Discrimination Creep, Mandate Expansion and the Politicisation of Romania’s Equality Agency

Abstract

Against the background of literature on equality bodies and bureaucratic expansion, we examine the current crisis of confidence in Romania’s anti-discrimination agency, the National Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD), a quasi-court. We argue that, through a process of conceptual creep, discrimination has been defined so generously that increasingly trivial acts are now sanctioned. This has generated increased strategic and opportunistic petitioning, with two consequences: raising the stakes of political control over the agency; and the agency’s increasingly difficult conceptual management of discrimination. We document ‘discrimination creep’ by analysing the Council’s case law on ‘discriminatory speech’, though our focus stays on the interaction of bureaucracy, expertise and activism which has enabled creep.

Acknowledgements

Gabriel Andreescu is the editor of the New Review of Human Rights (Noua revista de drepturile omului), which has a formal collaboration with the National Council for Combating Discrimination (NCCD), the subject of this article. This collaboration consists of a small annual financial sponsorship offered by the Council and the publication of NCCD decisions in the journal, often accompanied by critical commentary.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 ‘Autodenunt: trebuie sa dezbatem despre discursul instigator la ura’, ActiveWatch, 1 May 2018, available at: https://activewatch.ro/ro/antidiscriminare/reactie-rapida/autodenunt-activewatch-trebuie-sa-dezbatem-despre-discursul-instigator-la-ura/, accessed 10 September 2021.

2 ‘Council Directive 2000/43/EC of 29 June 2000 Implementing the Principle of Equal Treatment Between Persons Irrespective of Racial or Ethnic Origin’, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32000L0043, accessed 27 May 2023; ‘Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 Establishing a General Framework for Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation’, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32000L0078, accessed 27 May 2023; Government Ordinance 137/2000, updated version available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/og-nr.-137-din-2000-republicata-2014.pdf, accessed 27 May 2023.

3 Art. 23(1) of the original Government Ordinance 137/2000; document in possession of the author.

4 The reports are available at: www.cncd.ro/rapoarte/ in Romanian and, occasionally, English.

5 See NCCD (2020) for statistics.

6 Gersen and Suk (2016) provides a thorough discussion of bureaucratic work to redefine ‘force’ and ‘consent’ in the United States.

7 The NCCD maintains an online archive with almost all of its past decisions, available at: www.cncd.ro/hotarari/?_sft_anul_publicarii=2022&sort_order=date±asc, accessed 27 July 2023.

8 The NCCD Opinion of 2 June 2010 as reprinted in Andreescu (2010, p. 9).

9 The NCCD Opinion of 2 June 2010 as reprinted in Andreescu (2010, p. 9).

10 Decision 106/2021, 27 January 2021, p. 2, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-106-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

11 Decision 106/2021, 27 January 2021, p. 3, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-106-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

12 Decision 106/2021, 27 January 2021, p. 2, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-106-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

13 Decision 106/2021, 27 January 2021, p. 10, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-106-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

14 Decision 891/2020, 16 December 2020, p. 29, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/hotarare-891-2020.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

15 Article 15 of Government Ordinance 137/2000, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/og-nr.-137-din-2000-republicata-2014.pdf, accessed 27 May 2023.

16 For example, ‘The Rabat Plan of Action’, UN Human Rights Office, available at: https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/freedomopinion/articles19-20/pages/index.aspx, accessed 28 May 2023.

17 As reported by ‘Gigi Becali şi Adi de la Vâlcea, luaţi în colimator de CNCD’, Adevărul, 19 April 2006, available at: bit.ly/3oxmGgv, accessed 27 May 2023. All links to press reports were shortened and rendered permanent via the Internet Archive (http://archive.org/).

18 As reported by ‘Băsescu se consideră discriminat de CNCD în raport cu Adi de la Vâlcea’, Mediafax, 28 January 2008, available at: bit.ly/3jNGyXf, accessed 27 May 2023.

19 Decision 410/2011, 17 October 2011, p. 1, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HOTARAREA-410-2011.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

20 Decision 410/2011, 17 October 2011, p. 7, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HOTARAREA-410-2011.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

21 Decision 410/2011, 17 October 2011, p. 7, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HOTARAREA-410-2011.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

22 Decision 165/2018, 25 April 2018, p. 7, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-165-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

23 As reported by ‘Cristian Tudor Popescu, citat la CNCD’, Libertatea, 19 January 2018, available at: bit.ly/3oxoWnZ, accessed 28 May 2023.

