Correctional Boarding Schools and Social Educational Boarding Schools in Bulgaria

Correctional Boarding Schools and Social Educational Boarding Schools in Bulgaria June 2001

Correctional Boarding Schools and Social Educational Boarding Schools in Bulgaria Author: Krassimir Kanev The present report is an except from the book "Correctional Boarding Schools and Social Educational Boarding Schools in Bulgaria", published in 2001 with the support of the MATRA Programme of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The book is available in Bulgarian from the BHC. Contents: General remarks and methodology Placement and material conditions Food and medical services Education, correctional activity and supervision Discipline, punishments and protection of human rights

The present book is the first in a series of publications in which the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee intends to make a detailed study of the situation of children placed in institutions. The organisation has been concerned with the fate of these children for several years now. Already in 1995-96, BHC researchers visited a number of "Labour Educational Schools" and summarised their observations in a report1. In some other later publications both in its monthly magazine and in the central press, BHC touched on different aspects of the situation of these children2. Other international organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, also voiced concern over the plight of Bulgarian children left entirely in the care of the state3.

Several different types of state and municipal institutions exist in Bulgaria in which a total of about 35,100 children were confined by December 20004. This staggering figure makes Bulgaria the country with one of the highest shares of institutionalised children in Europe. These institutions may be grouped in five main groups: 1) institutions for children deprived of parental care (orphans, abandoned children, foundlings, etc.) - these are mainly the homes for pre-school and school-age children, popularly known as "orphanages", as well as the medical and social care homes (the former Mother and Child homes); 2) homes for mildly mentally retarded children or the so-called "rehabilitation schools" with boarding houses, a quite extensive network of institutions scattered throughout the country; 3) homes for severely mentally handicapped children who are treated as "uneducable" and are therefore subordinated to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy; 4) institutions for children in which they are placed as punishment - Social Educational Boarding Schools and Correctional Boarding Schools, and 5) shelters for street children and other places for the temporary placement of children. All of these institutions are established with and regulated by different laws and subordinate legislation, which will be analysed in forthcoming BHC publications, together with the situation in the institutions themselves.

1. General remarks and methodology

The present publication deals with a type of institutions with a very limited, but clearly outlined profile Correctional Boarding Schools (CBS) and Social Educational Boarding Schools (SBS) 5. Children who have committed anti-social acts or children who are likely to commit anti-social acts are forcibly placed

in these schools by the state. In other words, these are punitive and correctional institutions through which the state implements its policy of combating juvenile delinquency6. The number of children in these institutions is relatively small, totalling about 2,400 at the time the present study was conducted, i.e. about 7% of all institutionalised children in Bulgaria. On the other hand, at least as places through and in which state coercion is realised, the conditions in them are on the whole the most unfavourable ones.

The study includes two basic components - examination of the legal framework regulating CBS and SBS, and visits to all boarding schools by BHC researchers. The visits were conducted for the purpose of collecting information about the situation in them on a number of indices, described in a detailed questionnaire7. Generally, the visits were one-off and brief and made by one researcher. In a number of cases control visits were made by another researcher. In several other instances additional visits were made for the purpose of collecting information, which for one reason or another had not been collected during the first visit. Access to the institutions was granted with the assistance of the Special Schools division of the Ministry of Education and Science (MES), which furnished BHC with a list of the institutions and was kind enough to respond repeatedly to requests for meetings with the BHC team. Despite the assistance of the Ministry, however, in several cases access to rooms and documents was denied to researchers under all sorts of pretexts (Dinevo, Pelatikovo, Lozitsa). In these cases, the BHC researchers tried to gather the required information indirectly. In almost all cases researchers were given free access to the children and the chance to interview them in private.

