Despite appeals from human rights groups (see prior posting), on December 27 Romania's President Traian Basescu approved a Religion Law that was passed hurriedly by Parliament. Forum18 yesterday reported that challenges to the law are planned in the Constitutional Court and possibly in the European Court of Human Rights. The new law bans "religious defamation" and "public offence to religious symbols," provisions that might be used to silence minority religions. Activists are also concerned about provisions in the law that impose long waiting periods for recognition and give different levels of legal recognition for religious communities depending in part on the number of members in the community.
UPDATE: The Romanian civil rights group, Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience, plans to go to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge Romania’s new Religion Law. On Friday Playfuls.com reported that critics claim this provision is broad enough to cover rock songs or works of Western literature and philosophy such as Nietzsche’s, The Antichrist. Meanwhile the Catholic Church in Romania says that the new law “is still perfectable”. (Mediafax).
