Description
The Citizen Rights Network covers the lack of a common and stable instruments of the civil society to monitor the efficiency of a public institution with a role in defending the rule of law in Romania. The NGO partners aim at creating a Citizen Rights Network that would identify the main impediments standing in the way of increasing the role of Ombdusman in the Romanian society and raise awareness over the need to reform the Ombudsman institution. The final outcome is the development of a network of NGOs interested in increasing the efficiency of public institutions with a role in defending and promoting citizen rights through research, monitoring and advocacy activities at the national level. The project's beneficiaries are the citizens who would like to turn to their Ombudsman for help, the Ombudsman institution itself and the NGOs. During the implementation of the project the Network will count on the Norwegian Helsinki Committee expertise.
Summary of project results
The Citizen Rights Network covers the lack of a common and stable instrument (in the short and medium terms) of the civil society to monitor the efficiency of a public institution with a role in defending the rule of law in Romania - the Ombudsman. The project team set up a network of NGOs working together to improve the Ombudsman’s office. The network is called Citizen Rights Network and is constituted of 13 NGOs, 3 of which are the ones implementing the project; the other 10 NGOs have joined during the project. The secretariate of the network is run by APADOR-CH. The members of the network have been exerting pressure on the Ombudsman all throughout the project in order to persuade it to fulfil its duties. Particularly those duties relating to its power to challenge emergency ordinances before the Constitutional Court (CC) were considered to be the most important. The project team was eventually successful in doing so; a relevant example during the project is that the Ombudsman has challenged an emergency ordinance which eventually was declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court. It was stated that the action was not justified by any real emergency. A monitoring methodology was developed and applied to the Ombudsman in order to evaluate how it complies with its duties. The project team also developed a set of recommendations for the Ombudsman which were presented during two meetings. One of these two was organised at the Ombudsman’s office and the second one in a public event held at the Parliament. Moreover, a series of reports on the activity of the Ombudsman and of similar national and international institutions were launched. These materials were used in an advocacy campaign, which was conducted online, as well as in several meetings. 9 of these meetings were held across the country, with more than 225 citizens attending. Throughout the project, the promoter benefited from the support of their Norwegian partner. The Norwegian Helsinki Committee has provided the promoter with analytical reports on the Norwegian institutions and had important inputs during the public events which were organized in Bucharest.
Summary of bilateral results
The main outcome of the partnership with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee was the fact that the promoter had an opportunity to learn from the experience of Norwegian human rights institutions. The partner has provided APADOR-CH with an analysis of their human rights institutions, how they function and what are their roles. The promoter had representatives from 2 Norwegian human rights institutions come to Bucharest and share relevant aspects of their experience with Romanian policy makers, civil society representatives and representatives of Romanian human rights institutions. Also, both organisations got a better understanding on how the Romanian institutions work.