52nd Session of the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Bulgarian NGO oral statement and delegation

9th July 2012, New York

The Bulgarian NGO delegation consists of representatives of the Bulgarian Gender Research Foundation (BGRF) and a representative of Gender Alternatives Foundation (GAF), and has the support of the Alliance for protection against Domestic Violence (APDV) – a national network of Bulgarian NGOs that are involved with nationwide activities in the monitoring, promotion and protection against Domestic Violence and Gender - based violence. These representatives prepared and sent the Alternative Reports to the State's Report.

The delegation drew the attention of the Committee to the main issues related to the national machinery on gender equality that remain unresolved in Bulgaria, despite the incessant efforts of women’ s NGOs.

There is no governmental body for regulation, monitoring and control of gender equality relations.

Establishing a strong national machinery on gender equality including the adoption of a special gender equality law, has been identified as a need since 1998. It has been reiterated through all these years by us NGOs, and reminded to our government in the course of the UPR in 2010, and again by the HRC in 2011.

 It is obvious from the State responses to the List of Issues that the State does not understand the need for such a machinery, which makes the issue a systemic issue of non compliance with the CEDAW. All the other issues of non compliance are derived to a great extent from this major problem.

In the absence of a strong national machinery, well equipped and resourced, it is in fact impossible to design, adopt and monitor the temporary special measures needed. And the government confessed that in its responses.

Without a gender equality machinery and without a proper understanding of what substantive equality means it is impossible to conduct an adequate gender equality policy that women and men in Bulgaria deserve. It makes all other laws, policies, programmes, plans and strategies incoherent, fragmented and ineffective.

The general Anti-Discrimination Act does not contain explicit definition of sex discrimination. Since its inception in 2005 the Commission for Protection against Discrimination created no substantial legal practice on gender discrimination and it is not applied in cases of gender-based violence.

There is no specific legislation and policy on gender based violence and the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence is gender neutral and does not recognize the latter as gender discrimination. 

Violence against women and girls (VAWG): Domestic violence in Bulgaria

Domestic violence is a widespread problem in Bulgaria. According to the national Alliance against Domestic Violence[1] every fourth woman is a victim of domestic violence.

In 1998[2], one of the dominant concerns of the CEDAW Committee was the problem of VAW, both in the public and private spheres. The Committee recommended that legislative measures protecting women against all forms of violence should be strengthened.

Civil remedies

It should be recognized that the Government adopted a special law against domestic violence in March 2005. Its essence is the issuance of orders for protection containing restraining measures for the perpetrators and protective measures for the victims.

The practice so far, however, reveals that besides the positive effects, there are a number of problems arising in the process of its implementation:

1.Lack of clarity in the law as to which of the parties wears theburdenofproof.

2.The provision stipulating for a one-month time limit for applying for court protection places undue administrative and legal burden on the victims.

3.  The Police can neither issue emergency protection orders nor initiate proceedings under the law.

4.Specialized services such as counseling centres are not legally recognized as social services, hence not financially supported by the State.

5.There is insufficient number of crisis centers in the country.

6.No mandatory training is provided for judges, lawyers and law enforcement personnel.

The Law’s amendments from 2009 were approved thanks to the efforts of women’s NGOs. One of the most important was the provision for ensuring financial support for those NGOs. However, no money was provided in 2010. The amount of BGN 500 000 was provided in 2011. No financial support is ensured for 2012 yet.

Part of the above mentioned shortcomings were already recognized by the CEDAW Committee during the consideration of Communication No20/2008.[3]

In that regard, it should be stated that: no mechanism for implementation of the Committee’s recommendations exists in the State; the Views of the Committee are not translated into Bulgarian; none of the Individual and General recommendations is implemented.

Penal remedies

It should be recognized that in April 2009, under the pressure of NGOs, the violation of a protection order was criminalized and was made punishable by imprisonment or a fine. However, there are only few cases initiated by the Prosecutor’s office in that regard.

Further, under the Penal Code, domestic violence is still not recognized as a separate crime or as an aggravating circumstance of a crime.

Furthermore, light and medium bodily injuries are prosecuted in a private complaint procedure.

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF DIVORCE for WOMEN-MOTHERS

1. As regards the child support:

> there are no clear contemporary criteria to define the basic needs of the child;

> no easy or automatic mechanism to update the amount of the child support;

> there is no full but only limited compensation by the State when the fathers can not pay the child support and the procedure is lengthy and complicated;

> there is no remedy for mothers, who do not receive the awarded child support, to later receive adequate compensation from the fathers;

> as a result many women do not initiate the court proceedings for child support and

> the average amount of the child support from the father is often symbolic, many times less than what is needed for the child's maintenance.

     2. Inequalities in custody rights, obligations and responsibilities

> in the case-law non-payment of the child support is not considered as negligence of the child and no one is deprived or restricted of custody or parental rights on this ground;

> the child visitation and contacts are regulated as a right of the father, not of the child, and as an obligation for the mother;

> the mothers are always obliged to ensure these contacts, while fathers are never responsible if they do not appear for them.