The main body of researchers who conducted the visits consisted of seven persons. Four of them are jurists - Boiko Boev, Elitsa Gerginova, Nikolai Markov and Slavka Koukova, one is a forensic doctor Georgi Bankov, one is a journalist - Antoaneta Nenkova, and one, the leader of the project Stanimir Petrov, is a philosopher. The Chairman of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee Krassimir Kanev also joined in several of the visits. All researchers have experience with visits to other children's institutions or places of detention. They were all familiar with the work involved in collecting information with a questionnaire prepared in advance. Despite this, they were trained in advance and their first visits were carefully monitored and their reports scrupulously edited by the project director or BHC chairman. Additional information about many of the institutions was collected by interviewing former inmates in other similar institutions and from the BHC database - a result of the research of local and international human rights organisations in previous years. Telephone interviews with directors and other CBS and SBS staff were conducted in some cases subsequently. As a result of this work, a report was prepared for each CBS and SBS. Several meetings with officials in the Special Schools Department of the Ministry of Education and Science served as a source of additional information and as a means of posing urgent questions brooking of no delay, related to problems and abuses in some boarding schools established during the visits. As a result of these meetings, the MES bodies at central and local level in turn conducted several inquiries.

Despite the relatively comprehensive nature of the study, it cannot be assumed to reveal all the problems of all CBS and SBS or of the system as a whole. In the course of its research into children's institutions in Bulgaria, the BHC has repeatedly come across serious problems which people inside the system itself have only been able to establish after prolonged and thorough studies. It would be naive to assume that a one-day visit of one or several researchers outside the system could possibly pinpoint all aspects of life and all problems of the respective institution. But visits of this kind also have an advantage. It consists mainly in their scope, in the fact that researchers are not personally linked to the system, in the chance for comparison on the basis of visits to other institutions, and in the specific human rights angle from which the situation in these institutions is being looked at. Due to this as, we hope, will be seen from the reports published below, the information collected and the problems revealed are significant, lending a unique character to the study.

2. Placement and material conditions

If any individual or public benefit can at all be sought in the placement of children in institutions, Correctional Boarding Schools and Social Educational Boarding Schools belong to those institutions where the existence of such benefit is probably highly arguable. The history of their appearance in Bulgaria would probably reveal a direct borrowing of institutions-products of Soviet pedagogical theories of the 1930s, but also specifically Bulgarian innovations and relapses for the solution of

specific social and "national" issues, for example the Roma and Turkish ones. The focus of the present study, however, is not on history, but on the present. It is seeking to answer a number of questions, the main one being how the state is taking care of these children and whether they, as well as the state itself, derive any benefit from the maintenance of these institutions. The other question whether there are any effective alternatives to these institutions both from a correctional and educational, as well as from a material viewpoint - is also closely linked with this. The answers to these questions are by no means easy. In fact, the answers to a number of other questions are also interlined with them: how does the state intend to fight social preconditions for crime in general; how is it trying to deal with marginalised social strata and integrate some ethnic minorities; what policy does the state pursue with regard to fostering values; what other sources of fostering values exist in Bulgarian society and how viable are they? We hope that the reader of the present publication will find his/her own answers to these and scores of other related questions. Our task will be limited to painting a concrete picture of placement procedure, internal organisation and activity, as well as of the "metabolism" between these institutions and Bulgarian society.

The three basic statutory acts which regulate the activity of CBS and SBS are the Juvenile Delinquency Act (promulgated Izvestiya, No. 13 of 1958 with numerous amendments, the last in State Gazette No. 69 of 1999), the Correctional Boarding Schools Regulations (SG No. 73 of 1999) and the Social Educational Boarding Schools Regulations (SG No. 73 of 1999). They regulate the procedure for placement, the powers of placement and supervision bodies, material conditions, educational activity, the rights and obligations of teachers and pupils, requirements of documentation and medical services in these institutions. In addition to these three regulations there are also a number of other related laws and subordinate legislation, regulating placement procedure, the tasks of the Central Commission for Combating Juvenile Delinquency, educational standards and the curriculum in CBS and SBS, staff size and remuneration.

CBS and SBS are established with the Juvenile Delinquency Act (JDA). The purpose of this act is to "combat juvenile delinquency" and to "ensure the normal development and education of juvenile delinquents" (Article 1). Placement in CBS and SBS are two of the many correctional measures, which can be applied by bodies specially established under this act - the Local Commissions for Combating Juvenile Delinquency. The local commissions are administrative bodies, which act like court panels.

