Summary and Recommendations

NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession, 2004 SUMMARY & RECOMMENDATIONS

NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

October 2004, Sofia, Bulgaria

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

This short paper presents key issues from the NGO Alternative Regular Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession and recommendations for action to be taken by the Bulgarian government.

The NGO Alternative Report was produced by a coalition of Bulgarian-based NGOs with expertise in the area of social and human rights policy. It addresses a number of issues which were covered in the European Commission’s 2003 Regular Report on Bulgaria and which should be covered in the European Commission’s 2004 Regular Report, due to be published in early October 2004.

The report is intended to provide a contribution to understanding of these key issues as Bulgaria nears EU accession and to provide an overall picture of the progress made, based on grass-roots experience and extensive research throughout Bulgaria.

A full copy of the report is available at www.savethechildrenbg.org.

SUMMARY CHILDREN’S RIGHTS Children in institutions The Bulgarian Government’s ‘Strategy and action plan for the protection of children’s rights 2000 –2003’ stated that the “number of children living in institutions as of the end of 1999 is 35,123”. The Bulgarian Government now claims there are 11,384 children in institutional care. Child rights NGOs in fact believe that there are still some 31,000 children living in institutions, the same estimate made by the European Commission in its 2003 Regular Report. These NGOs understand the new, lower, figure to be a manipulation of the statistics based on a very narrow definition of what an ‘institutionalised’ child is: the new total excludes all children who were not placed in institutional care on the basis of the Child Protection Act. This means that children placed in institutions under the Public Education Act (some 16,000 children) are no longer counted. Children placed in institutions under the Law for combating antisocial behaviour of minors and juveniles (some 2,000) are also missed out.

There is in fact evidence to show that there is an increase in the number of infants aged 0-3 placed in Homes for Medical and Social Care (often known as ‘Mother and Baby homes’): in 2003 this was 3155, higher than the figure for 2002 of 3141. The number of this type of institutions remains unchanged at 32. This is particularly significant as all evidence shows that once children have entered the institutional system – in most cases, beginning with a Home for Medical and Social Care – they are likely to remain in institutional care for a long period of time, if not indefinitely. The increase in this category of institutionalised children is a failure which undermines all other efforts in this area.

The conditions in many institutions remain completely unacceptable. Buildings are often in isolated locations which can be inaccessible in winter with inadequate heating and little, if any, facilities for rehabilitation or teaching children. Sometimes even the basic

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

necessities, such as food and clothing, are insufficient and staff are rarely trained to work with children. As a result, children living in such homes have very limited opportunities to be educated or develop social skills, making any attempts at reintegrating them in mainstream society incredibly difficult.

Alternatives to institutional care – the need for professionally trained social workers Government resources need to be dedicated to preventing the abandonment of children and the re-integration of those already in institutions with families. In parallel, alternatives such as foster care and adoption must be nationally developed. None of this is possible without huge investment in the training of professionals, particularly social workers, who are able to provide support to children and families in need.

The number of people currently faced with the challenge of turning the system around is far too low. In Belitza, one single social worker was found to be responsible for an area with 11,200 residents. In Troyan, two social workers and one legal adviser were responsible for 38 towns and villages with a total of 25,823 residents. In neither place did social workers have transport or even computers to maintain a basic database of the children they are supposed to be working with.

Adoption and international adoption Despite recent changes to the Family Code, further reform is still needed in the area of adoption. Most important is the need for a unified national register for children and adopters to be established for national adoptions (i.e. adoptions by Bulgarians, not foreigners). This would increase the possibility of Bulgarian parents being found for Bulgarian children, even if they live in different parts of the country. There should also be far greater transparency in the international adoption system, particularly in relation to the costs involved: an official list of the fees which are charged should be made public on the Ministry of Justice website. Such transparency would help reduce the potential for abuse of the system and reduce financial incentives for those who regard international adoption as a ‘business’. International adoption should only be used as a measure of last resort, when all other alternatives have been fully explored, and only when in the best interests of the child.

PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Disabled Children Disabled children are subject to two-fold discrimination: they are often deprived of the opportunity to grow up in their own families (placed in special government run institutions, particularly when they come from poor families); and they have no access to mainstream schools and quality education (through the practice of separating them in special schools). Due to the narrow definition of ‘special institutions’ laid down in the Child Protection Act1 over 16,000 children with special educational needs placed in ‘special boarding schools’ (also or ‘auxiliary schools’), have been excluded from the de1

“homes of a residential character for the raising of children in which the children are permanently separated from their home environment” – the inclusion of the word ‘permanent’ effectively rules out many children who are theoretically temporarily resident, even though in practice they are permanently resident 4

NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

institutionalisation plan. In many cases children in such schools do not appear to have any particular needs which would justify special education. Given the legal definition of these facilities they are not considered ‘special institutions’ but there should be a dedicated plan of the Ministry of Education to target this group of children.

