**************************************************************
The material posted here was provided to the Division for the 
Advancement of Women by the Government in response to a note 
verbale. It is being made available in electronic format in
the form received. In cases where it was not possible at this 
time to reproduce charts and tables supplied, these can be 
obtained by contacting the Division for the Advancement of 
Women directly.
**************************************************************

                         ROMANIA

NATIONAL PLAN FOR ACTION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE MAIN OBJECTIVES PROVIDED FOR BY THE FINAL DOCUMENTS
OF THE BEIJING FOURTH CONFERENCE ON WOMEN

The National Plan for Action (NPA) has the role to promote a
policy which aims at enforcing and guaranteeing the equality
among all citizens - as laid down in the Romanian Constitution
(art. 4 par. 2) - emphasising the attachment and the permanent
efforts of the Romanian Government with a view to improving the
status of women in society, and promoting the equality between
women and men.

The National Plan for Action starts from the finding that,
within the context of the realities generated by the transition
to the market economy, there are still some differences between
women' s and men' s role, and in the relationship set between
them as social partners.

The National Plan for Action embodies the main objectives which
the Romanian Government has proposed with a view to
implementing the provisions of the final documents of the
Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September
1995.

A. The creation and development of the institutional
machineries which are to co-ordinate the policies for the
advancement of women.

B. The promotion of an equitable deployment of women in public
and decision-making jobs.

C. The improvement of the economic situation of women, the
achievement of an equal access to the labour market and to
adequate working conditions, to the control and utilisation of
economic resources.

D. The improvement of women' s state of health.

E. The prevention and mitigation of the violent manifestations
against women and children.

F. The promotion of women' s participation in the protection of
the national ecosystems and the fight against environment
degradation.

G. The integration of the principle of equality between women
and men in all the fields of the social, cultural and
educational life, and the role of mass-media in this context.

The Romanian Government strongly believes that, in order to
implement the provisions of this document, the co-operation
between the social partners is essential .

A. The setting-up and development of the institutional
machineries to
co-ordinate the policies for the advancement of women

* Fully respecting the social fundamental values of the state
of law;

* With a view to implementing a coherent strategy in line with
the role of women in maintaining and promoting the values of
tolerance and human soJidarity; . 
* According to the provisions of the art. 203 (b) from the
Beijing Platform for Action, in October 1995 it was adopted the
Government Decision no. 448 setting up a specific structure, at
the national level, responsible with the promotion and
enforcement of women' s rights. This new created structure
works within the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection,
under the co-ordination of a Lady Secretary of State and has
the following attributions:

a) to make analysis and studies concerning the status of women
in society, to propose solutions for the elimination of the
found negative aspects;

b) to develop family policies and to submit those policies to
the competent bodies for their approval;

c) to propose measures for the improvement of the legislation
in this area and to follow-up its implementation; 

d) to pursue the non-discriminatory access of women to the
labour market as well as the improvement of the conditions in
which she performs her activity.

The completion of these objectives is achieved in co-operation
with the concerned governmental and non-governmental
institutions. The governmental Plan for Action sets the
following short and medium-term priorities:

* to monitor the legislation in force and the draft laws and
legislative proposals submitted to the Parliament, with a view
to identifying eventual discriminatory provisions concerning
the equality between sexes and to formulating proposals for
their abolishment and alteration; 

* to forward proposals for the elaboration of some draft
regulations which are to achieve a positive discrimination,
when required by the social reality;

* to approximate the national legislation with the
international instruments in the field of human rights, with a
view to integrating Romania in the European legal area;

* to reduce the gap between the legislative provisions in the
field of women' s rights and the effective exercise of these
rights;

* to work out programmes for the non-discriminatory education
within the family and in schools,

* to promote educational patterns based upon the gender
partnership; 

* to work out the curricula in favour of a non-violent
behaviour, and of the prevention of conflict situations and
violent manifestations in the family;

*. to achieve studies and researches, in co-operation with the
concerned institutions and non-governmental organisations,
regarding the unemployment of women, the rate of employment and
their labour regime, the inside family violence, the social
protection of women and young persons in general;

* to work out special programmes of support for those
categories of women having a high degree of social and
community isolation and marginalization: older women, single
women, women from rural areas, women belonging to minorities;

* to create a data-bank including information and indicators of
the situation and dynamics of this phenomenon;

* to make contacts and to improve the co-operation with the
concerned institutions and organisations existing at the
national and international level.