The other correctional measures which they can impose on juvenile offenders include: reprimand, duty of apology to the victim, warning, remand in the custody of parents or foster parents with instructions for special care, placement under the correctional supervision of the respective working team, placement under the correctional supervision of an education officer, obliging the juvenile to remove the damage inflicted where possible, and duty of community service (Article 13). The JDA also regulates a procedure under which the majority of children are placed in CBS and SBS. This procedure provides for initial examination of the case by the Local Commissions for Combating Juvenile Delinquency. The procedure is mostly instigated by inspectors from child pedagogical offices and sometimes even by the directors of the boarding schools themselves (Pelatikovo, Dragodanovo).

The only difference between the procedure for placement in CBS and SBS under the JDA is that the decision for placement in SBS is taken directly by the local commission, whereas placement in CBS is ordered by a district judge, who examines the documents, submitted by the commission. The rest of the children are confined according to the criminal procedure, regulated by the Code of Criminal Procedure by a court or a prosecutor.

The entire procedure for placement in CBS and SBS, as established by law, is a serious problem from the point of view of international standards for deprivation of liberty and fair trial 8. But even these procedures of domestic law are often violated. The BHC monitoring established that in many CBS and SBS children had been placed without their cases having been examined in accordance with the legally established procedure, but only on the basis of referrals from child pedagogical offices or even without any document at all. Such violations were established in Ablanitsa, Velchevo, Stolut, Bogdanitsa, Rila and Kalougerovo. This is only one part of the boarding schools whose documents were presented for examination by their managements. The directors did not seem particularly worried by these facts and no traces of concern over the matter could be discovered from the rare inspections of control bodies. In fact, placement of children in SBS on the basis of referrals from inspectors of the child pedagogical offices was made possible by the 1998 Instructions of MES. It envisages three possibilities for placement: by local commission, by court or prosecutor and by the inspectors of the child pedagogical offices9. With the latter the Instruction apparently violates the law.

Most of the correctional boarding schools and almost all social educational boarding schools10 are located in small settlements, difficult to access during most of the year. This was clearly necessitated by the purpose of placement in them - their very location is meant to create natural obstacles to running away from these institutions. However, the location in turn creates a number of serious difficulties for their functioning. Above all, these places are also difficult to access by potential donors and for different kinds of inspections - educational, hygienic or human rights. The children are unable to leave them without problems even during their "lawful" leaves. They are forced to travel without tickets in public transport or to look for other free means of transport. In contrast to children in other institutions, these children are not entitled to pocket money, despite the fact that, albeit rarely, children from children's homes (Dinevo) are placed in them. Although CBS and SBS inmates are as a rule children who have parents, the latter very often exist only de jure, rather than de facto. This is why the children receive virtually no support from their parents. The provisions of the regulations requiring the presence of a parent when a child leaves the boarding school are not enforced either.

The undeveloped local infrastructure, the prolonged economic depression and remoteness, also make CBS and SBS unattractive for qualified and motivated pedagogues. They are in the literal sense of the word "forsaken" places with all the consequences proceeding from this as regards material conditions, quality of education, supervision and creation of social enclaves of the most diverse, including deviant, type.

Whereas during the totalitarian regime CBS and SBS occupied, like all other institutions, their deserving place at the common state table and, although poorly, were supplied relatively regularly with the necessary funds, the collapse of the system has clearly called forth a serious crisis in their funding.

After 1989 the state budget gradually became only one of the sources of funding of the institutions in which Bulgaria's "state children" are raised. As will become clear from the reports published below, the state budget is as a rule sparse in all its items. The other source, which the state itself has started consciously and in a rather hypocritical way to rely on, are donations by private persons, commercial companies and foundations. Donations, however, and in particular sponsorship for children's institutions, functions under specific social conditions, and is subjected to the influence by social relationships, which place the different children's institutions in different positions regarding the possibility to find sponsors. This possibility depends on a number of social factors, almost all of which are unfavourable for CBS and SBS. Their location in economically depressed regions, the remoteness from big cities and the reluctance of donors to give money to "criminals"11 predetermine the lamentable financial state of these institutions even when compared to other children's institutions, which are not showered with funds either. Despite the fact that directors spend much of their time seeking money from donors, everything in these institutions presents a financial problem - starting with the state of the buildings, passing through the equipment of educational facilities and staff wages, and ending with food and clothing. The low state subsidy is paid at great delay in many places. Despite this, the state of the buildings and the other elements of material living conditions vary from relatively good (Varnentsi, Rakitovo, Nevsha) to very bad (Lozitsa, Ablanitsa, Pchelarovo, Kalougerovo).