24 Decision 51/2018, 31 January 2018, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-51-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

25 Decision 270/2021, 3 March 2021, p. 1, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-270-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

26 Decision 270/2021, 3 March 2021, p. 5, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-270-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

27 Decision 168/2018, 9 May 2018, p. 1, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-168-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

28 Decision 168/2018, 9 May 2018, p. 6, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-168-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

29 ‘Penal’, Dexonline, available at: https://dexonline.ro/definitie/penal, accessed 27 May 2023.

30 Decision 168/2018, 9 May 2018, p. 16, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-168-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

31 For the case of Central and Eastern Europe, see Krizsan (2012).

32 See, ‘National Council for Combating Discrimination’, Equinet, available at: equineteurope.org/author/romania_nccd/, accessed 28 May 2023.

33 Organisations such as the members of the Anti-Discrimination Coalition (Coaliția Anti-discriminare) have frequently complained about this, as reported by ‘APADOR-CH: Parlamentul vrea să numească pe ascuns șase membri în conducerea CNCD’, Evenimentul zilei, 24 March 2015, available at: bit.ly/3C6EVfD, accessed 28 May 2023.

34 The Coalition website is available at: www.antidiscriminare.ro, accessed 28 May 2023.

35 ‘Combaterea Hate Speech: Ghid de Bune Practici’, Coaliția anti-discriminare, 2016, available at: www.antidiscriminare.ro, accessed 10 September 2021.

36 While there have been other decisions against ROC interests (such as concerning registration and grading in religious education classes), individual high-ranking clerics have typically been exonerated for expression which, in other contexts, was deemed discriminatory. See, ‘Arhiepiscopul Teodosie nu a fost sancționat de CNCD pentru declarațiile legate de rolul femeii în biserică’, Digi24, 9 June 2021, available at: bit.ly/3zQqcTB, accessed 28 May 2023; ‘Purtătorul de cuvânt al BOR, reclamat la CNCD în urma afirmațiilor despre mamele minore’, Digi24, 7 May 2018, available at: bit.ly/43tQoBD, accessed 28 May 2023. The NCCD has also been reticent to sanction discrimination targeting the Greek Catholic Church, whose patrimonial interests are the subject of a protracted battle with the ROC (Stan & Turcescu 2007; Andreescu 2011).

37 Decision 92/2018, 26 February 2018, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Hotarare-92-2018.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

38 ‘Arhiepiscopul Teodosie nu a fost sancționat de CNCD pentru declarațiile legate de rolul femeii în biserică’, Digi24, 9 June 2021, available at: bit.ly/3zQqcTB, accessed 28 May 2023.

39 ‘Purtătorul de cuvânt al BOR, reclamat la CNCD în urma afirmațiilor despre mamele minore’, Digi24, 7 May 2018, available at: bit.ly/43tQoBD, accessed 28 May 2023.

40 Decision 394/2020, 6 May 2020, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hotarare-394-2020-1.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023. The original Facebook message was deleted immediately after being posted, but it was clipped and reposted here: bit.ly/3Kgo8LY, accessed 28 July 2023.

41 Decision 693/2020, 30 September 2020, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hotarare-693-2020-1.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

42 Decision 891/2020, 16 December 2020, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/hotarare-891-2020.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

43 Decision 229/2010, 8 September 2010, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HOTARAREA-229-2010.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

44 Decision 981/2019; on file with the authors.

45 ‘Andrei Caramitru, amendat de CNCD, în urma unui mesaj ofensator la adresa votanţilor PSD’, B1TV, 25 March 2021, available at: bit.ly/3DLPi8x, accessed 27 May 2023.

46 Decision 270/2021, 3 March 2021, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Hotarare-270-2021.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

47 Decision 33/2020, 22 January 2020, available at: https://www.cncd.ro/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Hotarare-33-2020-2.pdf, accessed 28 July 2023.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Liviu Andreescu

Liviu Andreescu, Faculty of Administration and Business, University of Bucharest, 4–12 Regina Elisabeta Ave., Sector 3, Bucharest 030018, Romania. Email: [email protected]

Gabriel Andreescu

Gabriel Andreescu, Doctoral School of Political Science, West University Timișoara, 17 Drm. Taberei, Bl. A2, Apt. 27, Bucharest, Romania. Email: [email protected]