Romania

2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway + 2015: Present at the First International Conference on the SSD in Oslo.

Meeting with Geneva mission in July and early November. Romania engaged on the SSD process rather late so, while they support the initiative in principle, they needed to assess all implications of endorsing and there was just not enough time before Oslo to do that. Challenge was to convince capital of the relevance of the initiative and that it justifies having inter-ministerial discussions. Kerstin Holst will followed up with Romania in UNESCO context. Follow-up meeting in Geneva in March 2016 ahead of the WHS.

April 2016: Geneva will try to put the issue on the MoFA’s agenda within the context of the WHS;

February 2017: HRW made a submission to the CRC on Romania, in which they called for endorsement of the Declaration and implementation of the Guidelines. Bede and Gisela met with the Ambassador in GVA. He noted that Romania has a new foreign minister, so both a good time to raise again, but also, busy with a lot of issues. Was interested in link to the SDGs. Said that children’s issues are important to Romania (basically, to make up for its orphanages legacy during Communism). Romania is also soon to appear before the Committee on the Rights of the Child. May 2017: Romania announced their endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration during May.

June 2017: Human Rights Watch issued a letter to the Child Rights Committee, highlighting Romania’s endorsement of the Declaration in the margins of their review by the CRC.

September 2017: GCPEA sent a letter to the ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue on attacks and military use, draw attention to the Declaration and the Guidelines during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict. We also congratulate with them on endorsing since the last debate and asked them to highilit it.

February 2018:In advance of the End Violence Solutions Summit in Stockholm on 14-15 February, GCPEA issued letter to Romania, calling on them to highlight the Declaration during the summit.

July 2018: Joined Argentina’s joint statement to the UN SC during the open debate on children and armed conflict.

Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018).Mentioned and welcomed the Safe Schools Declaration during the statement to the SC.

November 2018: Core Group meeting: Spain conference: Romania advised bilaterally that they may be in a position to conduct advocacy to the Eastern European Group members, particularly the EU members. They also expressed a willingness to host an activity as part of their EU Presidency from Jan-June 2019.

March 2019: Co-hosted GCPEA side-event “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva. In addition to a call for endorsement and attendance at the conference, the Ambassador of Romania encouraged gender-sensitive implementation of the Declaration and referred to Education Under Attack 2018 data.

March 2019: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

May 2019: Participated in the Third International Conference in Palma.

May 2019: during the UN Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict referred to the Safe Schools Declaration.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

July 2022: At the UNSC CAAC debate : – In line with UNSCR2601 and as a supporter of the Safe Schools Declaration, Romania has taken steps to facilitate safe access to education

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.

November 2022: On 29 November, Apolline and Nevena met with Maria Mihailescu, Minister Counsellor, from the PM in Geneva (recently elected at the HRC for 2023). She was not familiar with the SSD so we provided a full brief on our work. She was interested to hear more about Latvia, Lithuania and Hungary and why they have not endorsed as well as the situation in Ukraine. We encouraged her to engage the Ministry of Defense on they can incorporate the Guidelines into its military doctrines and encouraged Romania to nominate representatives from MFA, MoD, MoE and MoJ to participate in implementation network. We also discussed priorities for the Human Rights Council, and how we can work together on relevant resolutions.