Date: 16 May 1994 11:34:25 U From: "Larry Helfer" Romania -posting problem I have been trying to post the text of an amicus brief recently filed by the International Human Rights Law Group (the Law Group) with the Romanian Constitutional Court in support of a challenge to Article 200 of the Romanian Criminal Code. Apparently the text available for messages will not accommodate the entire brief. What follows is a description of the political situation in Romania and a summary of the argument. Further inquiries can be directed to me at larry_helfer@law.uchicago.edu Article 200 is one of the last remaining statutes in Europe that imposes severe criminal sanctions for engaging in private, consensual homosexual conduct. The Law Group has urged the court to interpret the Romanian Constitution in harmony with European and international human rights precedents, and to invalidate the law as a violation of the fundamental privacy rights of lesbians and gay men. The court is expected to issue its decision later this year. At the same time, the Romanian Chamber of Deputies is considering revisions to the entire Criminal Code. Unfortunately, the proposed changes to Article 200 impose more severe sanctions than the current version of the statute and prescribe longer prison terms for homosexual conduct than are imposed for crimes involving analogous forms of heterosexual conduct. The Law Group is lobbying the Juridical Committee of the Chamber of Deputies to eliminate Article 200 from the Criminal Code in its entirety. The memorandum represents one of the first attempts to use international human rights standards to influence a domestic court on issues of concern to lesbians and gay men. I thought members of the Queer Planet network would be interested in the arguments Ali Miller and I made in the brief. We hope to post the brief to an internet bulletin board in the near future. SUMMARY OF THE ARGUMENT The International Human Rights Law Group files this legal memorandum in support of the constitutional challenge brought by Mr. Ovidiu Bozdog to Article 200 of the Romanian Criminal Code, which imposes a maximum five-year prison sentence for engaging in private, consensual homosexual conduct. Romania is the only nation among the thirty-two member States of the Council of Europe to impose criminal penalties on adults who engage in such conduct. The European Court of Human Rights has stated in no less than three separate judgments that such laws are a clear violation of the right to respect for private life enshrined in Article 8 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention), Nov. 4, 1950, 213 U.N.T.S. 222. The European Court has also suggested that States Parties are prohibited from imposing a higher age of consent for homosexual conduct as compared to heterosexual conduct, a restriction currently contained in Article 200, #166# 2. Although the Senate has passed and the Chamber of Deputies is currently debating several amendments to Article 200, these modifications contain clear violations of the right to respect for private life, the right to freedom of expression and association, and the right to non-discrimination protected by the European Convention. The International Human Rights Law Group urges this Court to interpret the Romanian Constitution in harmony with the European Convention, international human rights law, and the progressive penal policies of the member States of the Council of Europe. Accordingly, it asks this Court to strike down Article 200 as a violation of the fundamental human rights of homosexuals guaranteed by both Romanian law and European and international human rights law. By issuing such a judgment, this Court will take a crucial first step in bringing the Romanian Criminal Code in line with legal principles respected by all European democracies and will demonstrate Romania's commitment to respecting human rights and civil liberties.