The United States state department’s bureau of democracy, human rights, and labour has released its 2004 country report on human rights practices in Bulgaria. Edited extracts:
Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom From:
a. Arbitrary or Unlawful Deprivation of Life
There were no politically motivated killings by the Government or its agents; however, on March 27, a police officer shot and killed a 25-year-old Roma in Plovdiv after he reportedly refused to co-operate with police and ran away during a routine traffic check. The MOI initiated an investigation and temporarily suspended two officers from duty. The investigation was ongoing at year’s end.
On November 4, the Sofia Appellate Court heard the appeal of the five defendants (three Bulgarians and two Ukrainians) sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2003 for the 1996 murder of former prime minister Andrei Lukanov.
b. Disappearance
There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances.
c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The constitution prohibits such practices; however, police commonly beat criminal suspects, particularly during initial interrogations.
Criminal suspects in police custody run a significant risk of being mistreated, most often during initial interrogation. According to the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee (BHC), the number of complaints of police abuse during detention decreased from 50 per cent of detainees in 1999 to 30 per cent during the year. In July 2003, the MOI issued instructions for medical personnel in all detention centres to investigate and document all injuries and traumas suffered by detainees. Medical examinations were conducted in areas where non-medical personnel were not permitted access; prosecutors were informed if medical personnel believed injuries or traumas were a result of torture or maltreatment. However, human rights groups claimed that allegations of police abuse were very seldom properly investigated, nor were offending officers consistently punished.
Under the criminal code, any complaints about police beatings are required to be heard by judges. Human rights monitors reported that they received many complaints from persons who were too intimidated to lodge an official complaint with the authorities. Human rights observers charged that police sometimes handled minor offenses by arresting suspects, beating them, and releasing them within a 24-hour period, so that no judicial involvement was required (see Section 1.d.).
Conditions in some prisons remained harsh and included overcrowding, inadequate lavatory facilities, and insufficient heating and ventilation. All prisons were more than 70 years old. The Government expected that the introduction of a probation system in 2005 would partially alleviate the problem of overcrowding in prisons. At the end of June, the average prison density was 122.2 percent, with overcrowding at the prison in Bourgas being the worst (208.4 percent density); only the youth labor correction hostel in Boichinovtsi, the women’s prison in Sliven, and the prison in Pazardjik were not overcrowded. Nongovernmental organisation (NGO) prison monitors reported that brutality by prison guards against inmates continued to be a problem, despite MOI instructions in August 2003 on detention procedures that were intended to reduce abuses. There were also reports of brutality among inmates. The process for prisoners to complain about substandard conditions or mistreatment did not function effectively. A new detention centre opened during the year in Turgovishte and 13 other detention centres were closed due to poor and inadequate conditions, bringing the total number of detention centres to 52. Two more new detention centres (in Elhovo and Bourgas) were under construction. Men and women were held in separate prisons; the prison in Sliven was reserved for women. In all prisons, pretrial detainees were held separately from convicted prisoners. The MOJ also reported that there were 90 minors in the labor correction hostel in Boichinovtsi, which was used to hold persons under age 18 and was less restrictive than prisons. The Government generally permitted requests by independent observers to monitor conditions in most prisons and detention facilities.
d. Arbitrary Arrest or Detention
The constitution prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention; however, there were some restrictions on these rights.
The MOI reported that 37 complaints of corruption by police officers were filed with the Military Prosecution Service between January and October. During the same period, 69 police officers were fired for corruption.
In March, all police officers received a copy of the 2003 Police Code of Ethics, which was also included in the training curricula at the Police Academy and in continuing education programs for police officers. The curricula at the Police Academy and the Officers’ Schools also included human rights-related training in their mandatory courses. Training in combating trafficking and assisting trafficking victims was also offered to active-duty officers.
The law provides for bail, and it was widely used.
The constitution provides for access to legal counsel from the time of detention. In 2002, the MOI instituted a standard declaration process for detainees to indicate their need for access to legal counsel, medical attention, and family members.