B. Promotion of an equitable placement of women in public
and decision-making positions

In Romania, the legal provisions stipulate the equality in
rights for all the citizens, the right to elect and to be
elected in the management bodies and guarantee the right of
citizens to engage themselves in any occupation taking into
account their training (the Romanian Constitution, art. 16, 20,
30 and 34 and the Labour Code, art. 14). Recently, on the
occasion of the local elections, a number of 2,611 women were
elected in the county, municipal, city and communal councils.

          NUMBER OF WOMEN: ELECTED IN LOCAL ELECTIONS
               (May 1996)

Position          Total               Out of which women (%)

Mayors               2.954               2,74

Local counsellors   39.831               6,11

County counsellors   1.718               5,47


     Although women have a significant share in the total
active population, their access and participation in the
elaboration and implementation of the social and economic
development policies and in the decision-making process have a
lower relevance.

WORKING POPULATION (WOMEN), BY OCCUPATIONAL CATEGORIES
YEAR                 1992              1996(1st quarter)
Occupational    |    1/       | 2/   ||   1/      |  2/ |
category        |             |      ||           |     |
---------------------------------------------------------
* Total 
working             4,313,579   44,9    4,333,422  43,8
women, out of 
which:
----------------------------------------------------------
* Members of           43,235   26,6       75,156  24,5
the legislative
and executive
bodies, senior
civil servants,
heads and senior
officers from the
social-economic
and political units
----------------------------------------------------------
* Civil servants       333,701  70,8       313,153  75,8
----------------------------------------------------------
1/ Number of Women
2/ Share in total working population (%)
Taking into account the fact that the recognition of women' s
role is essential for the creation of a favourable political
opinion for the equality between women and men and for the
enforcement of human rights, the Romanian Government has
proposed to take action in the following directions:

a) the involvement of a greater number of women in the
political life; b) the increase of women' s participation in
the management structures of the political parties at the
central and local level; c) the increase of the number of women
included in the electoral lists for the positions allowing them
to be elected; d) the promotion of a great number of women in
the managerial positions of the public authorities

In order to achieve these objectives, the following ways of
action have been taken into account:

     the setting up of governmental and non-governmental
structures, of a national nature, which are to implement the
principle of equality of rights between women and men the
implementation of those programmes involving women in the civil
society dynamics;

- the promotion of women in the management bodies of the
governmental institutions and local public services;

- the initiation and development of training and retraining
programmes for women as regards the decision-making process and
the management-related forms and machineries;

- to adopt measures for the exploration of the labour market
with a view to achieving a better correlation between demand
and training and retraining programmes, in order to diminish
faster the unemployment of women and to improve their mobility
and professional reinsertion; 

- to promote educational, training and counselling programmes
for the unemployed women, for those who start again their work,
for the young graduates, and for the women living in the rural
areas;

- to provide a stimulating unemployment benefit for those
unemployed changing their residence in the rural area for good;


-. to stimulate the entrepreneur women from the small and
medium sized enterprises, by facilitating their access to
alternative capital resources and to advantageous banking
loans;

- to support the farmer women by means of special counselling
programmes, providing economic and financial facilities for the
purpose of stimulating their participation in the rural area
development, including by the introduction of the peasant
households in the rural tourism networks.

