Dissidence under Communism

Between 1983 and 1987 Gabriel Andreescu dispatched clandestine information on human rights abuses in Romania to Radio Free Europe and wrote several anti-communist articles and studies, some of which he managed to send and publish abroad. He was investigated by the Securitate (the Romanian communist-era political police) starting with 1979. He was arrested for his anti-communist activities in December 1987 and indicted for treason (but freed in January 1988 as result of international protests, and put under surveillance till the fall of the Communist regime). Nevertheless, he continued to write and dispatch letters of protest to the Western media (1988–1989). Some of them (e.g., Lettre à la Conférence de Cracovie (1988) and Le devoir d'ingérence (1989)) were published in the Western press (L'Autre Europe and Libération). In June 1989 he went on a hunger strike as a protest against the continuous violation of human rights in Romania. He was demoted and placed by the Securitate under house arrest in Buzău, then again arrested, to be released after the revolution of December 1989.^[2]

Activity after December 1989

After the anti-Communist revolution Andreescu became a member of the Council of the National Salvation Front, the first post-Communist governmental body after the revolution in 1989 (he soon resigned). He also initiated and was co-president of the Association for the Defense of Human Rights in Romania – the Romanian Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH), where he also worked as expert on national minorities and freedom of conscience and religion. He co-founded and was president of the Group for Social Dialogue (GDS), as well as founding member and vice-president of the Civic Alliance (AC).^[3]

Gabriel Andreescu founded and headed other organizations developing strategies and projects in support of human rights, among them the Ombudspersons for National Minorities, the Center for International Studies, the Center of Inquiry-affiliated Center for Critical Conscience, and the Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience. He was a board member of several other organizations (Hungarian Europe Society, Ethnocultural Diversity Resource Center, Partnership for Equality, Open Society Foundation Expert Teams, Foundation for the Development of Civil Society), as well as a member of the scientific boards of other organizations.

Gabriel Andreescu also participated in international programs and research, including

Near neighborhood at the Eastern frontiers of the future European Union (The Centre for Policy Applied Research / Europe Team / Bonn)

Managing Multi-Ethnic Communities: Textbook for schools of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe (Local Government Initiative / Open Society Institute / Budapest)

Improving Hungarian-Romanian Relations (Teleki Foundation / Budapest & Center for International Studies / Bucharest)

International Mission of the Community of Democracies to Georgia

Community Action Programme to Combat Discrimination: Preparatory Work to Establish Transnational Actions for the Development of Policy and/or Legal Responses to the Fight Against Discrimination on Grounds of Racial or Ethnic Origin, Religion or Beliefs, Disability, Age, And Sexual Orientation (EU Commission – Directorate-General Employment and Social Affairs).

As a journalist and political analyst, he contributed to several Romanian newspapers and magazines (Ziua, Timpul, Observator cultural, Revista 22, Opinia, Altera, Cotidianul etc.); between 1994 and 2004 he wrote for Radio Free Europe.

Books

• Existenţa prin cultură. Represiune, colaboraţionism şi rezistenţă intelectuală sub regimul communist, Polirom, Iaşi, 2015
• MISA. Radiografia unei represiuni, Polirom, Iași, 2013
• Cărturari, opozanți și documente. Manipularea Arhivei Securității, Polirom, Iași, 2013
• L-am urât pe Ceauşescu. Ani, oameni, dissidenţă, Polirom, Iaşi, 2009
• Reprimarea mişcării yoga în anii '80, Polirom, Iaşi, 2008
• Schimbări ale hărţii etnice a României, Centrul pentru Diversitate Etnoculturală, Cluj, 2005
• Naţiuni şi minorităţi, Polirom, Iaşi, 2004
• Extremismul de dreapta în România / Right-Wing Extremism in Romania, Centrul pentru Diversitate Etnoculturală, Cluj 2003 [Romanian and English]
• Pages from the Romanian-Hungarian Reconciliation: 1989–1999. The Role of Civic Organizations, Institute of International Education, Washington, 2001
• Polemici neortodoxe, Noesis, Bucharest, 2001
• Ruleta. Români şi maghiari, 1990–2000, Polirom, Iaşi, 2001
• Locurile unde se construieşte Europa. Adrian Severin în Dialog cu Gabriel Andreescu, Polirom, Iaşi, 2000
• Solidaritatea alergătorilor de cursã lungã, Polirom, Iaşi, 1998
• Patru ani de Revoluţie, Litera, Bucureşţi, 1994
• Cel mai iubit dintre ambasadori. Coen Stork în dialog cu Gabriel Andreescu, All, București, 1993
• Spre o filozofie a dissidenţei, Litera, București, 1992
• Sistemele axiomatice ale logicii limbajului natural. Funcţii şi operaţionalizare, All, București, 1992

Co-authored volumes

• Comentarii la Constituţia României, Polirom, Iaşi, 2010
• Accesul la informaţie în România / Access to Information in Romania, Centrul pentru Drepturile Omului, Bucharest, 1996 [Romanian and English]
• Evoluţia concepţiei U.D.M.R. privind drepturile minoritãţii maghiare, Centrul pentru Drepturile Omului / Evolutions in the D.AH.R. Conception on Hungarian Minority Rights, Bucharest, 1995 [Romanian and English]
• Concepţia U.D.M.R. privind drepturile minoritãţilor naţionale / Study on the Conception of D.A.H.R. on the Rights of National Minorities, Centrul pentru Drepturile Omului, Bucharest, 1994 [Romanian and English]