While there were some continuing violations, the Government generally observed the statutory limit of one-year for pretrial detention or two years in the case of the most serious crimes. In the event of a conviction, the time spent in pretrial detention was credited toward the sentence.
e. Denial of Fair Public Trial
The constitution provides for an independent judiciary; however, problems in the judiciary remained, including a lack of transparent and neutral standards for assigning cases, poor co-ordination between magistrates (prosecutors, investigators, and judges), corruption, and cumbersome procedures. Human rights groups complained that magistrates sometimes failed to pursue crimes committed against minorities. There were complaints that the Supreme Cassation Prosecution led by the Chief Prosecutor failed to vigorously prosecute serious criminal cases. In addition, the Supreme Cassation Prosecution refused to cooperate with international observers that advocated for judicial reform and spoke out against judicial corruption.
Crime and corruption remained primary concerns of the Government. The inter-ministerial anticorruption commission, established in 2002, co-ordinated the efforts of each government agency’s internal inspectorate in fighting public corruption and engaged in public awareness campaigns. During the year, the commission received 196 complaints of corruption, of which 11 were referred to the prosecution service for further action. In addition, the commission referred 40 complaints against magistrates to the Supreme Judicial Council’s anti-corruption commission.
Many observers believed that reforms were essential to establish a fair, impartial, and efficient judicial system. In March, regulations were enacted to implement the 2003 constitutional amendments limiting magistrates’ immunity and increasing their accountability. Additional amendments to the constitution and the Judicial Systems Act, particularly addressing the role of investigators, were prerequisites to EU accession. During the year, the SJC replaced a large number of court chairs, head prosecutors, and head investigators at all levels of the judiciary in response to calls for judicial reform.
Observers noted modest improvement in the efficiency of moving cases through the criminal system, although many serious systemic flaws remained. Long delays in trials were common, and investigators and police continued to struggle with a large backlog of outstanding investigations.
The internal mechanisms that inhibit corruption in the judiciary were inadequate.
During the year, an NGO appealed the 2003 increase in fees levied on claimants in civil courts, and the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the increase. The practice of plea-bargaining had not yet effectively lightened the caseload for prosecutors. In addition, plea-bargaining was perceived by many citizens as a way for the wealthy to buy their way out of charges.
During the year, the Act to Combat Juvenile Antisocial Behaviour was amended to improve due process procedures.
a. Freedom of Speech and Press
The constitution provides for freedom of speech and of the press, and the Government generally respected these rights and did not restrict academic freedom. Some NGOs reported that significant numbers of journalists continued to feel constrained in their reporting because of media outlet management, political influence, and outside pressure.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister in June, 266 judges criticised the manipulation of the media by MOI officials. Domestic organisations cited politically motivated intimidation and dismissal of journalists as a major problem.
A variety of newspapers were published freely by political parties and other organisations representing the full spectrum of public opinion.
There were no formal restrictions on programming and both television and radio provided a variety of news and public interest programming. State-owned media presented opposition views; however, media observers believed that the inadequacy of existing legislation left it vulnerable to government pressure. Despite this vulnerability, Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA), the state-owned news agency, was highly regarded as being unbiased, and the state-owned Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) was often one of the most outspoken critics of the Government and its policies.
There were three reported cases of violence or threats of violence against journalists.
Defamation is punishable under the criminal code. In most cases the courts defined libel and interpreted the law in a manner that favored journalistic expression. A report issued by the BHC claimed that most damages and fines assessed in defamation cases were of a reasonable nature. Amendments to the criminal code in 2002 eliminated imprisonment as a penalty for defamation. The amended provisions also removed the need for a prosecutor to file an indictment for slander or libel by changing the nature of the offence to a private one where complaints are filed directly by the party subject to slander or libel. According to the BHC, the number of defamation suits brought against journalists increased slightly over the past three years; however, the BHC found that only a small number of cases concluded with the journalist being fined. The majority of defamation cases were brought against reports about corruption or mismanagement, and the most frequent plaintiffs were government officials or other persons in public positions.
c. Freedom of Religion
The constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the Government restricted this right in practice for some religious groups. The constitution designates Bulgarian Orthodox Christianity (BOC) as the “traditional” religion and the Government provided financial support to it, as well as to several other religious communities perceived as holding historic places in society, such as the Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Jewish faiths.