However, they are not excellent anywhere, in contrast to the situation in some other types of children's institutions. The poor hygiene in some of the boarding schools presents a serious risk to the health of the children.

3. Food and medical services

Both statutes the Correctional Boarding Schools Regulations and the Social Educational Boarding Schools Regulations, insofar as they concern food, refer to Ordinance No. 16 of the Ministry of Health of 1994 on the physiological standards of nutrition of the population. This ordinance specifies the necessary physiological standards of healthy nutrition, which include standards for the intake of energy, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and mineral substances. The standards are differentiated by sex, age, height, body weight and intensity of physical labour. For the 10 to 14 age group, for example, (the largest age group in CBS and SBS) Ordinance No. 16 specifies a daily energy intake standard of 2,400 kcal per child. According to estimates of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria, the expenses for 2,255 kcal per day per child in this age group amounted to at least 102.31 leva a month by September 200012. This makes for a daily food allowance of 3.36 leva per day. For the older age

groups this standard is higher. If these figures are compared to the real daily food provision in boarding schools, it becomes obvious that in all of them without exception the daily food provision was drastically below the physiological standard of healthy nutrition. In some institutions it was between two and three times lower.

The BHC visits unravelled one of the secrets of making ends meet in many of the boarding schools. In all of them the number of registered children varied drastically with those actually present, and in some cases (Lozitsa) even with the capacity of the boarding school. This clearly enables the managements, if nothing else, at least to feed the existing children on the miserable budgets, granted by the Ministry of Education and Science for a larger number of children, in a relatively satisfactory manner. For this reason, the directors in many places are not particularly keen on tracing and bringing their charges to school. It should be noted however that the miserable daily food allowance they conjure using this trick, would be even more miserable if they were all present.

In addition to the low daily food allowance, the BHC team also established some other serious problems related to food. In several boarding schools kitchen hygiene was at a very unsatisfactory level. In others the requirements to store food samples at low temperatures for a period of 48 hours were not observed. One of the biggest oddities of the system is the requirement of both regulations, those of CBS and SBS, for the participation of a medical officer in food product deliveries and nutritional control. In practice this does not happen anywhere due to the absence of salaried medical personnel.

The reference to Ordinance No. 16 of the Ministry of Health should not relieve the Ministry of Education and Science of the responsibility to periodically specify the food allowance in its subordinate institutions with a statutory provision, the way this is done, for example, with staff wages. This would help to clearly define the food allowance in money terms, as well as the commitment of the state to ensure the necessary funds for it. Generally speaking, through its budget the state should guarantee a decent level of support of the basic parameters of life in CBS and SBS - food, education, medical services, placement conditions and hygiene. Donations, to the extent that they can be attracted, should be in aid of different budget items for activities outside the core of basic expenses. The state itself relying on attracting donations for the basic support of children's institutions is an expression of extreme irresponsibility and hypocrisy.

Medical services in CBS and SBS are clearly one of the most serious failures of the health reform. At present children in not a single CBS or SBS have proper access to medical assistance. No immunisations or prophylactic examinations are carried out. After the entry into force of the Health Insurance Act, access to medical assistance in Bulgaria has become possible with minor exceptions only for people for whom health insurance is paid. Health insurance contributions for the socially disadvantaged, the disabled, conscripts and dozens of other categories of the population are paid by the state. These categories, according to Article 40, paragraph 1, item 11 of the Health Insurance Act, also include children placed in some institutions - "persons without an income, placed in homes for children and adolescents, in homes for pre-school children and in homes for social services". CBS and SBS do not figure among these numerous categories, however. In this case too, they have again been "forsaken" by the law. The presumption of the legislator is difficult to fathom. Two hypothesis are possible: 1. that these are, in principle, children with families whose parents should pay health insurance. If they exist and can at all be traced, however, the parents of these children are as a rule poor people, hardly likely to be able to pay even their own health insurance. This leads us to the second hypothesis: 2. that the health insurance of children in CBS and SBS should be paid pursuant to Article 40, paragraph 9 of the act, which states that the health insurance contributions "for persons and members of families entitled to social assistance" have to be paid by the municipalities where the parents reside. This however is not done by the municipalities. They usually refer to the provision of Article 11, item 3 of the Implementing Regulations for the Social Assistance Act, according to which "persons placed for more than 30 days in health, social, educational or military institutions" are not entitled to monthly social assistance. Thus it turns out that the municipality is paying the health insurance contributions of parents, but not of the children. In January 2001 the Central Commission on Combating Juvenile Delinquency distributed a letter to the local commissions, in which it declared that it had asked the National Health Insurance Fund (NHEF). In response NHIF held that "the provision in the Health Insurance Act on Children and Juvenile Homes must be interpreted broadly to include all types of institutions in which children and juveniles are placed on no matter what ground and without regard to the kind of agency they are subordinated to."13 This interpretation of the NHIF however

