Bulgaria faced problems with corruption, police violence and media freedom restrictions, the Annual Report on Human Rights of the US Department of State showed.
Police violence instances included beating of detainees and prisoners. Prison conditions failed to meet international standards and no funds have been provided from the state for improving them.
The effectiveness of the judiciary is low due to corruption in the system. A slight improvement is observed on case conduction.
Corruption problems occurred within the government as well. Government received score 4.0 on the Transparency International index which showed that the country faced serious problems in this sphere.
The US Department of State said that Bulgaria's government respected freedom of speech. Some journalists received threats because of individual and political interests.
A sufficient decrease of cases of intolerance and social discrimination against non-traditional religious groups occurred.
The US Department of State reported cases of discrimination against women, children, minority groups and people with disabilities.
According to non-governmental organisations quoted in the report, a serious problem existed concerning domestic violence. Police believed that one of every four women had experienced domestic violence. Measures against it were insufficient as police considered it more a matter of family relations than of a criminal act.
Police violence instances included beating of detainees and prisoners. Prison conditions failed to meet international standards and no funds have been provided from the state for improving them.
The effectiveness of the judiciary is low due to corruption in the system. A slight improvement is observed on case conduction.
Corruption problems occurred within the government as well. Government received score 4.0 on the Transparency International index which showed that the country faced serious problems in this sphere.
The US Department of State said that Bulgaria's government respected freedom of speech. Some journalists received threats because of individual and political interests.
A sufficient decrease of cases of intolerance and social discrimination against non-traditional religious groups occurred.
The US Department of State reported cases of discrimination against women, children, minority groups and people with disabilities.
According to non-governmental organisations quoted in the report, a serious problem existed concerning domestic violence. Police believed that one of every four women had experienced domestic violence. Measures against it were insufficient as police considered it more a matter of family relations than of a criminal act.