All religious groups, with the exception of the BOC, must register with the Sofia City Court before they can practice their beliefs in public. Since the Court took over responsibility for registering religious groups in 2003, the number of registered denominations has increased, reaching 46 by year’s end. The BHC has expressed concern at the requirement for groups to submit a statement of beliefs when applying for registration or re-registration, stating that this constituted an infringement on their freedom of religion. There were initial fears regarding the exclusive right of Religious Denominations Directorate of the Council of Ministers to give “expert opinions” to the court regarding registration matters; however, in practice the Directorate only provides an opinion upon request by the court. Some local branches of nationally registered denominations experienced problems with local authorities who insisted that the branches be registered locally. For most registered religious groups there were no restrictions on attendance at religious services or on private religious instruction.
On July 20, prosecutors and police intervened in the BOC’s 12-year schism, taking the side of Patriarch Maxim and his “Holy Synod”. In a nationwide operation, priests from the “Alternative Synod” were forcibly evicted from around 250 churches and other properties, which the Holy Synod claimed they were illegally occupying. The operation resulted in several clerics being temporarily detained and police closing and securing the properties. Following the operation, clerics from the Alternative Synod continued to hold religious services outside of the churches from which they had been evicted, and a number of the synod’s supporters staged protests against what they viewed as illegal State intervention in an internal church dispute.
A number of religious groups complained that foreign missionaries and religious leaders experienced difficulties in obtaining and renewing residence visas in the country. The Law on Foreign Persons has no visa category explicitly applied to missionaries or religious workers, and rules for other categories of temporary residence visa (such as self-employed or business-owner) have been tightened in ways that reportedly make it more difficult for religious workers to qualify.
The Jewish Community, the Muslim community, the Catholic Church, and some Protestant denominations claimed that a number of their properties confiscated under the Communist government were not returned. A central problem facing all claimants was the need to demonstrate that the organisation seeking restitution was the same organisation – or the legitimate successor of the organisation – that owned the property prior to 1944. This was difficult because Communist hostility to religion led some groups to hide assets or ownership and because documents had been destroyed or lost over the years.
d. Freedom of Movement Within the Country, Foreign Travel, Emigration, and Repatriation
The law provides for the granting of refugee or asylum or refugee status to persons in accordance with the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol and the Government has established a system for providing protection to refugees. The Government provided some protection against the return of persons to a country where they fear persecution; however, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and NGOs, including the BHC, expressed concern over the Government’s handling of claims for refugee and humanitarian status and reported that there may have been cases in which possible bona fide refugees were turned away at the border. The Government generally co-operated with the UNHCR and other humanitarian organisations in assisting refugees and asylum seekers.
From January through November, the State Agency for Refugees received requests for refugee status from 1025 persons. During the same period, refugee status was granted to 17 persons and humanitarian status given to 234. The leading countries from which applicants originated were Afghanistan, Iraq, Armenia, Algeria, Iran, and Nigeria. There is an appeal process.
Respect for Political Rights: The Right of Citizens to Change Their Government
The constitution provides citizens the right to change their government peacefully, and citizens exercised this right in practice through periodic, free, and fair elections held on the basis of universal suffrage. There was widespread public perception of corruption in all branches and levels of government. While freedom of information laws provide for public access to government information, there were restrictions to such access in practice. The NGO Access to Information Programme reported approximately 140 cases where government institutions denied access to information throughout the year.
Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigations of Alleged Violations of Human Rights
A number of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Human rights observers reported uneven levels of co-operation from various national and local government officials during the year.
Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons
The constitution provides for individual rights, equality, and protection against discrimination; however, societal discrimination existed against women and ethnic minorities, particularly Roma.