Edited volumes

• (co-editor) Doctrina internaţională a tratării trecutului communist, C.H. Beck, București, 2016
• (co-editor) Ultimul deceniu communist. Scrisori către radio Europa liberă. Vol. II.1986-1989, Polirom, Iaşi, 2014
• (co-editor) Ultimul deceniu communist. Scrisori către radio Europa liberă. Vol. I.1979-1985, Polirom, Iaşi, 2010 (L`ultimo decennio comunista, Ed. Pavesiana, 2014)
• Tătarii din România: teme identitare / Tartars in Romania: Problems of Identity, Center for Human Rights, Bucharest, 2005 [Romanian and English]
• (co-editor) Problema transilvană, Polirom, Iaşi, 1999
• Naţionalişti, antinaţionalişti. O polemicã în publicistica româneascã, Polirom, Iaşi, 1996
• România versus România, Clavis, București, 1996

Selected articles in books

• "The emergence of a new radical right power: the Romanian Orthodox Church", in Michael Minkenberg (ed.), Transforming the Transformation? The East European Radical Right in the Political Process, Routledge, London, 2015
• "The Romanian State on State-Church Relations", in Natalia Vlas and Vasile Boari (eds.), Religion and Politics in the 21st Century: Global and Local Reflections, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2013, pp. 236–274
• "Passive / aggressive symbols in the public school: religious displays in the Council of Europe and the United States, with a special focus on Romania" in Jeroen Temperman, The Lautsi Papers: Multidisciplinary Reflections on Religious Symbols in the Public School Classroom, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Hotei, 2012, pp. 267–299.
• "Multiculturalismul", în Mihaela Miroiu (coord.), Ideologii politice actuale. Semnificații, evoluții și impact, Polirom, Iași, 2012, pp. 261–304.
• "Melodrama forului. Documentele Securității despre identitatea și rezistența intelectualilor", Vasile Boari, Natalia Vlas, Radu Murea (coord.), Intelectualii și puterea, Institutul European, Iași, 2012, pp. 167–209.
• "Douăzeci de ani de democrație anarhică", în Vasile Boari, Natalia Vas, Radu Murea (coord.), România după douăzeci de ani, Institutul European, Iași, 2011.
• "20 de ani de războaie culturale. Victoria junk-conservatorismului", in Sorin Adam Matei, Mona Momescu (eds.), Idolii forului. De ce o clasă de mjloc a spiritului e de preferat "elitei" intelectualilor publici?, Corint, București, 2010
• "The Paradox of National Identity: Its Cultural-Political Power vs. Its Theoretical Poverty", in Vasile Boari and Sergiu Gherghina (eds.), Weighting Differences: Romanian Identity in the Wider European Context, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle, 2009
• "Ellenzéki lét Romániában", in Dimenziók Éve (eds.), 1968, XX. Század Intézet, Budapest, 2008
• "Campaniile de presă: cum ajung adversarii la consens", in Ilie Rad (ed.), Forme ale manipulării prin presă, Tribuna, Cluj-Napoca, 2008
• "Raportul: ansamblul şi detaliile", in Vasile Ernu, Costi Rogozanu, Ciprian Şiulea, Ovidiu Ţichindelean (eds.), Iluzia anticomunismului. Lecturi critice ale Raportului Tismăneanu, Cartier, Chişinău, 2008
• "A Functional Approach. Collective and Individual Rights", in Stanisław Parzymies, OSCE and Minorities. Assessment and Prospects, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warsaw, 2007
• "Romania", in Cas Mudde (ed.) Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe, Routledge, London and New York, 2005
• "Necesitatea şi detaliile unei legi privind regimul cultelor şi libertatea de conştiinţă", in Sandu Frunză (ed.) Paşi spre integare. Religie şi drepturile omului în România, Limes, Cluj, 2004
• "A múltfeldolgozás modelljei", ("Access to the Securitate archives in Romania") in Gábor Halmai (ed.), Űgynőkők és akták, SOROS Alopétráy, Budapest, 2003
• “Multiculturalismul normativ”, in Rudolf Polenda, François Ruegg, Călin Rus (eds.), Interculturalitate. Cercetări şi perspective româneşti, Presa Universitară Clujeană, Cluj, 2002
• “Paths of Secularisation in Eastern Europe: The Church-State Dispute in Romania“, in T.Lipovatz, N. Demertzis, V. Georgiadou (eds.), Religions and Politics in the Age of Modernity, Kritiki, Athens, 2002
• “Universal Thought, Eastern Facts: Scrutinizing National Minority Rights in Romania”, in Will Kymlicka, Magda Opalski (eds.), Can Liberal Pluralism be Exported? Western Political Theory and Ethnic Relations in Eastern Europe, Oxford University Press, New York, 2001
• “Un concept românesc al Europei Federale“, in Un concept al viitorului Uniunii Europene, Polirom, Iaşi, 2001
• “Die Beziehungen zu Moldova und Ukraine aus der Perspektive einer zukunftigen Schengen-Grenze“, in Iris Kempe, Wim van Meurs, Barbara von Ow (eds.), Die EU-Beitrittsstaaten und ihre ostlichen Nachbarn, Bertelsmann Stiftung, 1999