HOW TO COPE WITH COUNTER-PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. THE CASE OF FREEDOM OF RELIGION OR BELIEF DURING THE PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

The Covid-19 pandemic crisis serves as a genuine natural experiment for societies worldwide, as the health-related crisis allowed governments to implement extreme measures that impacted people’s rights and freedoms, challenging the boundaries of democracy and rule of law. In the context of religious life, Romania was pointed by the OSCE as being one of the countries that have opted for the harshest measures to restrict religious life since the beginning of the pandemic. In this paper we present a case study of Romania’s restrictions imposed on religious life during the Covid-19 crisis, using secondary data analysis stemming from the UN, the OSCE, the Court of Appeal of Bucharest etc., as a framework to objectively analyze how the government should act regarding religious life, by enforcing the principles enshrined by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Art. no. 18. Our main findings suggest that, in Romania, during the pandemic, the restrictions imposed on religious life were politically bargained by the government rather than being mediated through national law and international standards and commitments on Freedom of Religion or Belief and based on the democratic principles of the rule of law. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences is the property of Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)