should be accepted not only by the fund, which has an interest in receiving the health insurance money, but also by MES, which has to pay. In March 2001 BHC made additional visits to six CBS and SBS (Zgalevo, Lik, Kalougerovo, Ablanitsa, Kereka and Gabrovtsi). None of them had received money from the state budget to pay health insurance for their inmates.

On the other hand, the state of health of the inmates of CBS and SBS is clearly not good. The BHC team came across numerous cases of bedwetting at night, a serious problem in some boarding schools. Chronic diseases were also reported, and in at least one case (Gabrovtsi) the BHC researcher discovered epileptics and schizophrenics. The serious dental problems in at least six boarding schools, as well as vermination should also be noted. The state of medical records in some places is beyond criticism - all sorts of documents are missing, including medical cards. Being deprived of a general practitioner, the children in CBS and SBS are not immunised even with the compulsory immunisations, required by the national immunisation calendar. At the age in which the children in these institutions are, the Immunisation Calendar of the Republic of Bulgaria requires six compulsory immunisations, ensuring protection against tuberculosis, morbilli, parotitis, rubella, tetanus and diphtheria. According to Article 5, paragraph 3 of Ordinance No. 2 of the Ministry of Health of 27 April 2000, compulsory immunisations and re-immunisations are carried out by doctors "looking after new-born infants, by personally chosen doctors responsible for primary extra-hospital aid ‌ a doctor and/or other medical personnel in medical and social care homes, social service institutions and special educational institutions with the respective departments". The only boarding school which has a salaried medical officer is the CBS for girls in Podem. Due to the lack of medical personnel, the other activities listed in the medical services sections of the CBS and SBS regulations (prophylactic examinations, health and fitness procedures, sanitary and anti-epidemic control, health education and daily filtering) are not carried out either.

4. Education, correctional activity and supervision

The organisation of education in CBS and SBS should as a rule correspond to the general education standards for the respective type of school. In accordance with the SBS Regulations (Article 3, paragraph 1), they should create conditions for the completion of primary education, whereas CBS create conditions for the completion of both primary and secondary education (Article 5 of the CBS Regulations). In addition, schools for mildly mentally retarded boys and girls can be organised within the CBS system. After the closure of CBS-Bulgarovo, the only school of this kind at present is the CBS for mildly mentally retarded boys in Gabrovtsi. The regulations of CBS (Article 7) and of SBS (Article 5) provide for specific "model curricula" for the respective institution. No such curricula could be discovered anywhere, however, although specific forms of vocational training (probably a remnant of the LES system) were found in some CBS and, to a lesser extent, in some SBS. Article 8 of the CBS Regulations provides for the possibility of conducting literacy and literacy-heightening courses according to a special curriculum. In several CBS such courses were conducted for an alarmingly large number of pupils.

Education, just as the other activities in CBS and SBS, varies greatly from institution to institution. The BHC team discovered places in which hardly any traces of educational activity could be observed (Lozitsa), as well as places in which this activity was relatively well organised. Everywhere, however, the educational facilities, including the availability of study aids was in a lamentable state. The individual work with certain categories of pupils (not counting literacy courses) is in an equally lamentable state. None is carried out in most of the boarding schools.

Things are not much different with regard to "correctional educational work" (a euphemism adopted in both regulations to denote work devoted to reforming juvenile offenders). The statutory framework itself is very unclear on this point. Both regulations speak of "encouraging initiative", "organising extracurricular activities", "encouraging talent" and use other similarly vague phrases. Practice in the implementation of these norms differs widely. Relatively varied extracurricular cultural and educational activities were organised in some CBS and SBS, whereas in others they were either poor in content, or completely lacking. The latter is largely due to the general proverty, but the lack of control and the poorly motivated staff also play a role.

