Romania

Current situation & recent developments

Feedback from organisations

From the answer to EBCO’s Questionnaire received from the People’s Advocate of Romania (the National Human Rights Institution):

Suspension and conditions for re-imposition of conscription: Conscription is not currently imposed. According to the provisions in Art.2 Para.1 of Law No. 395/2005 “regarding the peacetime suspension of obligatory military service and the transition to voluntary military service”, together with subsequent amendments and additions, with effect from 1st January 2007 the execution of compulsory service as a conscripted soldier for full-term or short-term conscription is suspended, but according to the provisions of Article 3, during the state of war, a state of mobilisation, or a state of siege, the execution of military service becomes mandatory, in which case the recruitment and incorporation of male citizens aged between 20 and 35 years becomes compulsory.

According to the provisions of Law No. 446/2006 “on the preparation of the population for defence”, with subsequent amendments and additions, citizens who, for reasons of religion or conscience, refuse to perform military service under arms perform the alternative service.

In addition, according to Article 6 of the said normative act, the following do not perform military service and are removed from the category of citizens who can be incorporated:

• those classified as unfit for military service, who are removed from the record according to medical criteria.
• ordained personnel belonging to religious cults recognised by law, personnel officially recognised as servants of such a cult, as well as monks who have been in the monastery for at least two years.
• persons sentenced to custodial sentences, for the duration of the sentence, as well as those remanded in custody or sent to court, until the date of finality of the judgement by which the criminal case is resolved.

Voluntary military service: Voluntary military service in Romania is regulated by:

• Law No. 80/1995, with subsequent amendments and additions
• Law No. 384/2006 “regarding the status of soldiers and enlisted ranks”, with subsequent amendments and additions
• Law No. 270/2015 (republished) “regarding the status of voluntary reservists”.

There are no mandatory initial periods prior to the performance of military service according to the provisions of the above laws. [The reply does not specify whether there is a minimum duration of the service itself]

Secondary education: The secondary education curriculum does not contain any form of introduction to the armed forces. In all three high school education categories, theoretical, vocational, and technical, with the exception of the military profile within vocational education, there are no preparatory programmes for military recruitment.

Military recruitment: In Romania, recruitment for military service is done on a voluntary basis and takes place annually. The number of citizens recruited in recent years is not information of public interest defined as such by Law 544/2001, namely “any information that concerns the activities or results from the activities of a public authority or a public institution, regardless of the form or way of expressing the information”.

Serving members of the armed forces: According to Article 29 of the Constitution, the freedom of thought and opinion, as well as the freedom of religious beliefs, cannot be restricted in any way. No one can be forced to adopt an opinion or adhere to a religious belief contrary to their convictions. Freedom of conscience is guaranteed; it must manifest itself in a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect.

Under these conditions, we consider that if a member of the armed forces develops conscientious objections and thus requests his release from service, this situation would be resolved by applying Article 85 of Law No. 80 of July 11th 1995 “on the status of military personnel”:

“Transfer to the reserve or directly to retirement of military personnel can be done by …
g) on request, for well founded reasons
h) by resignation.”