Challenging Systematization in Romania

Human Rights, Transnationalism, and Dissidents in Campaigns by Opérations Villages Roumains (OVR), 1989–1990

Bibliographic Data

ID21882702
AuthorsManuel Herrera Crespo (0000-0001-8776-8001, Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume12
Issue4
Pages576-598
Publication date2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHungarian Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2063-8647 • E-ISSN: 2063-9961
PublisherThe Hungarian Historical Review (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.38145/2023.4.576
OpenAlexW4393220935
LanguageEN
References cited12

Accounts of popular opposition to the systematization project in Romania have predominantly focused on organizations concerned with cultural heritage preservation and the plight of Hungarian minorities in Transylvania. As a result, the Belgian-born initiative Opérations Villages Roumains (OVR) has been largely overlooked, despite growing into the largest transnational opposition movement against systematization by 1989. Unlike other organizations, OVR primarily denounced Ceauşescu’s totalitarian grip on society, with systematization being its most significant manifestation. This article investigates OVR’s philosophy, methods, and objectives during its formative period from 1988 to 1990. OVR’s challenge to systematization reveals how human rights were strategically implemented at chosen moments, the emergence of several transnational dimensions, and the unique roles played by exiles and dissidents. Through this case study, OVR’s approach uncovers the evolving notions of human rights and transnationalism in the 1980s and highlights how these differed from other well-known Western European challenges to the practices of State Socialist regimes

Human rights · Political science · Politics · Transnationalism · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Law · Post-Communist Economic and Political Transition

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