In most SBS the school of the boarding house is also attended by local children from the settlement, mostly due to the fact that this is the only school in the village. In some places local children are "kept on record" as juvenile delinquents in order to be admitted to the boarding school. This kind of mixing might perhaps not present a problem if local children formed the majority. In fact, however, they are as a rule an insignificant minority. For this reason their presence among such a large number of children assumed to have committed anti-social acts, definitely does not contribute to their proper education and upbringing. It definitely does not conform to the SBS Regulations either, which require education in these schools to be based on a "model curriculum", adapted to the needs of SBS14.

A system, in which the pedagogical and qualified non-pedagogical staff usually lives in larger settlements in the vicinity, while the unqualified non-pedagogical staff is usually local, has come to be established in most CBS and SBS due to their remoteness from large settlements. This undoubtedly reflects on the relationship of teachers and educators with the children, which should be stronger in such institutions. It also reflects on the income of those who have to travel to the school. They are sometimes forced to pay part of their travel expenses out of their own pocket.

During their visits to CBS and SBS, the BHC researchers also paid attention to the situation of the staff. BHC believes that a poorly paid staff, deprived of comfort and unmotivated, could not possibly carry out the educational and correctional tasks in the CBS and SBS system in a proper way. It should be noted in this respect that the financial situation of the staff in these special institutions declined drastically compared to before 1989. The salaries of workers and employees in CBS and SBS are determined every year with a special ordinance of the Ministry of Education and Science. At present this is Ordinance No. 1 of 5 May 2000, which calculates staff wages by adding 16% for people working in CBS and 11% for those working in SBS on top of the basic monthly wage for the respective pedagogical or non-pedagogical position. In every other respect the CBS and SBS staff is put on the same footing as that in the system of national education. Salaries vary depending on many factors, but, as revealed by the reports, a salary of 200 leva for the pedagogical and 100 leva for the service staff would be high for the CBS and SBS system. Despite the miserable pay, the staff in most boarding shools was performing its duties conscientiously and professionally.

Especially in SBS, the BHC found a certain amount of fear and concern both among directors and among the pedagogical staff over possible lay-offs. Staff size in the national education system is determined with MES Ordinance No. 3 of 1997, which establishes statutory coefficients for staff size.

According to Article 5 of the Ordinance, staff size is determined by multiplying the number of groups or classes with the standard for the respective type of institution. Standard coefficients are determined in general, as well as separately for pedagogical staff (on the basis of class and boarding school group) and for non-pedagogical staff (only on the basis of boarding school group). With amendments introduced to Ordinance No. 3 in August 1999, the coefficient for SBS and auxiliary CBS was reduced.

Until then it was as follows: For SBS - pedagogical staff: 1,670 for a class from grade 1 to 4; 2,130 for a class from grade 5 to 8, and 2,000 for boarding school group.

For SBS - non-pedagogical staff: 2,300 for boarding school group.

For auxiliary CBS - pedagogical staff: 1,450 for a class from grade 1 to 4; 1,910 for a class from grade 5 to 8, and 2,100 for boarding school group.

For auxiliary CBS - non-pedagogical staff: 3,000 for boarding school group.

After August 1999 (i.e. for the 1999/2000 academic year and afterwards) these coefficients were changed as follows: For SBS - pedagogical staff: 1,500 for a class from grade 1 to 4; 1,900 for a class from grade 5 to 8, and 2,000 for boarding school group.

For SBS - non-pedagogical staff: 2,300 for boarding school group.

For auxiliary CBS - pedagogical staff: 1,450 for a class from grade 1 to 4; 1,750 for a class from grade 5 to 8, and 2,100 for boarding school group.

For auxiliary CBS - non-pedagogical staff: 3,000 for boarding school group.

As can be seen, the change is mainly at the expense of pedagogical staff at the elementary and primary school level for SBS and for the primary school level of auxiliary CBS. BHC was unable to establish the motives for this reduction of the coefficient, leading to cuts of the pedagogical staff.