The law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of race, sex, religion, disability, age, and sexual orientation and provides for the establishment of a nine-member anti-discrimination commission with powers to receive and investigate complaints, issue rulings, and impose sanctions. However, the National Assembly had not appointed the commission members by year’s end. A number of cases were lodged for breaches of the Protection Against Discrimination Act, and in July, a Romani woman was awarded damages on the grounds of racial discrimination for being refused service in a shop.
Women
Domestic violence against women was a serious problem; however, there were no concrete statistics on its occurrence. In assault cases resulting in minor bodily injury, the law requires the victim to initiate criminal proceedings; however, victims often felt constrained from doing so. Victims also often felt constrained from reporting other cases of assault, limiting the number of assault cases prosecuted by the judiciary. Courts and prosecutors tended to view domestic abuse as a family matter rather than a criminal problem; as a result, police often were reluctant to intervene in cases of domestic abuse, even if a woman called them seeking protection or assistance. The Government did not provide shelter or counseling for women.
While the law does not specifically address domestic abuse, the parliamentary committee on human rights approved legislation to address and combat the problem. The legislation was awaiting final parliamentary approval at year’s end.
Prostitution is not prohibited by law; however, a variety of activities often associated with prostitution, such as pimping, are illegal. Forced prostitution is illegal and remained a serious problem. Poor socio-economic conditions contributed to a disproportionate number of Romani women drawn into organized prostitution.
The law prohibits sexual harassment; however, it was a widespread problem. A survey conducted by the Agency for Social Research (ASR) in 2002 found that approximately 40 percent of women had suffered sexual harassment in the workplace.
Children
The Government generally was committed to protecting children’s welfare; however, government efforts in education and health were constrained by serious budgetary limitations and by outmoded social care structures. The constitution mandates school attendance until the age of 16. Public education was free, but children were required to pay for books, which was a problem for poor families. Although female and male primary enrollment rates have evened, overall enrollment has decreased.
Romani children and ethnic-Bulgarian children generally attended separate schools, partly due to self-imposed segregated neighborhoods, although several localities instituted integration programs. Romani children received an inferior quality of education. Additionally, the Government was largely unsuccessful in attracting and keeping many Romani children in school; the NSI and education experts estimated that between eight and nine per cent of Romani children have completed secondary education. Many Romani children arrived relatively unprepared for schooling; many were not proficient in the Bulgarian language.
The Government and NGOs undertook initiatives to address these problems. They included free lunches, subsidised textbooks and tuition costs, teacher’s assistants in schools with Roma and ethnic-Turkish students, and busing programs.
Conditions for children in state institutions were poor. Social attitudes towards children with disabilities led families to institutionalise their children if they had disabilities. Violence against children was a problem.
During the year, the Act to Combat Juvenile Antisocial Behavior was amended to improve due process procedures for juveniles when they were detained in educational reform boarding schools run by the Ministry of Education and Science (see Section 1.e.). According to NGOs, living conditions at these reform schools remained poor, offering few medical, educational, or social services. At most of these institutions, residents’ needs for food, clothing and teaching materials remained largely unsatisfied. Mixed-age classes and low levels of staff motivation considerably impaired the teaching process.
Because prostitution is not illegal, children involved in prostitution were not officially registered with the MOI’s unit for juvenile crime. However, they were viewed by the MOI as children at risk. In 2003, there were 543 child prostitutes on file with the MOI. Child prostitution reportedly was particularly common among Romani youth.
Unlike in previous years, there were no reports that Romani children were targets of arbitrary police detention. Widespread poverty led many Romani children to turn to begging, prostitution, and petty crime on the streets.
As part of the National Strategy for the Children of the Street, the State Agency for Child Protection (SACP) introduced a number of programmes to address the situation of street children.
Trafficking in Persons
The law prohibits trafficking in persons; however, trafficking was a serious problem, and the country remained primarily a transit country, and to a lesser extent a country of origin. There was no evidence of a pattern of official complicity in trafficking, although a number of individual law enforcement officers and other government authorities were involved in trafficking.