Children with physical disabilities are not accommodated by the mainstream school system due to the inaccessibility of the built environment and the organisation of the teaching process. Mainstream schools are not provided yet with resource teachers thus depriving children with visual and hearing impairments of opportunities to get a proper education. So, if disabled children stay in their communities ‘home education under individual curriculum’ is provided by local school teachers. Legislative changes relating to the intake of children into specialised schools and integrated education have been introduced but these measures are not yet accompanied by active attempts to get children with special education needs integrated into mainstream or vocational schools.

Disabled Adults With regard to protection of the rights of disabled people, the passing of the AntiDiscrimination Law at the end of 2003 and the submission to Parliament of new draft disability laws have been positive developments. Following the National Strategy for Equal Opportunities for Disabled Persons, adopted in June 2003, the Law on Integration of Disabled People was passed and published in September 2004. Disability social assessment without means-testing is now to be a requirement for disability entitlements.

By-laws to this legislation are still to be drafted and it remains to be seen how the new system will work and whether discriminatory attitudes and practises towards disabled people will continue to be widespread in Bulgaria.

There is often a failure to focus sufficiently on the practical ways in which disability policies are to be implemented. One reason, among many, is the huge discrepancy between the data provided by different official sources as to the number of people with disabilities and the lack of reliable data about their age, education or other characteristics. Enforcement regulations to the newly voted legislation in the employment section have yet to be drafted.

The 2003 RR states that the financial situation of people with disabilities has improved as a result of the allocation of a guaranteed minimum income, provided for in the amended Social Assistance Act in December 2002. Since the 1990s there has been a dramatic increase in the number of new disability pensions awarded and the total amount paid out in 2002 was BGN 314 million, some 1% of the Bulgarian GDP. Other millions (hard, if not impossible to cite a figure) were spent on different programmes.

This is to be welcomed. However, in many areas funding remains inadequate. As an example, the government's adopted list of technical aids, which are clearly a precondition for inclusion in society of a person with disabilities, consists of only fourteen items which are technically outdated. One of these, leg prosthesis, is re-reimbursed at a rate of Euro 100 whereas for elsewhere in Europe – including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - the rate of reimbursement is Euro 2000. Small and simple technical aids, such as adapted spoons for instance, are not reimbursed by the government and providers do not offer them at all.

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

The only source of funds for adaptations of the physical environment remains the ‘Beautiful Bulgaria’ programme where BGN 5 million were designated. This was very welcome but there is need for a more sustainable financial plan which is an integral part of the state budget and not reliant upon external programmes.

In other areas, funding appears to be misguided and mis-targetted, demonstrating a continuing lack of understanding of the real needs of people with disabilities. The most notable example of this is the so-called ‘Personal Assistance’ scheme – which in fact is more akin to a ‘family/home attendance’ scheme than ‘personal assistance’ as understood and practised elsewhere in Europe. In general, the scheme appears to be serving the need to provide employment for the unemployed more than providing appropriate support for the service user. Institutional care for physically disabled people remains without a reasonable alternative in the community. Meanwhile, there has been no significant change in the lives of people with mental disabilities.

Given the situation, it is important to pay attention to the framework of participation of disabled people in the policy process. There is a National Council on Integration of the Disabled which is supposed to have a say on all policy documents related to disabilities.

Its member organizations receive subsidies based on membership and territorial coverage criteria with no account taken of whether they are effective. Thus smaller advocacy groups are deprived of the opportunity to represent a different point of view or different solutions oriented towards inclusion.

MINORITY RIGHTS Protection from Discrimination The Protection From Discrimination Act was adopted in September 2003. Nine months after it came into force, the Protection From Discrimination Commission envisaged in the law has still not been established.

Roma minority The first one-year government action plan for the implementation of the Framework Programme for the Equal Integration of Roma in Bulgarian Society, announced in September 2003, failed to provide funding for its priority aims and did not ensure the necessary legislative changes in key areas of its implementation. The Framework Programme itself has not been backed up with reliable legal and institutional guarantees for its sustainable implementation.

Education In June 2004 the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) publicly announced a Strategy for the Educational Integration of Children and Pupils from Ethnic Minorities for the period from 2004 to 2009. This is an innovative document for the Bulgarian education system, based on international human/minority rights protection standards and elaborated with the active participation of citizen organisations. The Action Plan for the implementation of the strategy was created on the same principle. A leading priority in both documents is the desegregation of Roma schools and the integration of children in ethnically mixed schools. In the process of consultation between various ministries,

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

the strategy encountered serious obstacles in the Foreign Ministry. There is a real risk that this will also happen to the action plan. The necessary legal guarantees, educational, financial and personnel conditions have not been provided for the implementation of the integration policies outlined in these two documents, which aim both to ensure integration and the development of the children’s own cultural identity. If simultaneous measures are not taken to overcome these problems, the policy will not be implemented or will be transformed into a compromise which will render it senseless and of no use to anybody.