Supervision is another serious problem in CBS and SBS. In principle, it should be carried out by the Ministry of Education and Science, the Hygiene and Epidemiology Inspectorate, the Fire Service and the prosecutor's office. In one case (Berievo) an inspection was made by State Financial Control. The most regular inspections are those of the Hygiene and Epidemiology Inspectorate, but in many places they are conducted fairly formally, considering the lack of infrastructure for the maintenance of proper hygiene even given the desire of many of the boarding schools. The inspections of the regional inspectorates of MES are very rare and of the ministry itself rarer still. They are reduced mainly to verifying documentation. In rare cases the children are interviewed in private and even more rarely some recommendations are recorded. The rare inspections of the MES bodies are, of course, not surprising, considering the remoteness of these institutions from large settlements and the poor transport infrastructure. Rare as these inspections are, the disciplinary measures taken as a result of them are even rarer. The BHC team found that disciplinary measures had been taken only after the inspection of State Financial Control in Berievo. There were no inspections by the prosecutor's office under the procedure of supervision for enforcing punitive and other coercive measures. The BHC researchers found evidence of the presence of a prosecutor only in some CBS, but the purpose of these visits was obviously not to effect such supervision. In this respect the prosecutor's office is clearly not performing the function assigned to it by the Constitution and the Judiciary Act and does not even seem to be aware of the fact that placement in CBS and SBS is, in fact, a coercive measure.

5. Discipline, punishments and protection of human rights

Discipline, punishments and the protection of human rights in CBS and SBS formed the specific focus of the BHC monitoring. A series of questions were devoted to these themes and the information collected comprised a major part of the reports. Besides the problems related to procedure, which is a serious problem from the point of view of the right to liberty and to fair trial, the human rights situation in the different boarding schools varies greatly depending on all sorts of factors. The main one of these is the human factor - the disposition and attitude of the management staff. This dependence on a subjective factor is in itself a problem for the system - it reveals the absence of a uniform policy and supervision, as well as of personnel training.

Several of the questionnaire's questions were devoted to discrimination and the ethnic composition of boarding schools. As may be seen from the reports below, no widespread direct discrimination was established. It should be noted, however, that already while compiling the questionnaire, nobody harboured any illusion that the typical answers to these questions would be different. Discrimination is a rather concealed sphere of human relations which is very often exercised even without the awareness of the victim of being discriminated against. Just as often the person exercising discrimination is not aware of actually doing so. The problem is additionally obscured by the almost complete domination of children from the minorities in several CBS and SBS. For this reason the format of the present study is only able to capture the most widespread and drastic forms of discrimination. Such, as it appears, are not observed inside these institutions.

However, the study was able to establish an important systemic discriminatory effect - the overrepresentation of ethnic minorities (mainly Roma) in CBS and SBS. On the average for the whole system the share of the minorities is 65%. It is approximately the same for each type of institution (CBS and SBS) taken separately15. If, however, four boarding schools with a relatively small number of children from the minorities (SBS-Bogdanitsa, SBS-Sofia, CBS-Podem and CBS-Rila) are excluded from the whole system, the share of the minorities immediately jumps to about 75%. This high relative

share of children from the minorities at the bottom of children's institutions in Bulgaria is, in itself, a sign of discrimination.

The CBS and SBS Regulations provide for the possibility of CBS and SBS inmates being rewarded in four ways - home and town leave, object prizes, cultural entertainment and deletion or cancellation of imposed punishments. As regards punishments, in addition to the punishments envisaged in the Implementing Regulations for the National Education Act, only two additional punishments may be imposed in CBS and SBS: cancellation of a reward that has not been used and prohibition to attend events outside school. Both regulations expressly prohibit physical and mental violence, deprivation of food and water, deprivation of sleep, wearing distinguishing or unsuitable clothes, and restricting contacts with family and friends. The SBS Regulations also expressly prohibit punishments in the form of physical labour, a provision that is missing in the CBS Regulations. This does not mean that it can be applied in CBS - only punishments explicitly envisaged in statutory acts can be applied both in CBS and SBS. The misery and remoteness from large settlements, however, render many of the rewards and punishments envisaged in the regulations largely meaningless. It is difficult to imagine what attraction town leave could hold in the small villages in which most CBS and SBS are located, as well as how "cultural entertainment" can be ensured in them (moreover individually for each child, in the form of a reward). Many of the CBS and SBS directors themselves were aware of the pointlessness of the system of rewards and punishments envisaged in the statutory framework. For this reason it was not difficult for the BHC team to establish that the system of punishments in CBS and SBS overlaps with the officially established one only in insignificant parts. One frequently imposed punishment is punishment by labour. It includes taking out the garbage, washing the corridors and toilets, cleaning the dining room, work in the subsidiary farm, etc. Corporal punishment is also used by the staff in some CBS and SBS. It includes beatings with sticks and slaps in the face, ear pulling, head shaving, running laps, etc. Deprivation of leave is used in others.