In March, the National Assembly passed regulations implementing the 2003 Anti Trafficking Act, which supplemented the 2002 amendment to the penal code that made trafficking in persons a criminal offense. The National Anti Trafficking Commission, the primary co-ordination and policy-making body for trafficking issues, was convened and held its first meeting in December.
Victims overwhelmingly were women and girls trafficked for the purposes of prostitution. Government authorities and NGO observers reported that there were approximately 275 confirmed victims of trafficking in 2002 that involved either internal trafficking or domestic victims trafficked internationally; however, the actual number of cases may be much higher.
It was widely believed that some law enforcement officers or other government authorities were complicit in human trafficking, including local authorities and customs officials. The bulk of involvement appeared to consist of accepting bribes to look the other way, although some officers could have been more involved. Those involved in facilitating trafficking overwhelmingly were low-level, low-paid officials in the provinces and border regions.
On November 9, the National Assembly adopted witness protection legislation.
In association with NGOs, the Government conducted trafficking awareness programs for consular officers posted to Bulgarian embassies and law enforcement personnel on the legal provisions relating to trafficking in persons as well as the operational and psychological treatment for trafficking victims. The IOM continued its trafficking awareness campaign that began in 2000..
Persons with Disabilities
The law provides for a range of financial assistance for persons with disabilities, including free public transportation, reduced prices on modified automobiles, and free equipment such as wheelchairs; however, budgetary constraints limited the availability of assistance in practice. Labour laws intended to protect the interests of persons with disabilities and create employment opportunities had mixed results. Persons with mental and physical disabilities, including very young children, were often separated from the rest of society; the effective segregation of children with disabilities into special schools lowered the quality of their education.
National/Racial/Ethnic Minorities
There were no reports of lethal police assaults on Roma; however, police harassed, physically abused, and arbitrarily arrested some Roma, and reports of police harassment and torture were documented. Little progress was made in resolving cases of police violence against Roma.
Romani activists and NGOs continued to criticise the Government’s lack of progress in implementing its 1999 Program for Social Integration of Roma; however, there were projects that sought to improve economic and educational opportunities for Roma, as well as to address the problem of ineffectual political leadership among the Roma.
Severe unemployment and poverty among the Roma, combined with generally unfavorable attitudes toward Roma among ethnic Bulgarians and Turks, contributed to strained relations between the Roma and the rest of society.
As individuals and as an ethnic group, Roma continued to face high levels of discrimination.
During the year, NGOs reported an increased number of racially motivated assaults on Roma in Sofia. Youths belonging to skinhead groups, aged between 16 and 23, usually perpetrated the assaults.
NGOs reported that Roma encountered difficulties applying for social benefits, and local officials discouraged rural Roma from claiming land to which they were entitled under the law disbanding agricultural collectives. Workplace discrimination against minorities continued to be a problem, especially for Roma. Roma continued to suffer from inadequate access to health care. Ethnic Turks and Roma held no senior law enforcement positions.
Worker Rights
a. The Right of Association
A report by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) found that unions reported frequent cases of discrimination and harassment against trade union activists and members, who were relocated, downgraded, or fired. In the private sector, some employers had a policy of illegally prohibiting trade union membership within their enterprise.
d. Prohibition of Child Labour and Minimum Age for Employment
The Labour Code sets the minimum age for employment at 16 years and the minimum age for dangerous work at 18 years; employers and the MLSP were responsible for enforcing these provisions. Child labour laws generally were enforced well in the formal sector, but NGOs reported that children were exploited in certain industries (especially small family-owned shops, textile factories, restaurants, family farms, construction, and periodical sales) and by organised crime (notably for prostitution and distribution of narcotics).
On March 16, the National Assembly passed amendments to the Criminal Code criminalising and providing sanctions for illegal employment of children. The Government also approved regulations implementing the 2003 Child Protection Act, the 2003-05 Action Plan against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children, and the National Strategy for Children on the Street.
