Group Spotlights Romania's 'Institutionalized Discrimination' Toward Religious Minorities
by Allie Martin
January 12, 2007
(AgapePress) - - A religious watchdog group in Washington, DC, is calling on the European Union to investigate new laws on religion passed recently in the eastern European nation of Romania. One of the new laws, says the Institute on Religion and Public Policy, means the country now has the most restrictive religious registration system in Europe. According to the U.S. State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2006, the government of Romania continues to differentiate between recognized and unrecognized religions. In addition, registration as well as recognition requirements continue to pose obstacles to minority religions. All that despite the fact the nation's constitution provides for freedom of religion.
One of the laws instituted recently in Romania establishes a series of qualifying standards which have to be met in order to obtain preferential status from the government. For example, to obtain preferential status, membership in a religious group must comprise 0.1 percent of the population of the entire country. The Institute on Religion and Public Policy accuses the Romanian government of violating internationally recognized human rights with the law.
"In light of the population of the country, a group must consist of approximately 23,000 members in order to be eligible for registration," explains Institute founder and president Joseph Grieboski. "These types of preferential statuses and membership requirements make it very, very difficult for smaller religious communities to be able to register within Romania."
Obviously, says Grieboski, while the law makes it difficult for any religious community to attain preferential status, it makes it even more so for those whose very structure lends itself to smallness.
"[I]f we're looking particularly at Evangelicals and Baptists who have a very 'congregational' approach to ecclesiology, [or] if you establish your religious community around an individual church [or] parish ... rather than a larger conference or a larger diocesean model the way the Orthodox or the Catholics do, then you've got a real problem in Romania under this legislation," he says.
Grieboski says the Romanian Parliament should not be permitted to enjoy benefits of EU membership if it insists on flouting basic standards established by the European Union regarding human rights. He is calling on the EU to take action to safeguard human rights and religious freedom in Romania.
In addition to Romania's restrictive registration and recognition requirements, last year's International Religious Freedom Report from the State Department made note of other religious issues in the country that borders the western shore of the Black Sea. Among those were complaints from minority religions of lengthy delays in being granted construction permits, and actions by local authorities and Orthodox priests that prevented religious activities from taking place even when the groups had been issued permits.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
