An empirical analysis of Romania's compliance with its civil and political rights obligations after the 1990s

Although Romania is now an active member of regional and universal human rights protection systems, this role cannot be taken for granted. Just less than four decades ago, the notion of human rights was not known to the majority of the population, who were unfortunate to live under a dictatorship. Despite this difficult starting point, Romania later joined the European Union and the Council of Europe, two organisations that value human rights and democracy, and ratified numerous relevant treaties. In this context, this article examines the empirical data available to demonstrate that Romania indeed managed to comply with its obligations regarding civil and political rights. The main scientific contribution of this research is to provide a methodological framework to assess such progress (or lack thereof). Thus, this author suggests a set of universally applicable variables to examine related data for other states.