NRDO

Cristian Nuică, A legal opinion regarding the citizens’ initiative, namely the Law for revising the Romanian Constitution to redefine the family 

Abstract: The article attempts to analyze from a legal point of view the citizens’ initiative and the Law for revising the Romanian Constitution to redefine the family. The analysis takes into account the arguments in the initiators’ Explanatory Memorandum, arguments that became part of the Law for revising the Romanian Constitution in its form adopted by the Parliament. On this basis the author concludes that the initiative seams useless in several ways.

Keywords: citizens’ legislative initiative, spouses, family, revising the Constitution, case Coman, Court of Justice of the European Union

Florin Buhuceanu, How we modify the Constitution to curtail fundamental rights

Abstract: The article, written by human rights activist Florin Buhuceanu, analyzes the strategy, the public narratives and the mechanism by which populist citizens’ initiatives can lead to the modification of the Constitution and can have a negative impact on the regime of human rights in Romania. The balance between fundamental rights and freedoms is deliberately affected by the establishment of a hierarchy of rights in which religious freedom is given a superior status relative to other rights, such as family rights for same gender families or sexual and reproductive rights. A national referendum started with the support of the powerful Romanian Orthodox Church and aiming to amend in a restrictive way Article no. 48 defining family in the Romanian Constitution will lead to a situation where the LGBT community will be discriminated against in the very text of the fundamental law.

Keywords: LGBT community, Romanian Orthodox Church, referendum, populist citizens’ initiative, Romanian Constitution

Cristina Andreeacu, Does the Romanian National Strategy for Health prove that men are a vulnerable group in the area of health?

Abstract: The article first describes some of the ubiquitous data on differences in health outcomes between men and women that show men are at a marked disadvantage in this area. It next highlights some of the research that shows that social/cultural causes are partially responsible for these differences and in particular that the interaction with the health system is less favorable for men. The fact that men are a disadvantaged group in this particular area of public policy raises the question of whether they are also a vulnerable group in this area while being in a hegemonic position generally. I submit that a group is vulnerable if no measures are taken to redress a major and well-established disadvantage.

To highlight the relevance of this observation in the case of men, I analyze some of the documents relevant to health public policy in Romania and show that they make no attempt to correct the recognized disadvantage that men face. Therefore, I submit that in the particular area of health policy, Romanian men are both a disadvantaged group and a vulnerable group.

Keywords: health, vulnerable group, disadvantaged group, gender mainstreaming, men

Elena Lazăr, The protection of the domicile in labor relations in the ECHR system

Abstract: The present study wishes to analyze the contours of the concept of "domicile" in the context of the labor law from a double perspective: on the one hand that of the employee who works from home and the interferences that he can undergo taking into account the evolution of surveillance technology nowadays and, on the other hand, that of the employer who sees his business subject to risks specific to teleworking. The article leads us to the following conclusion: the conventional system deals with this subject in a superficial way, as the current case law does not make it possible to respond to the new problems posed by teleworking.

Keywords: labor, domicile, private life, surveillance, technology