The MES, again with the active participation of non-governmental organizations, has developed a Draft Law for Funding the Educational Integration of Children and Pupils from Ethnic Minorities. This law was debated in the relevant commissions but was not submitted to be put to the vote among priority laws. At a recent roundtable discussion, members of parliament committed themselves to submitting it without delay for debate in parliamentary plenary session. The non-governmental organisations are monitoring this process.

Health care, social benefits and employment Between 400000 and 2 million people, many of whom are Roma, face the prospect of being excluded from the health insurance system from the beginning of 2005.

The Social Assistance Act should include detailed definitions of the groups it supports and ethnic minorities should be one of them. There is a need for citizen control over the implementation of the law. The programmes of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, which usually include unemployed Roma, provide employment only for a few months at a time and without any stimulus for improving qualifications.

Other minority groups Roma are not the only minority whose rights are systematically violated. The process of bringing domestic legislation into line with international minority rights protection standards is still not complete. Fragmentary and unequal implementation of these standards on the part of state institutions between one minority group and another leads to differential protection from discrimination for the various minorities and to their differential participation in public life. The ethnic minority status of some groups (Macedonians and Bulgarian-speaking Muslims/Pomaks) is not recognised. The failure to recognise instances of ethnic and religious discrimination lead to the absence of adequate measures to overcome it.

Publicly-owned electronic media Bulgarian National Television, a publicly-owned medium whose status obliges it to encourage cultural pluralism and inter-ethnic tolerance, regularly broadcasts strongly anti-Roma messages in one of its most popular programmes. The state regulatory body has still not imposed the sanctions provided by law and is also passive towards private television channels which behave similarly. There are no effective legal mechanisms and professional standards to guarantee the participation of minority journalists in the publicly-owned electronic media.

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

National Council on Ethnic and Demographic Issues (NCEDI) This body exists at the Council of Ministers. Its powers are very limited. Among its associate member organisations there are no representatives of the minorities not recognised by the state. The NCEDI is planned to be replaced by a directorate at the Council of Ministers, but the transformation process is currently not transparent.

CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS The 2003 Regular Report (RR) has many valuable observations on developments in the civil and political rights in Bulgaria. However, some of these observations distort the extent to which real progress has been made whilst others appear to be based on information that is incorrect.

The RR rightly states that the situation in relation to police misconduct did not improve significantly. It however underestimates the extent to which Bulgaria has to reform its legislation and practice in order to conform to more advanced European standards. The Bulgarian Penal Code still does not have a specific crime of torture and the practice of torture and other prohibited ill treatment is still widespread amongst Bulgarian law enforcement officers, as is the excessive use of force and firearms where a comprehensive legislative reform is also needed.

Conditions in Bulgarian prisons, and especially in pre-trial investigation facilities, are often inhuman and degrading in violation of international standards. The RR underestimates the extent to which Bulgaria has to reform its prison system.

The juvenile justice system is being reformed but there is still a long road ahead.

Schools for delinquent children need to be either totally abolished or reformed to serve the needs of their inmates. The procedure for placement even after recent reforms is not compatible with international standards. All this ought to be stated clearly in the RR. The Bulgarian legal aid system is inadequate in both the penal and the civil procedures.

Many indigent criminal defendants are not represented or are offered legal aid of a poor quality. Legal aid for indigent plaintiffs in the civil process is non-existent.

Asylum Law needs further improvement and the RR fails to mention its loopholes, as well as the restrictive and discriminatory practices in its enforcement.

Electronic media regulation in Bulgaria allows for political control and excessive commercial influences. There were a number of negative developments after the publication of the RR which should be highlighted in the next report.

The RR fails to acknowledge and evaluate negative human rights developments in the realm of religious freedom. The Denominations Act is restrictive and discriminatory and its enforcement during 2004 brought chaos and arbitrariness in this sphere.

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

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RECOMMENDATIONS Promoting respect for the human, civil and political rights of all Bulgarian citizens and improving living standards for Bulgaria’s most vulnerable groups should be at the heart of Bulgarian government policy. Only if this happens can a dignified Bulgaria join the European Union on an equal basis with other European countries.