Among the other human rights violations discovered by the BHC team, very serious attention should undoubtedly be paid to reports of sexual abuses by the staff of girls in two of the boarding schools (Yagoda and Lozitsa). BHC informed MES about these signals, but has received no information of the results of any possible inquiries. Beating and other violence among the children was established in several boarding schools to which the staff did not react with the necessary firmness. In several other schools lockers were searched and pupils frisked for unknown reasons.

The exploitation of children's labour in some boarding schools should also be noted among the violations of human rights. It is done mainly by locals who hire children, sometimes for hard labour, for paltry gifts. There is however reason to believe that the officially established system for performing labour allows for exploitation in some of the boarding schools. One such example is the use of the free labour of children in the large subsidiary farm of CBS-Gabrovtsi, as well as in other boarding schools (for example SBS-Pelatikovo).

[1] See "Labour Educational Schools and the Rights of Juveniles in Bulgaria", Obektiv, May 1996, available also at: www.bghelsinki.org. back [2] See only for the past year: Margarita Gocheva, "Will D.P. Ichev be tried?", Obektiv, April 2000; Ivan Bedrov, "Children in institutions in the interest of science", Obektiv, June 2000; Antoaneta Nenkova, "The invisible world of the feebleminded",Epoha, 26 May - 1 June 2000; Antoaneta Nenkova, "The horror in Fakia", Obektiv, June-September 2000; Stanimir Petrov, "Social Educational Boarding schools - necessary or‌", Obektiv, July 2000; Antoaneta Nenkova, "The horror in Fakia", 24 Chassa of 2 August 2000; "Children in the 'state homes' are fed with 45 stotinki a day", Obektiv, September 2000; Boyko Boev, "The children's act does not protect them", Novinar, 20 October 2000; Stanimir Petrov, "Children forsaken by ‌ the law", Obektiv, November 2000. back [3] See Human Rights Watch/Children's Rights Project, Children of Bulgaria: Police Violence and Arbitrary Confinement, September 1996; Amnesty International, Bulgaria: Government should prevent further deaths in children's homes, 6 March 1997; Amnesty International: Concerns in Europe, January-June 2000. back [4] Statement of Minister of Labour and Social Policy Ivan Neikov at a press conference on 7 December 2000. back [5] Correctional Boarding Schools are also known as "Labour Educational Schools" (LES), as they were called prior to the reform of the Juvenile Delinquency Act in December 1996, when they were renamed "Correctional Boarding Schools". back [6] As will be seen below, the concept of "anti-social act" is something rather vague in Bulgarian law, which in itself is a source of part of the problems involved in the procedure for placement in CBS and SBS. back [7] See Appendix No. 1. back [8] For details see Boyko Boev's article below, available also at: www.bghelsinki.org. back [9] Ministry of Education and Science, Instruction for the organization of activities of the general, special and professional schools during 1998-99 school year, Sofia, 1998, p.106. back [10]The only exception is the P. Moutafchiev SBS in Sofia. back [11] See in this respect the quite emblematic statement in the report on CBS-Rakitovo. back [12] Living Standard, Newsletter of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research, No. 3/2000. The Institute has adopted different healthy food standards, which are slightly higher, but which do not significantly change monthly support expenses. It suffices to mention that for the higher age group (14-18 years) this methodology provides for a daily intake of 3,880 kcal which increases the monthly support to only 107.68 leva. back

[13] Letter of the CCCJD from January 9, 2001. back [14] See Stanimir Petrov, "Social Educational Boarding Schools - Necessary or‌", Obektiv, July 2000, p.13. back [15] See Appendix No. 2 for details.