Article 200

Article 200 (Articolul 200 in Romanian) was a section of the Penal Code of Romania that criminalised homosexual relationships. It was introduced in 1968, under the communist regime, during the rule Nicolae Ceauşescu, and remained in force until it was repealed by the Năstase government on 22 June 2001. Under pressure from the Council of Europe, it had been amended on 14 November 1996, when homosexual sex in private between two consenting adults was decriminalised. However, the amended Article 200 continued to criminalise same-sex relationships if they were displayed publicly or caused a "public scandal". It also continued to ban the promotion of homosexual activities, as well as the formation of gay-centred organisations (including LGBT rights organisations). Until it was repealed completely in 2001, the article was seen as the last Romanian law that discriminated against gays.

Until November 1996, Article 200 stated that:

In 1995, a local court in Sibiu asked the Constitutional Court of Romania whether the article is constitutional. In order to formulate its answer, the Constitutional Court decided to ask the religious denominations, academy, parliament and civil society groups to discuss the issue of homosexuality. All the churches which answered to the request condemned homosexuality, the Senate rejected the charges that the article is contrary to the constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the academy announced that it will take time to analyse the issue, while the civil society asked for the ban to be removed.

The Constitutional Court ruled that the ban is not constitutional, "to the extent that it refers to consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex, not taking place in public and not producing public scandal".

As a result of this ruling and of international pressure, on November 14, 1996 the first paragraph of the article was amended to read:

This amendment brought about the legalisation of homosexual activity in private, but continued to criminalise it in certain circumstances. The wording "committed in public or producing a public scandal" was added as a compromise between those who wanted to maintain homosexuality as a crime (such as parliamentarians from the National Christian-Democratic Peasants Party) and those who wanted the entire article repealed (such as the Council of Europe and human rights organisations).

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