Romania has been a member of NATO since 2004, and member of the European Union since 1 January 2007. The Constitution provides for presidential and parliamentary elections with votes for all citizens aged 18 and above, the existence of a constitutional court and other courts of justice, and a political system which is semi-presidential, parliamentary and multi-party. Trian Basescu has been President since 2004 (re-elected in 2009), and Emil Boc has been Prime Minister since 2009. The President is elected for five years with the possibility of one single re-election, and appoints the prime minister based on the parliamentary majority. Members of the Assembly and the Senate are elected by a proportional system for a term of four years. Women occupy 38 of the 334 seats in the Assembly (11.4%) and 8 of the 137 in the Senate (5.8%). Each of the recognised ethnic minorities is entitled to one seat if their political group does not reach the 5% electoral threshold required for electing a member.

Judicial power is independent by law, but judges are reported to be subject to political influence. Numerous reports accuse the police of torturing and mistreating detainees. The Roma population is the community that suffers most from the use of excessive force and violence at the hands of the police. Police impunity is a major problem.

Transparency International reports that corruption is endemic, and it has become an issue of public debate and media scrutiny. Freedom of expression and press is ensured by law, but these rights are limited by restrictions relating to "defamation of the country" and "offence to authority." Journalists are prosecuted and convicted for their articles and public statements. Violence and threats made against journalists have fallen in number, but cases of intimidation continue to be reported. Access to government information is possible, but can be difficult to obtain. Internet access is not restricted.
Human trafficking is another major problem. The border police are said to facilitate human trafficking, and the consequent exploitation is believed to cover slavery, forced labour, prostitution, pornography, and theft of human body organs. Romania is a point of origin and transit for the trafficking of women and girls. Many young women and girls are sold and forced into marriage.

Discrimination directed at homosexuals and lesbians is commonplace in the education and healthcare systems. Young homosexuals are sometimes committed to psychiatric hospitals by their parents. Acts of anti-Semitism are still being recorded, and anti-Semitism is expressed on private television stations.

People affected by HIV/AIDS suffer from prejudice and discrimination. They are denied access to medical care, suffer from delays in the provision of subsidised food and social welfare allowances, and confidentiality is breached. Of the 7244 people receiving retrovirus treatment in 2009, 49% were male and 51% female , which shows the tendency of feminisation of the AIDS epidemic in Turkey.

Enrolment in public education is free, and education is compulsory until age 14. In upper secondary schools, books have to be paid for, which is beyond the reach of low-income families, particularly Roma. Most children complete secondary education, but the challenge facing educators is how to improve the quality and relevance of education. The school enrolment rate for Roma children is lower at all education levels and many schools are segregated. Regulations discourage segregation, but they are not binding. Schools have medical units which provide first aid and run vaccination and dental care campaigns. Curricula for all subjects and levels are being reformed and new text books are being introduced. Changes have also been made to the assessment and examination systems. The funding system is being modified so as to "modernise and diversify the financing of education through decentralisation of administration and management." This has resulted in some aspects of funding being transferred to local areas, where they are passed on to families who cannot afford the additional expense.

UNICEF reports that some 5,000 children are abandoned in maternity hospitals. Thousands of children are confined in special institutions. Living conditions in these institutions have improved in recent years, including the centres for children with severe disabilities, which was the last group to be included in the reform process. Despite the improvements, the new child welfare law condemns many children to long periods of confinement in these institutions.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 children are estimated to be living on the streets. A start is being made to create community social services that provide assistance to the children who are the most in need. There has been progress made on the maintenance of cultural memory, for example, on the history of the Holocaust. The course is optional, and plans to make it compulsory in all state secondary schools have yet to be implemented. Officially-recognised religions have the right to establish schools. The media report cases of Romanian Orthodox clergy who put pressure on non-Orthodox schoolchildren to attend religious classes. Only officially-recognised religions are permitted to teach religion in state schools.

