PRESS RELEASE
Data: 18.09.2023
The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has recently launched a campaign and a research project on how Romanians are and consider themselves abused by state institutions.
FACIAS started this campaign also with the aim to make an analysis of the legal provisions governing the liability of state officials who commit abuses against citizens. The main objective of this analysis is to determine whether the current legal framework is sufficiently rigorous and comprehensive to adequately sanction such behaviour and provide citizens with the protection they need.
The state is essentially meant to protect and serve the interests of its citizens. However, in many situations, it is precisely the representatives of the state, i.e. its officials, who abuse citizens in various ways. From unfair treatment to failure to fulfil obligations to harassment, these abuses undermine public confidence in the institutions that are supposed to serve them.
Since the start of the FACIAS campaign, many citizens have reacted to the FACIAS initiative and told about their experiences with state employees in various institutions.
Hospitals, some of the most abusive institutions
Romanians' messages reveal a disastrous reality: state abuses exist in almost all public institutions. Daniela, one of the citizens who responded to the FACIAS appeal, tells us that her experience with state officials has almost without exception conveyed to her an attitude of defiance towards citizens, an attitude in which state officials treat citizens with sarcasm and hostility. "What is happening in the institutions is very serious, and if people don't have the courage to speak out, nothing will change and everything will get worse", Daniela told us. Margareta tells us that there is an octopus of abuse that has taken over all state institutions, regardless of the field: "We are humiliated and abused no matter which institution we go to".
Most citizens complained that they most often felt abused in medical institutions. Whether we are talking about doctors, nurses or people who are there just to guard the institution. Citizens complain of various abuses, demands for bribes to be allowed to visit relatives, refusals to issue health cards or medical certificates, and even money demands from doctors for medical procedures.
Digitisation, an antidote to abuse?
Unfortunately, the level of abuse by state officials has now reached a critical threshold, to the point where Romanians no longer want to interact with them. But it seems that digitisation of institutions is the solution they see to reduce the abuse rate. Viorica says that interacting with ANAF officials was a dreadful experience, as she was constantly humiliated by them, but the solution was digitisation. "I have been brought to the state of crying out more than once at ANAF, with high blood pressure, on the verge of fainting, where the officials humiliated me. I was happy when ghiseul.ro appeared and I didn't have to go to the arrogant inspectors or to the town hall", said Viorica.
Entitled "It's my right", the FACIAS campaign aims to become a useful tool for any Romanian who finds their fundamental rights violated.
FACIAS Press Office