Romania's march for women's safety: the law exists, what makes it work is missing

On Saturday, at University Square in Bucharest and in Cluj, Timișoara, Brașov, Arad, Baia Mare, Târgu Mureș, Piatra Neamț, Mizil and the village of Valea Seacă, people marched for the twelfth time with the same message: women killed by their partners or former partners are not victims of fate. In most cases, the violence was there before. It was seen, and often reported.

This year was different. A year ago, the organisers were asking Parliament to change the law so that police, prosecutors and judges would assess risk in time. Since then, the law has been adopted. This year they asked for it to start working.

What the organisers are asking for

Rețeaua VIF, which brings together organisations working directly with victims, published ten demands. They fall into four groups:

1. Risk assessment in every case. Apply the femicide law so that police, prosecutors and judges assess risk in all cases of violence against women and girls and can order protection immediately, with regular training for them and for medical staff.
2. Protection that actually protects. More effective protection orders and emergency orders, simpler procedures and a revised risk form, monitoring of perpetrators including electronic monitoring, and access to services and shelters without first requiring a criminal complaint or a protection order.
3. Data and accountability. Systematic data on violence against women, forced marriage and child marriage, and a national register of domestic violence cases accessible to courts, prosecutors and police.
4. Long-term prevention. Gender equality education in schools; legal, social and financial support for children who lose a parent to domestic violence; protection against online violence, including abuse facilitated by artificial intelligence; and mandatory, bias-free training for institutional staff.

According to the organisers, at least 30 femicides have been documented in 2026. The organisations that wrote to the Minister of Justice on 21 October count at least 97 women killed since January 2025, and say that in many cases the victims had asked for help or already had a protection order.

These figures come from civil society. Romania does not yet publish official statistics on femicide as a distinct phenomenon. That is precisely the gap the law is meant to close.

What Law no. 53/2026 provides

The Law on preventing and combating femicide and the violence that precedes it was published in Official Gazette no. 323 of 23 April 2026 and entered into force on 26 April. Its key provisions:

Definition. Femicide is the intentional killing of a woman, or a woman’s death resulting from blows or other intentional offences. The law distinguishes intimate femicide (by a family member), non-intimate femicide (by someone else in specific circumstances, such as control or domination, sexual violence or trafficking) and indirect femicide, including a woman’s suicide caused by partner or family violence. “Women” includes girls under 18.

Criminal Code. Aggravated murder (Article 189) gains three new circumstances: killing as a form of control or domination over a current or former wife or partner, whether or not they lived together; killing on grounds of gender and other discriminatory grounds; and killing because the victim refused marriage or cohabitation, divorced or left the relationship. The penalty for aggravated murder is life imprisonment or 15 to 25 years. The law also raises penalties for inciting or facilitating the suicide of a current or former partner under the perpetrator’s control and rewrites the offence of family violence (Article 199).

Inheritance and children. When someone is convicted of an offence committed with intent to kill a person they would inherit from, the criminal court can declare them unworthy to inherit in the same judgment: ex officio where this protects an heir who is a minor or lacks full legal capacity, or at the request of the civil party or injured person. Investigators must check whether a victim who died or is incapacitated has children or dependants and notify the authorities immediately.

Data and schools. Police, prosecutors and forensic institutes collect standardised data on every case from 1 October 2026, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Ministry of Justice and the forensic medicine council publish annual reports. Gender equality and non-violent relationships are integrated into existing school curricula.

The missing piece: risk assessment

Article 4 is arguably the most important provision, because it is the only one that addresses the moment when a killing can still be prevented. In domestic violence cases and cases of violence against women, judicial bodies “use specific risk assessment and management tools”. The tools are approved by Government decision, after consulting the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Institute of Sociology of the Romanian Academy, civil society and academia, and must reflect “the accumulation and interaction of vulnerability factors” affecting each victim.

Article 8 sets the deadlines:

On 6 October, the Europol police union warned that without this decision officers lack the tools they need to apply the law. Asked by Digi24 in early October, the Ministry of Justice said drafting the methodology was not its responsibility and pointed to the ministries of Education and Labour. The law does not name the institution that must initiate the decision, and that gap should not cost time.

Why a risk assessment matters so much

Femicide rarely comes out of nowhere. It is usually the end of a series of signals: death threats, strangulation attempts, access to weapons, escalating violence, obsessive jealousy, control over money and phones, and often a turning point, the woman’s decision to leave. Risk assessment tools used elsewhere in Europe are built around these signals. They do not predict the future. They make whoever receives a complaint ask the same questions every time, so that a high-risk case is not treated as “a family quarrel”.

Since December 2018, Romanian police have used a 21-question risk form when deciding whether to issue an emergency protection order. Law no. 53/2026 goes further: every judicial body, at every stage, with uniform tools and attention to each victim’s vulnerabilities.

This is a European standard, not a Romanian invention. In Kurt v. Austria (Grand Chamber, 2021), the European Court of Human Rights held that authorities must carry out an “autonomous, proactive and comprehensive” risk assessment when they receive a domestic violence complaint. In Bălșan v. Romania (2017), it found that the authorities’ passivity towards repeated violence against a woman reflected a discriminatory attitude. The tools required by Law no. 53/2026 are, in effect, Romania’s answer to those standards.

What comes next

• 26 October 2026: deadline for the Government decision on risk assessment tools.
• Annual reports by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministry of Justice will show whether the law is applied.
• 14 June 2027: deadline to transpose Directive (EU) 2024/1385 on combating violence against women and domestic violence, which requires, among other things, an individual assessment of each victim’s risk and protection needs.

Our position

Dreptul la Adevăr does not support parties or comment on political campaigns. On this question, however, there are no sides to choose: Parliament adopted the femicide law with broad support and the President promulgated it. The debate over whether the State should protect women from lethal violence is over. What remains is whether it will do so in time.

We therefore support the march’s central demand: full application of Law no. 53/2026, starting with the timely adoption of risk assessment tools, developed together with specialists and the organisations that work with victims every day. A good law that is not applied protects no one. Here, the cost of delay is not measured in paperwork, but in lives.

What you can do

• In an emergency in Romania, call 112 and ask for a risk assessment and an emergency protection order.
• The domestic violence helpline, 0800 500 333, is free, confidential and open 24/7.
• A court protection order is free to request, a lawyer is provided, and the court decides within 72 hours. Step-by-step guide.
• Anyone can ask public institutions, under Law no. 544/2001, about the status of the risk assessment decision. How to make a request.

This article provides general information based on the official text of the law and public documents available on 21 October 2026. The section “Our position” is the editorial opinion of the publication. It is not a substitute for advice from a lawyer on a specific situation. If you are in danger, call 112.