A 4-year programme begins at age 3. At this level, 1% of education is private. The Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) is 73%. All 34,307 ECE teachers are women. The PTR is 18: 1.

Education is compulsory between the ages of 7 and 14. Primary education begins at age 7 and lasts for 4 years. The NER is 91% (48% girls). 95% of pupils enrolled in the first-year course stay on to the last year of Primary Education. 2% of pupils have to repeat a course year. There are 56,635 primary teachers (87% women). The PTR is 16: 1

Secondary education begins at age 11 and lasts for 8 years. At this level, 1% of education is private. 64% of secondary pupils study technical training programs. The NER is 81%. 2% of pupils have to repeat a course year. There are 164,613 secondary teachers, 97,562 (68% women) in lower secondary, and 67,051 (63% women) in upper. The PTR is 12: 1 in lower secondary and 15: 1 in upper.

1,098,188 students (56% female) are studying at tertiary institutions, giving a Gross Enrolment Ratio of 67%. At this level, 22% of education is private. 9,730 foreign students are studying in Romania, the majority from Central and East Europe (5,863), North America and West Europe (2,143), Arab States (916), Asia (488), Sub-Saharan Africa (224) and Latin America and the Caribbean (34). Meanwhile, 20,680 Romanian students are studying abroad, for instance in the USA (1,822), Germany (1,192), France (849), the UK (799) and Saudi Arabia (370).

The law prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, but it is not enforced. Around 70,000 children have some type of disability, and 15,000 of them are kept in public institutions. Amnesty International reports that the overcrowded conditions and treatment of patients in psychiatric hospitals and institutions is a violation of international human rights regulations. Remedial schools do not admit children with mental disabilities. Reports also mention a lack of job opportunities for persons with disabilities. According to the Education for All 2010 Monitoring Report, the school enrolment rate for children who have some type of disability is only 58%.

The law provides for the granting of asylum or refugee status in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the government has set up a system of protection for refugees. The government cooperates with the UNHCR in providing assistance for refugees and asylum-seekers. Schools and community centres are being used for housing until the reconstruction of the areas affected by floods in recent years is completed.

Hungarians constitute the largest minority group in Romania. There are also approximately 60,000 Ukrainians, 60,000 Germans, and smaller numbers of other minorities. Pupils also receive extra-curricular lessons in Hungarian, and scholarships to travel to places where they can study in Hungarian.
The European Commission estimates the Roma population at 1.8 to 2.5 million. Amnesty International reports racially-motivated violence by the police and individuals targeting the Roma population. The Roma NGO Impreuna reports that 35% of the Roma population fail to complete primary school and 60% are unemployed. Roma children are segregated from the rest of the children in some schools, and in other cases are excluded from education due to a lack of identity documents. Some 14,000 Roma were murdered in Romania during the Second World War.

In January 2011, the nine judges of the Supreme Court of Romania rejected an opposition proposal claiming that the government acted unconstitutionally when passing the new education law. The law reforming the education system and granting more linguistic rights to minorities was passed at the end of 2010, after Prime Minister Emil Boc's centre-right government "took the responsibility" before Parliament. "Taking the responsibility" for a draft bill in Romania means that it can be passed without being subject to voting by members of parliament. This is a short-cut used by governments to pass key laws without waiting for legislative procedures, and can only be overturned by a vote of no confidence. As the Opposition did not present a no-confidence motion against the education law, the law was enacted. It allows pupils belonging to ethnic minority groups to learn history and geography in their native-language and to learn Romanian as a foreign language. The new law was strongly supported by the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania; the Hungarian community had long demanded greater rights in education and other areas.

In March 2010, the European Court of Human Rights stated that the segregation of Roma children into separate classrooms is illegal discrimination that violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

Universities, like all other institutions in Romania, have undergone major changes in the last decade with the introduction of private universities and market influences. Restrictions or violations of academic freedom are linked to social unrest caused by the economic crisis.