We call upon the Bulgarian government to prioritise investment and efforts on reform in the following areas:

Child welfare -

a more strategic effort, with dedicated finances, should be made to close children’s institutions: there are still some 31,000 children living in these on a temporary or permanent basis, many in terrible conditions

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adequate human and financial resources must be allocated to work on the prevention of abandonment and re-integration of children into families: the number of children entering institutions is not decreasing and there is a risk the system will not fundamentally change if needy families are not helped

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a massive increase in the number of professional social workers is vital for the development of alternative care services such as foster care: there are towns where one single social worker has responsibility for 11,200 residents, well below accepted standards elsewhere in Europe

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there should be one single, well-resourced Government body with the power to ensure that child welfare reform happens: currently five Ministries and two Agencies are involved, duplicating efforts, wasting resources and not providing a coherent, long-term vision for Bulgaria’s children

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a unified national register for children and adopters should be established for adoption in Bulgaria and there should be far greater transparency in the international adoption system, particularly in relation to the costs involved

People with disabilities children -

active programmes for accessibility of mainstream schools should be started and physically disabled children should be integrated in mainstream educational facilities (schools and kindergartens); supporting environment in

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

schools should be made effective so that children with learning disabilities can be accommodated in there as well -

so-called ‘special schools’ should become part of the de-institutionalisation plan: a detailed plan for the training of special teachers to work in the mainstream environment should be developed by the Ministry of Education

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the flow of financial resources should be regulated so that money reaches children with special educational needs no matter where they are enrolled to study

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disability policies need to be more focused and better targeted: the larger and less clear the target group is, the less effective public policy measures are.

For example, access to social benefits has to be redefined and the general ‘lost working capacity’ criteria should be supplemented with age, education, competence and abilities criteria

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less but better targeted rights based programmes aiming at inclusion of the disabled people are needed: if government subsidies become more transparent and easier to monitor, it will be easier to build upon success. At the moment there are numerous government programmes, preferences and subsidies which do not result in effective inclusion

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community services should be enriched with services for inclusion, in addition to welfare based services, relevant to the needs of disabled people: at the moment, disabled people encounter difficulties with the environment and experience marginalisation resulting in low educational and professional levels, unemployment and poverty

adults

Minority rights -

The package of legal guarantees should be completed for the full and sustainable implementation of minority rights. There is at the moment a piecemeal approach to bringing domestic legislation into line with international minority rights protection standards, which arises sporadically from state obligations to international institutions and in response to advocacy pressure on a national level. The following is essential: • To amend the relevant texts in the Constitution to broaden the scope of minority rights guarantees; • To bring domestic legislation into line with the provisions of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and other international standards and to ensure coordination between the domestic laws themselves.

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The government should elaborate and implement an Overall Integration Policy based on human/minority rights protection standards. What is currently referred to officially as minority integration in Bulgaria is a set of sporadic institutional measures,

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

unrelated to these standards, with no clear commitments and without any involvement of society as a whole. An overall integration policy should outline: • The values and conceptual framework of the integration process; the balance in relations between institutions, minority communities and citizen organisations.

• Short-term and long-term aims, objectives and activities; overall priorities and specific measures targeting particular minorities; • The obligations of the various institutions, interaction between them, coordination mechanisms and structures; • Sources of funding; • The consultation process, the criteria and procedures for monitoring and evaluation.

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The publicly-owned electronic media should be promoted as a mediator in increasing public sensitivity to minority issues. The public environment as a whole is insensitive to these issues and journalists fail to adhere to professional ethical standards when dealing with them. The following changes are necessary: • To improve legislation regulating the publicly-owned electronic media in the following directions: guaranteeing ethnicultural pluralism in their programming; regulating the participation of minority journalists in them; revising the status and functions of their regulatory body to guarantee its political independence; regulating publicity for the results of electronic media monitoring.

• the publicly-owned electronic media should ensure adherence to professional journalistic standards for work on ethnic issues.

Civil and political rights The Government of Bulgaria should: -

make torture as defined by the UN Convention against Torture a specific crime in law and enforce this law against police and other public officials practicing torture

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establish an effective system of investigation of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment

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bring the present legal framework allowing an excessive use of firearms by law enforcement officers into conformity with international standards

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bring conditions in prisons, and especially in the pre-trial investigation facilities, into conformity with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners and with the other relevant international standards. It should, more specifically close all underground facilities immediately

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further reform the juvenile justice system and either abolish the schools for delinquent children or reform them in a way they can meaningfully serve the

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NGO Alternative Report on Bulgaria’s Progress Towards EU Accession Summary & Recommendations

October 2004

needs of children who are in conflict with the law. The procedure for placement should pay due regard to due process standards -

establish a comprehensive system for provision of legal aid to indigent defendants in the penal process, as well as in the civil procedure

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further reform the Asylum Act and bring it into conformity with the UN Convention on Status of Refugees and ensure that the law is not applied arbitrarily

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establish by law a regulatory board on electronic media that is independent from political and commercial interests, works on the basis of professional standards and takes into consideration the independence of the media, as well as the public interest

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reform thoroughly the existing restrictive and discriminatory legal framework of church-state relations and ensure that the state mediates impartially between conflicting religious factions

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