FACIAS calls on the authorities to respect all fundamental human rights during the "state of alert" as regulated by law.
The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) calls on the authorities to respect all the rights of citizens during the state of emergency, as guaranteed by the text of the law that regulates it (Law no. 15/2005 approving Government Emergency Ordinance no. 21/2004 on the National Emergency Management System).
FACIAS also draws attention to the fact that the legal basis governing the state of alert, under which Romania will enter in mid-May, was established for completely different reasons and may create dysfunctions in the fight against COVID-19.
Thus, the state of alert, regulated in GEO 21/2004, was established "in view of the proliferation of terrorist attacks worldwide".
FACIAS notes that, according to GEO 21/2004, coordination, planning and monitoring in the event of special emergency situations is the responsibility of the Deputy Prime Minister for National Security, in his capacity as Chairman of the National Committee for Special Emergency Situations.
"Looking at the foreword as well as the text of GEO 21/2004 regulating the state of alert, I believe that this is not the happiest choice the authorities have made. I would like to draw attention to the fact that the law regulating the state of alert was passed in the context of 'the proliferation of terrorist attacks worldwide', as stated in the explanatory memorandum of GEO 21/2004, and for this reason I believe that the measures that can be taken to counter the COVID-19 epidemic are not regulated by this law. Among the measures that can be taken is evacuation, which is regulated in the GEO.
The ordinance also provides for the establishment of a multitude of committees at national, ministerial, county, municipal and Bucharest level, some of which will have to be set up, some of which will have to be reorganised, or which will have to take over the tasks of the institutions that acted during the state of emergency, thus creating dysfunctions. Some of these committees, commissions that are in the Emergency Ordinance have not been set up, and there is also mention in the Emergency Ordinance of a National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, which we have not yet seen drafted or updated.
Finally, I would point out that the state of alert has a fundamental principle, respect for people's fundamental rights and freedoms, which the authorities must strictly observe.
There are other inadequacies of GEO 21/2004 that we will be analysing in the coming days", explained Toni Greblă, expert and development director of FACIAS.
The state of emergency is to be decreed by the Prime Minister and not by President Klaus Iohannis, as in the case of a state of emergency.
The full text of EMERGENCY ORDINANCE No 21 of 15 April 2004 on the National Emergency Management System can be found here.