The law prohibits gender discrimination and sexual harassment, but in practice discrimination exists, and very little funding is made available for raising awareness. Men and women have equal rights in property and family law. However, the unemployment rate is higher amongst women, and women occupy fewer positions of influence than men both in the public and private sectors. The average wage is 18% lower for women than for men.

Although domestic violence is commonplace, it is illegal, and the police are therefore authorised to intervene. A survey carried out in Bucharest in 2009 by the Centre for Urban and Regional Sociology revealed that more than 21% of women have been victims of assault at the hands of their partners or ex-partners. The study showed that 55% of the women victims of domestic violence continue to live with their partners, the main reason being the lack of available support and shelter, and the fact that many women see domestic abuse as "a normal problem" (the justification given by 26% of women who remain in abusive relationships). In 2003 the Romanian Parliament passed a law to combat domestic violence, but the National Coalition of NGOs involved in programmes against domestic violence are now calling for the law to be modified in several aspects.

Although the minimum age for employment is 16, children may work from the age of 15 with the consent of parents or guardians. Between the ages of 15 and 18 they cannot work more than 6 hours per day, and can only work provided that it does not interfere with school attendance. Employers are required to help working minors to continue with their education, but many children give up school while working. Minors are not allowed to work in hazardous conditions. Most cases of child labour exploitation occur in factories. Schools must notify social services if children miss classes, and social services must support their reintegration into the education system. Over 3,000 children live on the streets. In Roma communities, children as young as five work as beggars or in other street activities. Trafficking of girls for purposes of sexual exploitation is a major problem. A new law provides assistance for two years to young people leaving the social services institutions, which is a time when they are likely to need to develop skills for independent living, although fewer than 1,000 young people have actually made use of this programme.

Workers have the right to form and join trade unions, with the exception of Ministry of Defence and intelligence personnel. 55% of the active population is unionised. The law recognises the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike. Unions report government interference in labour negotiations, and government influence in some sectors hinders collective bargaining. Around 80% of the total workforce is covered by collective agreements negotiated by the unions. Public employee wage levels are linked to the minimum wage. Pay scales in each ministry are based on the ministry's annual budget. Reports reveal the existence of forced or compulsory labour.

Conditions and labour costs are regulated by the 2003 Labour Code and its subsequent modifications. Contracts may be indefinite or temporary, for a maximum period of 2 years and a maximum of two consecutive contracts.

Wages are set by free bargaining procedures. Compensation for overtime hours is provided by allowing the employee the same number of hours off within the following 30 days; where it is not possible to do this, the hours are paid as determined in the collective agreement or, where appropriate, in the individual work contract. However, the payment cannot be less than 75% of the basic wage. The minimum wage is determined each year by the government. In 2010, the gross average monthly salary was estimated to be 1836 Lei, (445 Euro). The working week is 40 hours (normally five 8-hour days). The maximum working-week, including overtime, cannot be more than 48 hours calculated as an average over the month. The minimum holiday period granted per year is 20 working days. Maternity leave is for up to 2 years, and paid from a state-run fund; for sickness, the first 10 days are paid by the company and the rest is paid by state funds.

In the spring of 2009, Romania received 20 billion euros in aid from the IMF and the European Union to help overcome the economic crisis. One year later, those institutions were of the opinion that the country had avoided the worst-case scenario, even though the required structural reforms had still not been made. In response to the criticism, in May 2010 the government announced draconian measures, including 25% wage cuts for public service employees and a 15% cut in unemployment benefit. The austerity measures are going to hit a population already badly shaken by inflation, a decline in industrial production and increased unemployment.

State of World Population 2010. "From Conflict and Crisis to Renewal: Generations of Change" UNFPA, November 2010, www.unfpa.org (Spanish)

In the Transparency International 2010 Corruption Perception Index, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as the highest degree of transparency, Romania was 69th out of 178 countries, with 3.7 points, www.transparency.org

2010 Global Report UNAIDS, www.unaids.org

2010 Report, Education for All, UNESCO, www.unesco.org