26 February 2020

On 26 February 2020, Mrs Claudia-Margareta Krupenschi, Assistant-Magistrate-in-chief, Director of the President’s Office, represented the Constitutional Court at the meeting with the delegation of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a delegation composed of the Rapporteur President, Mrs Meskerem Techane, and Mrs Ivana Radačić, expert member. The visit to Romania of the foreign delegation aims to identify, promote and exchange views, through dialogue and consultation with national authorities and institutions, on good practices related to laws that have a discriminatory impact on women.

In the framework of this thematic dialogue, the representative of the Constitutional Court has summarized the specificity of the activity of the Constitutional Court and of the effects of its decisions, as well as the recent relevant case-law, namely the decisions delivered on the retirement age of women [Decision No 387 of 5 June 2018, by which the Court found that the provisions of Article 56 (1) c) first sentence of Law No 53/2003 – The Labor Code are constitutional to extent that the wording “standard age conditions” does not exclude the possibility for a woman to require to continue to execute the individual employment contract, under the same conditions as a man, i.e. until the age of 65], on the conditions for granting the protection order [Decision No 264 of 27 April 2017, by which the Court found that the wording “if they live together” from Article 5 c) of Law No 217/2003 for the prevention and fight against domestic violence is unconstitutional] and on gender equality regarding the legal possibility to obtain postponement of imprisonment or life imprisonment penalty for the parent of a child younger than one year [Decision No 535 of 24 September 2019, by which the Court found that the legislative solution in the provisions of Article 589 (1) b) first sentence second thesis of the Criminal Procedure Code, which excludes a convicted man who has a child younger than one year from the possibility to postpone the execution of imprisonment or life imprisonment penalty, is unconstitutional].

Thus, Mrs Claudia-Margareta Krupenschi pointed out that the Constitutional Court has made an important contribution to respecting the principles of equality and non-discrimination based on gender by the delivered solutions and their implementation in the national legislation.