encourage participation of civil society actors in the information phase of a project as well as to increase the number of legal actions of the aforementioned against abusive decisions of local authorities. On the long run, the project aims at channeling decisions of local authorities towards the preservation of heritage goods and urban green spaces. In order to gain public participation and access to justice in these matters a guide will be drafted, an on-line call center and 3 centers for local resources will operate for a year, 40 activists will receive trainings during 3 different training sessions, 10 NGOs will be assisted throughout their lawsuits and a book containing judicial practice will be drafted.
Summary of project results
The project addressed issues regarding urban development, constructions, heritage conservation and environment protection. These problems are caused by the lack of transparency in the activities of authorities (which trigger little public participation), by the great amount of illegal decisions taken by authorities and by the poor efficiency of administrative institutions in the activity of control. In order to support the public participation and access to justice in these fields several instruments were created within this project:, a guide was drafted, an online call centre and 3 centres for local resources are operational, 47 activists received trainings during 3 different sessions, 10 NGOs have been guided during 25 litigation activities, a book containing judicial practice was delivered and a report detailing proposed improvements to the legislation regarding construction safety during earthquakes was drafted. The results of the call centre and local resource centres’ activity (from a baseline of 10 to a result of 249 cases) and of the NGO guidance (43 cases handled, 60 letters to the authorities, 60% success rate for finished and partially finished litigations), the creation of the data base and other events organised within the project helped achieve the project’s general objective: developing the legal capacity of the NGOs and the instruments they need for taking proactive actions towards respecting the law and the rule of law in Romania. The 10 guided NGOs, the main beneficiaries of the project, increased substantially their legal capacities. Hence the project has enabled them with long term legal know-how and human resources (47 members of NGOs, students and young professionals trained) for acting in the Romanian society for the respect of democratic values. The project also directly involved in its activities 155 citizens affected by the illegal or inappropriate decisions of the authorities – for them the project has offered a valuable legal resource (the call centre advice, data base, reports and judiciary practice). A number of 10 different authorities have also been part of some project activities and have benefited from valuable feedback on their activities’ impact from the NGOs and citizens.
Summary of bilateral results