2. The Romanian Constitution (art. 38 par. 4) and the Labour
Code (art. 151 par. 1) provide that women shall receive an
equal pay with men for equal work. The employment of women
especially in economic branches with lower wages, their
irrelevant participation in the management positions as well as
the absence of an efficient control as regards the observance
of the pay scale within the part time work system, determine
the achievement of an average wage income lower than the one
earned by men.

Therefore, a re-evaluation and a readjustment of the
legislation and of the wage grills are necessary in order to
eliminate the income differences. In this context, the Romanian
Government has proposed:

- to make some specific analyses concerning the earnings, which
will underlie the development of some integrated wage policies
at the national level;

- to re-examine and determine the economic and social
signification of the work performed in predominant feminine
fields of activity.

3. The vulnerability of certain categories of women, such as
the unemployed women, the women from rural areas, the women as
single bread-winner raising children and/or adults, as well as
the older women receiving a lower pension, requires the
adoption of certain measures enabling them an increased social
protection. In this context, the Romanian Government has
proposed:

- to create a system of fiscal incentives, reductions of
tariffs and granting of free-of-charqe services for the
vulnerable categories of women and poor families;

- the organisation of meetings, round tables and conferences
for the purpose of making the political leaders, the public
opinion in general, sensitive as regards the role that women
could take in the decision-making process;

- The achievement of studies underling the adoption of positive
measures in the field of women' s political participation, in
co-operation with governmental and non-governmental structures,
institutions and research centres, and mass-media.

C. Improvement of the economic condition of women,
implementation of the equal access to the labour market

An important indicator of the analysis of woman' s social
condition is represented by her concrete situation in the
labour market, her degree of integration in the production and
decision-making structures and the conciliation of her family
and professional responsibilities.

1. As in other countries in transition to the market economy,
the unemployment covers a significant percentage of the active
population, having negative consequences on the condition and
development of each individual, but also on the society as a
whole and affects with priority and in specific forms the
employment of women.

The evolution of the labour supply and demand indicates for
1996 a significant decrease of the unemployment rate (from 8.8%
at the end of 1995 to 7.5% in June 1996). Although the
intensity of the unemployment of women ranges within the
general decreasing trends (from 10.3% at the end of 1995 to
8.4% in June 1996), we can see, however, a slower absorption of
the unemployed women in the labour market and we can speak,
further on. about the "feminization" of the unemployment.

The improvement of women condition, by achieving equal
opportunities and equal access to the labour market and her
economic independence, depends on the way the legislation, the
policies and the programmes in this field are worked out, in
accordance with the economic and social realities and in
keeping with the main trends of the Romanian society
development.

The specific strategic objectives in these fields are the
following ones:

- to identify the discriminatory legal provisions and to
monitor the dimension of the equality between women and men at
the level of the labour and social security legislation, by
means of a permanent dialogue with all the social partners;

- to stimulate the economic agents in order to create new jobs,
especially for young persons and single women raising minor
children;

- to adopt measures for the exploration of the labour market
with a view to achieving a better correlation between demand
and training and retraining programmes, in order to diminish
faster the unemployment of women and to improve their mobility
and professional reinsertion;

-. to promote educational, training and counselling programmes
for the unemployed women, for those who start again their work,
for the young graduates, and for the women living in the rural
areas;

- to provide a stimulating unemployment benefit for those
unemployed changing their residence in the rural area for good;

- to stimulate the entrepreneur women from the small and medium
sized enterprises, by facilitating their access to alternative
capital resources and to advantageous banking loans;

- to support the farmer women by means of special counselling
programmes, providing economic and financial facilities for the
purpose of stimulating their participation in the rural area
development, including by the introduction of the peasant
households in the rural tourism networks.

2. The Romanian Constitution (art. 38 par. 4) and the Labour
Code (art. 151 par. 1) provide that women shall receive an
equal pay with men for equal work. The employment of women
especially in economic branches with lower wages, their
irrelevant participation in the management positions as well as
the absence of an efficient control as regards the observance
of the pay scale within the part time work system, determine
the achievement of an average wage income lower than the one
earned by men.

Th