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Romania LAW AND ORDER
The PCR and the Ceausescu regime placed a far greater
emphasis
on order than on the rule of law. The Constitution of 1965
was
superficially similar to the constitutions of Western
democracies,
but a tremendous gap existed between the rights stipulated
in it
and the human rights and civil liberties respected by the
party and
state. As a result, Romania earned the reputation as being
the most
repressive state in Eastern Europe. Although abuses were
perpetrated by the Ministry of Interior and its Department
of State
Security, the Ministry of Justice and the judicial system
were
either unable or unwilling to prevent them.
The 1965 Constitution theoretically guaranteed equal
rights for
all citizens regardless of ethnic origin or religious
belief
(Article 17); freedom of association (Article 27); freedom
of
speech (Article 28); freedom of conscience and religious
belief
(Article 30); as well as the inviolability of the person
(Article
31), the domicile (Article 32), and correspondence and
communications (Article 33). However, the Constitution
also
stipulated that no citizen may exercise these rights when
they
conflict with the "socialist order" or serve aims "hostile
to the
interests of the Romanian working people." Because the PCR
alone
defined the interests of the working people, no Romanian
was able
to exercise his or her rights to challenge the rule of the
PCR and
Ceausescu. The rights of the citizenry were not
inalienable; they
were given by the party and as such could be taken away.
Data as of July 1989
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